A century after Martha

Look for an important story about bird conservation in this week's New York Times Sunday Review. In an op-ed marking 100 years since the death of Martha, the last Passenger Pigeon on Earth, the director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology imagines Martha asking, "Have you learned anything from my passing?"

John Fitzpatrick, the lab's director, answers yes, we have, but we need to do much more. Read about citizen-science efforts, such as eBird, that help scientists track how birds are faring and make course corrections before species become imperiled.

Fitzpatrick will explain the 2014 State of the Birds report, a periodic assessment of the health of the nation's bird populations. Scheduled to be released on September 9, the report will document that for every successful effort to stave off extinction, a number of other birds or their habitats "are in serious danger."