The Boston Harbor Islands Partnership invites you to explore the rich biodiversity of the Boston Harbor Islands.
all taxa biodiversity inventory (ATBI)
The Boston Harbor Islands Partnership and the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) have begun an all taxa biotic inventory of the insect and other invertebrate species (e.g. crustaceans) that inhabit the islands. Although biological inventories are not new, it is unusual to fully explore "the little things." The presence of each species identified will be documented in the through field notes, global positioning coordinates, photography, voucher specimens, and DNA bar coding.
The Boston Harbor Islands Invertebrate Database contains records for Harbor Islands voucher specimens in the entomology collections of Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ).
Massachusetts Audubon eBird
eBird is an interactive database that helps you keep track of the birds you see, anywhere, anytime. The Boston Harbor Islands Partnership is cooperating with Mass Audubon to record bird sightings in the park, which is an Important Bird Area (IBA) in Massachusetts. Perhaps the most exciting thing about eBird is that your records, combined with those of other observers, become a powerful tool for bird conservation by supplying scientifically useful data on species distribution and movement patterns in Massachusetts and across the continent.
To use eBird, please register. Then submit your observations for the islands, which are listed as "IBA - Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area."
Public Events
An exciting aspect of the Harbor Islands invertebrate project is that it will not be limited to a small cadre of scientists. Students, citizen scientists, and amateur naturalists, guided in the field by taxonomic experts, will join in the search for life in the nooks and crannies of the islands.
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