One of the perks of being an Indiana Audubon (IAS) member is access to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Birds of the World (BOW), a comprehensive online resource combining scholarly content from four renowned works of ornithology. With your annual IAS membership, you receive a subscription to BOW, formerly known as Birds of North America (BNA), offering detailed information on over 11,000 bird species.
The original print version of BNA consisted of 18 volumes and over 18,000 pages, completed by the American Ornithologists’ Union (now known as the American Ornithological Society), Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, and the Academy of Natural Sciences over ten years. The online BOW is a living reference, including life history details from the print version and enhanced with calls, songs, videos, and supplemental information. Read more about the project here.
Normally, a BOW subscription costs $49/year, but IAS proudly offers this service to its members at no additional cost. This benefit is made possible by the transition of the Indiana Audubon Quarterly and The Cardinal to electronic delivery in 2009. The Publications and Website Committee proposed the idea to the IAS Board in January 2010, and it was enthusiastically accepted. The committee believes that access to BOW is a significant benefit for our members.
Quarterly Updates
Access to Birds of the World is provided quarterly for all current members.* We send updated membership lists to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology four times per year: in March, June, September, and December. To gain access before the next period, please sign up before the quarterly deadline.
The quarterly schedule is as follows:
- For March access, you must sign up between December 1 – February 28.
- For June access, you must sign up between March 1 – May 31.
- For September access, you must sign up between June 1 – August 31.
- For December access, you must sign up between September 1 – November 30.
* The BOW benefit is not included for the Library/Organization membership level.
Accessing Birds of the World
- Visit the proxy login site: https://login.proxy.
birdsoftheworld.org/login. This is important; you must login via the proxy link provided here versus the BOW homepage. - Click the last option, “Other Organizations.”
- On the next screen, select Indiana Audubon from the
dropdown menu options. - Type your email address into the username field.
- Copy and paste Audubon_1898 into the
password field. - Click the “Sign in” button.
