BirdCast and BirdVox

In the last decade, bird migration research has exploded, primarily because of fundamental advances in remote sensing and analytical technologies. The BirdCast and BirdVox projects have been beneficiaries of these advances, both making major strides in aeroecology (the study of functions, interactions, and biological importance of the Earth’s lower atmosphere) and ecoacoustics (the study of sound, its roles and its relevance in ecological processes across a broad range of scales, from individuals to communities, habitat patches to biomes, and seconds to decades, respectively). With the power of “Big Data” analytical methods that used cloud computing, machine learning and listening, and statistics, the Lab has made and published on breakthroughs in both of these disciplines:

• We can characterize bird migration on radar in near real-time, analyzing radar data collected over the last two and a half decades to the present;
• We can forecast bird migration with high confidence, accuracy and precision up to two weeks in advance;
• We can automatically evaluate, detect, classify, and report flight calls of nocturnally migrating birds;
• We are beginning to integrate radar, acoustic, eBird, and other sources to produce the most comprehensive accounting of the most dynamic periods of birds’ lives: migration.
• We are also taking these scientific and research advances and linking them directly into conservation actions, such as producing “Lights Out” alerts to alleviate hazards birds face from light pollution, creating the next generation of bird aircraft strike hazard models to help pilots avoid collisions with birds. In addition, we are extending the range of acoustic monitoring networks by increasing their efficiency in detecting background noise to detect presence of animals and changes in communication behavior that can be used to keep animals from harm’s way. These projects have outreach through major media outlets including cinematic, Internet, paper, and audio media. We also have partners that are diverse and strong, including the National Science Foundation, Leon Levy Foundation, New York University, University of Massachusetts, Amazon Web Services, Google, NASA, and the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center among others.