Making Birds Count: The growing intersectionality of Animal, Human and Artificial Intelligence in Citizen Science

 

Making Birds Count

The growing intersectionality of animal, human and artificial intelligence in Citizen Science

 

Eisha Sarkar

Independent Researcher and Citizen Scientist

1.0 INTRODUCTION

 

Birdwatching has been an important part of human evolution. The early hunters-gatherers searched for eggs and fowl for food. Bird songs woke them up at sunrise and their cries and squawks warned them of predators on prowl. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, artists and inventors gave wings to their imagination and designed flying machines that later paved the way for modern-day airplanes, paragliders, parachutes and even rockets. Since Charles Darwin founded the theory of evolution after watching finches in the Galapagos Islands in 1837, people have gone far and wide with thick notebooks to document birds and their behaviors.

 

A birdwatcher might list the birds in a notebook and keep a guide book such as Salim Ali's The Book of Indian birds handy. While expensive telescopic lenses and binoculars make birdwatching a delight, they do come with their own restrictions of weight and making the field too narrow. They’re great for photography and studying details of stationary birds but not for counting all the bird species one may find in a given area. At the end of the day, birders still have to rely on their intuition, gut feeling and impulses to be able to watch birds. Some of the best wildlife trackers in the world, such as the Bushman tribe in the Kalahari desert in Botswana-Namibia, do it without any sophisticated equipment. (Foster, 2020).

 

Observing and learning from birds was more than just a hobby until rapid urbanization, glass-fronted concrete offices and indoor work meant people didn’t have the time to watch birds anymore. Gradually, birdwatching became limited to the enthusiasts — ornithologists, students, hobbyists, amateur naturalists, photographers, documentary filmmakers and researchers.

 

When people were forced indoors because of the COVID-19 pandemic, urban birding and bird photography became popular pastimes among residents. There was a 16% rise in the number of species spotted per birding trip during March to April 2020 as compared with the same period in 2019. The effect was evident in 20 densely populated cities, including Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi and Puducherry. (Malhotra, 2022)

 

Powered by eBird, one of the world’s largest biodiversity-related science projects, founded by Cornell Lab of Ornithology, ordinary citizens were able to record their bird sightings with the help of just an app on their smartphones. To help them identify birds, with their pictures, sounds and calls, they had the aid of another app by Cornell Lab, the Merlin Bird ID. The Merlin app Sound ID listens to birds in the vicinity and shows real-time suggestions for who’s singing. Even visually-impaired people can use this app to identify bird songs and count the birds. How’s that for accessibility and inclusion! Merlin also displays how many times a bird has been spotted by the user. It gives an indication of what lives around places the user frequents the most.

 

At the heart of science is curiosity. Someone has a question about the world around them. It may come from a need to live a better life for themselves and their more-than-human communities. So they design an intervention, an experiment, to try to answer that question, create knowledge, and activate that knowledge to affect change in their lives and the lives of their multispecies kin. Everyone should have access to this endeavor and should receive the support they need for this endeavor. (Lorenz and Lepenies, 2023) Citizen Science platforms such as eBird are a great way to build communities that can help understand the world better and design interventions that can help protect this planet from further damage. eBird provides evidence that for birds, information on observer effort and completeness of species lists can be collected whilst maintaining high participation. (Johnston, 2021)

 

2.0. PEOPLE: FROM NICHE TO CITIZEN SCIENCE

 

At the time of writing this article, 923,654 eBirders from around the world have identified 10,718 species of birds and submitted a total of 85.33 million checklists. This phenomenal bank of data is available to researchers, policy-makers, environmentalists, urban designers and data-enthusiasts worldwide. This is what citizen science should be: Easy to use, accessible, measurable, data-driven, appendable and shareable. This data can be used for Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to map trends in population and migration of species.

 

 

3.0 PLANET: KNOW WHAT IS LIVING AROUND YOU

 

The term “population” only refers to human residents in a country, state, city, town or village. In order to find solutions to problems of space, humans clear vegetation to construct apartment blocks. That’s one part of the problem: The habitat destruction. The other part of the problem is that no one knows the animals that live in those habitats.

 

According to Birds of Gujarat, there are 236 species of birds in Vadodara district. The area around Navrachana University, Navrachana International School Vadodara and the Bhayli canal is a biodiversity hotspot. On a given day, anywhere between 8-18 incidental sightings of birds is possible within a span of 3-10 minutes.

