Connor Wood

(he/him/his)

Research Associate

Expertise

Bioacoustics • Conservation • Landscape Ecology • Community Ecology

I am the leader of the BirdNET Ecology Team. My research focuses on biodiversity conservation through the combination of bioacoustics and quantitative ecology; various forms of the BirdNET algorithm—which can currently identify over 3,000 birds by sound—underpin much of my work. My work on landscape-scale acoustic monitoring has three themes: endangered species conservation, community ecology, and the development of novel methodologies. Community-driven science is my second broad research area, a bottom-up approach to conservation that prioritizes the needs, interests, and values of people outside the traditional research apparatus.

My primary project is the Sierra Nevada acoustic monitoring program, which I began in 2016 as a Ph.D. student with Dr. Zach Peery at UW-Madison. At the beginning, it focused on Spotted Owls and an invasive competitor, the Barred Owl in the northern third of the region. The project enabled the successful eradication of the Barred Owl from the Sierra Nevada, averting the near-certain collapse of the California Spotted Owl population and widespread trophic cascades. Now, the monitoring program encompasses over 18,000 km2 across the entire Sierra Nevada, generates 1,000,000 hours of audio annually, and yields data on over 200 species of bird. With funding from NASA and other sources, we are developing cutting-edge tools to enable the conservation of a magnificent ecosystem that is on the brink of total transformation. Broadly, I am studying species richness with high resolution and landscape scales with an emphasis on conservation applications.

Spotted Owls remain a priority species; others include the Yosemite toad, the gray wolf, and the Yucatan black howler monkey. Yet—as the Sierra Nevada project is demonstrating—BirdNET has enabled me to look beyond single-species conservation to study how whole communities respond to ecological disturbances. By working closely with managers and policy-makers, I hope that community-level research can inform holistic ecosystem management.

At present, I am primarily using the BirdNET app as a tool for community-driven science. My approach is to develop flexible tools that people can use as they see fit; my priority is supporting projects related to land sovereignty and sustainable development.

Education

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin
M.Sc., University of Maine
B.A., Middlebury College

