Using Macaulay Library media
Media can be requested for scientific research or licensing uses from the Macaulay Library, but for most other uses (e.g., for learning or browsing) there are easier ways to access the archive. Check out some of the suggestions below, and if none of them fit your use, you can skip to the section on requesting media. However, note that media are not available for personal download unless they belong to you.
Looking for a curated set of photos or sound recordings for the species in your area?
Merlin Bird ID is an identification app that is available to download for free and covers more than half of all bird species worldwide.
This same media is also displayed on the eBird website using Explore Species and clicking on the photo gallery at the top of the Listen button.
In addition, most of the North American sound recordings used in Merlin Bird ID are also for sale as the Cornell Guide to Birds: United States and Canada.
Interested in exploring the archive but don't need the actual files?
Anyone is free to view and listen to our vast collection of photos, sound recordings, and video. Just visit the Macaulay Library media search or check out our page on finding what you're looking for.
Want to embed Macaulay Library media on a blog or website?
It's easy to embed Macaulay Library media on websites or other pages on the internet. Simply go to the Macaulay Library page of the piece of media you are interested in and click "Embed." From the embed menu, choose your preferred size, then click "Copy" to copy the HTML code for use on your page. The appropriate data and credit will automatically display along with the image, sound, or video.
Want to download your own media?
Have you archived your media in the Macaulay Library through eBird? If so, your original uploaded files are available for you to download at any time by clicking the Download original link on a Macaulay Library media specimen page. When you upload media to the Macaulay Library, the archive serves as your personal cloud storage and backup of your media files.
Need high-resolution media for research, education, or commercial use?
Audio and video recordings in the Macaulay Library have many uses. Scientists use the collection to better understand and preserve Earth's biodiversity. Teachers use our sounds and videos to illustrate the natural world and create exciting interactive learning opportunities for their students. Our collection has even been used in the movies and in art installations! Continue on to learn how to request media.
Requesting media
The Macaulay Library archive contains tens of millions of digital photo, audio, and video assets of the natural world. Users may request access to media files from the archive for research and some educational uses for free. For all commercial uses (and some educational uses), a license agreement is required. For all uses, we ask that you follow our guidelines for media attribution when using Macaulay Library assets.
Our media request fulfillment team tries its best to attend to the large number of requests we receive weekly in a timely manner. Below we provide recommendations that will help ensure your media request is fulfilled as quickly as possible.
Recommendations:
Submit lists of Macaulay Library catalog numbers whenever possible (see Step 1 below)
If you submit a large species list without catalog numbers, ensure that you have chosen your species carefully and they align to ebird/Clements or iNat taxonomy
We generally do not fulfill requests with >40,000 assets or large species lists (>100 species). If your request exceeds these limits it will delay our team's response time, will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and may not be fulfilled unless modified.
Machine-Learning Research: If you are looking for labelled datasets of the natural world for machine-learning research, The iNaturalist Species Classification and Detection Datasets for photo and audio is an excellent resource and is immediately available.
How to submit a media request
Step 1: Get a list of ML catalog numbers
You can help our team fulfill your media request as quickly as possible by providing a list of the specific Macaulay Library catalog numbers (MLXXXXXXX). The easiest way to do this is to use Macaulay Library Search (also accessible through eBird) to filter to your desired dataset (e.g. audio of American Robin song from New York in May) and export a .CSV file of the asset metadata by clicking the Export button. This output includes the ML catalog numbers in the first column and other important metadata. Please attach this output to your Help Desk ticket (see Step 2).
For users signed into their Cornell Lab account, the export tool can export metadata for up to 10,000 assets (rows). If your desired search criteria returns more than 10,000 assets, you can combine subsets made with narrower search criteria into a single set of catalog numbers. For example, there are >12,000 audio assets of American Robin so you could do two exports, one for all years up to and including 2022, a second for 2023 - present, and then combine the outputs with copy-paste in Excel or with code (e.g. R) for submission or further filtering.
For media requests with many species, we recommend combining the outputs of different searches to generate a single list of ML catalog numbers. This may involve combining the outputs for all the species in your list or for different geographic regions that contain the species of interest.
If the number of species you need will require more than 20 distinct taxonomic searches and downloads (pro-tip: make use of the Genus and Family search to reduce this number), you can submit a list of species aligned to the current eBird/Clements Checklist taxonomy for birds or to the iNaturalist taxonomy for Other Animals. Lists of species, as opposed to catalog numbers (our preference), will take longer for our team to process and large lists of species (>100) may need to be pruned. Choose wisely.
For commercial requests, search commercially requestable media by checking the “Commercially requestable media” filter. For more help to find what you're looking for, check out our searching for media page.
Step 2: Submit a Help Desk Ticket
When you have compiled a list of ML catalog numbers that you would like to request, please create a Helpdesk ticket. Select "The Macaulay Library (Media Requests)" as the topic of your question.
In the Description section of the media request please use the following format:
Affiliation: University, company, or institution.
Description of media usage: What is the research project or application of the requested media? Up to 500 words.
Catalog numbers: For large lists (>100 catalog numbers), please attach your list to the Help Desk ticket.
We will respond to discuss additional details of your request and an estimate of any applicable licensing fees. There is no charge for research requests.
