Imagine being able to pop out a sound recorder in the bush and have a list of what birds are present! This is what we are working towards with our Bruny Bird Bioacoustics project under auspices of TWBBI.
Our plucky little 40spot has a difficult call to resolve – they are quiet and quite rare, so currently we need experts in the field for hours to identify if there are any birds in the areas they once were, or where they have established a new territory.
This is expensive and puts much reliance on a few people.
Working with Ecotec Environmental, Dr Sally Bryant and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), we are placing recorders into known 40spot habitat to record their calls, listening to the recordings to tag the 40spot calls, then use machine learning (AI) to help identify the specific things that characterise these tagged calls.
This can automate recognition of our 40spots in other recordings, without the need for experts.
Working with researchers that focus on other birds, we can gradually build up a library of AI recognisers that will allow automatic tagging of recordings and thus the suite of birds at any given site.
Many thanks to the project funders – Tasmanian Dept of Natural Resources “Threatened Species Partnership Program – Round 1“