Recent Publications

Wood, C. M., F. Günther, A. Rex, D. F. Hofstadter, H. Reers, S. Kahl, M. Z. Peery, and H. Klinck (2024). Real-time acoustic monitoring facilitates the proactive management of biological invasions. Biological Invasions. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-024-03426-y
Wood, C. M., and S. Kahl (2024). Guidelines for appropriate use of BirdNET scores and other detector outputs. Journal of Ornithology.
Bielski, L., C. A. Cansler, K. McGinn, M. Z. Peery, and C. M. Wood (2024). Can the Hermit Warbler (Setophaga occidentalis) serve as an old-forest indicator species in the Sierra Nevada? Journal of Field Ornithology 95.
Wood, C. M., J. Socolar, S. Kahl, M. Z. Peery, P. Chaon, K. Kelly, R. A. Koch, S. C. Sawyer, and H. Klinck (2024). A scalable and transferable approach to combining emerging conservation technologies to identify biodiversity change after large disturbances. Journal of Applied Ecology 61:797–808.
Hack, B., C. A. Cansler, M. Z. Peery, and C. M. Wood (2023). Fine-scale forest structure, not management regime, drives occupancy of a declining songbird, the Olive-sided Flycatcher, in the core of its range. Ornithological Applications:duad065.
Sossover, D., K. Burrows, S. Kahl, and C. M. Wood (2023). Using the BirdNET algorithm to identify wolves, coyotes, and potentially their interactions in a large audio dataset. Mammal Research.
Kelly, K. G., C. M. Wood, K. McGinn, H. A. Kramer, S. C. Sawyer, S. Whitmore, D. Reid, S. Kahl, A. Reiss, J. Eiseman, W. Berigan, et al. (2023). Estimating population size for California spotted owls and barred owls across the Sierra Nevada ecosystem with bioacoustics. Ecological Indicators 154:110851.
McGinn, K., S. Kahl, M. Z. Peery, H. Klinck, and C. M. Wood (2023). Feature embeddings from the BirdNET algorithm provide insights into avian ecology. Ecological Informatics 74:101995.
Brunk, K. M., R. J. Gutiérrez, M. Z. Peery, C. A. Cansler, S. Kahl, and C. M. Wood (2023). Quail on fire: changing fire regimes may benefit mountain quail in fire-adapted forests. Fire Ecology 19:19.
Ross, S. R. P.-J., D. P. O'Connell, J. L. Deichmann, C. Desjonquères, A. Gasc, J. N. Phillips, S. S. Sethi, C. M. Wood, and Z. Burivalova (2023). Passive acoustic monitoring provides a fresh perspective on fundamental ecological questions. Functional Ecology 37:959–975.
Wood, C. M., J. Champion, C. Brown, W. Brommelsiek, I. Laredo, R. Rogers, and P. Chaopricha (2023). Challenges and opportunities for bioacoustics in the study of rare species in remote environments. Conservation Science and Practice n/a:e12941.
Wood, C. M. (2023). The Yosemite toad and the invisible mountains of the Sierra Nevada. The Snowboarder’s Journal 20.
Kryshak, N. F., E. D. Fountain, D. F. Hofstadter, B. P. Dotters, K. N. Roberts, C. M. Wood, K. G. Kelly, I. F. Schwarcz, P. J. Kulzer, A. K. Wray, H. A. Kramer, et al. (2022). DNA metabarcoding reveals the threat of rapidly expanding barred owl populations to native wildlife in western North America. Biological Conservation 273:109678.
Wood, C. M., S. Kahl, A. Rahaman, and H. Klinck (2022). The machine learning–powered BirdNET App reduces barriers to global bird research by enabling citizen science participation. PLOS Biology 20:e3001670.
Reid, D. S., C. M. Wood, S. A. Whitmore, W. J. Berigan, H. A. Kramer, N. F. Kryshak, J. J. Keane, S. C. Sawyer, R. J. Gutiérrez, H. Klinck, and M. Z. Peery (2022). Breeding status shapes territoriality and vocalization patterns in spotted owls. Journal of Avian Biology n/a:e02952.
Wood, C. M., and M. Z. Peery (2022). What does 'occupancy' mean in passive acoustic surveys? Ibis n/a.
Hofstadter, D. F., N. F. Kryshak, C. M. Wood, B. P. Dotters, K. N. Roberts, K. G. Kelly, J. J. Keane, S. C. Sawyer, P. A. Shaklee, H. A. Kramer, M. Z. Gutiérrez, and M. Z. Peery (2022). Arresting the spread of invasive species in continental systems. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. https://doi.org/doi:10.1002/fee.2458
Reid, D. S., C. M. Wood, S. A. Whitmore, W. J. Berigan, J. J. Keane, S. C. Sawyer, P. A. Shaklee, H. A. Kramer, K. G. Kelly, A. Reiss, N. Kryshak, et al. (2021). Noisy neighbors and reticent residents: Distinguishing resident from non-resident individuals to improve passive acoustic monitoring. Global Ecology and Conservation 28:e01710.
Hofstadter, D. F., N. F. Kryshak, M. W. Gabriel, C. M. Wood, G. M. Wengert, B. P. Dotters, K. N. Roberts, E. D. Fountain, K. G. Kelly, J. J. Keane, S. A. Whitmore, et al. (2021). High rates of anticoagulant rodenticide exposure in California Barred Owls are associated with the wildland–urban interface. Ornithological Applications.
Wood, C. M. (2021). Optimizing landscape-scale monitoring programmes to detect the effects of megafires. Diversity and Distributions. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13308
Wood, C. M., S. Kahl, P. Chaon, M. Z. Peery, and H. Klinck (2021). Survey coverage, recording duration and community composition affect observed species richness in passive acoustic surveys. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13571
Wood, C. M., Zulla, C., Whitmore, S., Reid, D., Kramer, H. A., Keane, J. J., Sawyer, S. C., Roberts, K. N., Dotters, B. P., Klinck, H, Berigan, W., et al. (2021). Illuminating the Nocturnal Habits of Owls with Emerging Tagging Technologies. Wildlife Society Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1002/wsb.1156
Wood, C. M., N. Kryshak, M. Gustafson, D. F. Hofstadter, B. Hobart, S. A. Whitmore, B. P. Dotters, K. N. Roberts, J. J. Keane, R. J. Gutierrez, and M. Z. Peery (2021). Density dependence influences competition and hybridization at an invasion front. Diversity and Distributions 27:901–912.
Kahl, S., C. M. Wood, M. Eibl, and H. Klinck (2021). BirdNET: A deep learning solution for avian diversity monitoring. Ecological Informatics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2021.101236
Wood, C. M., H. Klinck, M. Gustafson, J. J. Keane, S. C. Sawyer, R. J. Gutiérrez, and M. Z. Peery (2020). Using the ecological significance of animal vocalizations to improve inference in acoustic monitoring programs. Conservation Biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13516
Wood, C. M., V. D. Popescu, H. Klinck, J. J. Keane, R. J. Gutiérrez, S. C. Sawyer, and M. Z. Peery (2019). Detecting small changes in populations at landscape scales: A bioacoustic site-occupancy framework. Ecological Indicators 98:492–507.
McGinn, K., B. Zuckerberg, G. Jones, C. Wood, S. Kahl, S. Whitmore, H. Kramer, J. Barry, E. Ng, and M. Peery (no date). [In press] Frequent, heterogeneous fire supports a forest owl assemblage. Ecological Applications.
Bielski, L., and C. Wood (no date). [In press] Trading places: opposite colonization and extinction responses of the Hermit Warbler and Western Bluebird to the 2021 Dixie Fire. California Fish and Wildlife Journal.
Connor Wood
Center K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics
Email cmw289@cornell.edu

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Golden-cheeked Warbler by Bryan Calk/Macaulay Library