Student Life

The best way to get between the Lab and Cornell campus is to take the free Lab shuttle. It runs on school days during the fall and spring semesters, leaving the Lab at 10:30, 12:00, 1:30, and 4:30, stopping at North Campus (RPCC), Corson/Mudd, and the Dairy Bar. The entire round trip takes about 32 minutes. Be sure to join the shuttle listserv to be notified of any changes to the schedule. Here are full details of shuttle and bus service to the Lab.

Connect with other birders, meet grad students and professors, plan birding trips, and dive deeper into ornithology. Students should join the Cornell Birding Club. Word to the wise: researchers at the Lab of Ornithology often use the Cornell Birding Club email list to advertise neat opportunities for students. The local Cayuga Bird Club welcomes students along with everyone else; it meets monthly at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and offers a variety of field trips and other bird-related events.

New to Cornell? This is for you: every Fall semester we offer an Ornithology Seminar series on Wednesday evenings starting at 5:15. Each evening features one or two talks about avian research, followed by a socializing time with free pizza. This venue is specifically designed to help newcomers (including first-year students!) become quickly networked into Cornell’s incredible and very friendly ornithology community; dozens of undergraduates attend each week, as do graduate students, postdocs, research staff, and professors. Students can sign up as a 1-credit course, BIOEE7800. Email professor Irby Lovette for information.

Other inspiring seminar series at Cornell often have speakers presenting work related to birds and the natural world. Be sure to check out the seminar schedules from the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, among others.

Another great source of inspiration and information is the Birds of the World webinar series which covers a diverse set of topics related to, among other things, the natural history, taxonomy, and biogeography of the world’s birds. 

You can’t get into the staff areas of the Lab unless your Cornell ID card has been authorized. To have your card activated, please contact Micky Zifchock (mmz26@cornell.edu) for access.

Please do not park in the Visitor parking lot at the Lab, because that area is reserved for visitors from outside of Cornell. As a Lab-affiliated student you should always park in one of the staff parking areas, just as Lab staff do.