 

Some of the species that were spotted as a part of this ongoing research between August 2022 and October 2023 include Bank myna, common myna, Indian pied starling, Indian peafowl, spotted eagle, painted stork, little cormorant, Indian pond-heron, black drongo, White-throated kingfisher, intermediate, cattle and great egrets, spotted, laughing and Eurasian collared doves, Indian white-eye, red-wattled lapwing, Oriental Magpie-Robin, common tailorbird, Brahminy starling, Rosy starling, rose-ringed parakeet, spot-billed duck, lesser whistling duck, blue rock pigeon, house sparrow, red avadavat, Asian green bee-eater and blue-cheeked bee-eater, rufous treepie, red-naped ibis, jungle babbler, wire-tailed swallow, barn swallow, black kite, common iora, Eurasian hoopoe, scaly-breasted munia, little swift, Asian koel, red-vented bulbul, white-breasted waterhen, spot-breasted fantail, Indian robin, Eurasian moorhen, purple sunbird and gray francolin. There are many more than these 48 species. These observations were included in The State of India's Birds 2023 report that was drawn from data uploaded to eBird to assess the distribution range and the abundance trends of Indian birds. Based on these measures, the report categorizes the conservation status of 942 species into High, Moderate and Low Conservation Concern. (State of India’s Birds 2023)

 

Very rarely the bird count is exactly the same on two successive days. There is always a change: a couple of pigeons less, two more doves, the common mynas and Bank mynas were exactly the same, the murder of crows had a few new members, the egrets are missing three... Humans are predictable and often boring because we have created clocks and routines, rules and regulations and social norms that are often cast in stone. Nature always surprises.

  

The species that were sighted and reported while traveling in a car at 30 Kph on eBird in October 2023 

Recordings and identification of bird calls at Navrachana International School on Merlin Bird ID on separate days in December 2022   

 4.0 CASE STUDY: Data collected by citizens on their daily commute to work or school points to trends in occurrence of birds and changes in their habitats

 

(i). Objective:

    

The objective of this case study is to find out if data collected on eBird through incidental or casual observation while travelling or commuting regularly can be used for identifying or mapping trends for particular bird species.  This case study is part of an ongoing research on the occurrence of bird species in Vadodara’s rapidly-changing urban landscape.

 

(ii). Procedure:

 

●   Observation was made while travelling along a 4 Km route from O P Road to Navrachana International School campus during school drop and pick up timings viz, 9:00 AM and 12.30 PM for a period between 14 August 2022 to 25 October 2023 and an 9 Km route between Navrachana University Campus to Rajmahal Road via Diwalipura and Jetalpur Road between 9:10 AM to 9:30 AM for the same period.

●      The recording time periods were in two phases:

○      Mornings: 8:40 AM to 9:43 AM

○      Afternoons: 12:10 PM to 1:24 PM

●      The species were identified visually or with the help of Merlin Bird ID and Salim Ali’s The Book of Indian Birds and recorded on the eBird checklists.

●      Errors in identification were flagged off by eBird reviewers and deleted by the researcher

●      The eBird data was downloaded for the purpose of this particular research on 25 October 2023 in the CSV format, a total of 4064 rows of observations on an Excel sheet for the period of time in consideration

●      The observations were categorized as: Casual Observation, Travelling and Stationary

●      Data was sorted using Excel tools to keep to the track and time of this particular study and eliminating any other locations and timings

●      Three birds were observed for the purpose of this particular study: The urban ‘pest’ Rock pigeon (Columba livia) (Rathod 2017) and two different species of waterbirds, Red-wattled lapwing (Vanellus indicus) and Eurasian Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus). (Ali 13th Ed 2002) The waterbirds were selected because of the presence of the Bhayli canal on the route.

●      The location of the habitats were plotted on Google Earth

●      The changing environments around the habitats were documented through photographs

 

 

(iii). Observations:

 

 (a). The occurrence of red-wattled lapwing and Eurasian moorhen are marked with blue and red pins respectively within a 2 Km radius from Navrachana University

 

(b). The habitats and the occurrence of the three bird species

 Rock Pigeon or Feral Pigeon   (Columba livia)

First sighting: 14-08-2022

Last sighting: 25-10-2023

Counts per trip: 70

Found in all urban habitats and near cultivated fields. Sightings throughout the year.

Red-wattled Lapwing
(Vanellus indicus)

First sighting: 16-08-2022

Last sighting: 23-10-2023

Counts per trip: 4-5

Found in cultivated areas and open fields  near water. More sightings during monsoon and winter.

Eurasian Moorhen
(Gallinula chloropus)

First sighting: 01-09-2022

Last sighting: 21-09-2023

Counts per trip: 2-3

Found in water bodies or in fields inundated by water during monsoon. No sightings in the dry season.

(Pics of birds from eBird)

 

 

(c). New construction disturbs bird habitats

 

 

Red-wattled lapwings in an open field

Lapwings avoid dug-up construction sites

As buildings come up, lapwings give way to pigeons

 (Pics by Eisha Sarkar)

(iv). Inference:

 

The data collected while commuting on this particular route shows three major trends:

1. The habitats of the waterbirds are diminishing as new buildings come up.
2. The biodiversity is decreasing because of rampant urbanization in the area.
3. The pigeon population is increasing as they adapt quickly to human environments.

 

(v). Conclusion

 

This study points to the diversity that exists and gives an indication of the species that may be affected by the rapid urbanization of the area around Navrachana University. Data recorded by citizens travelling or commuting for work or school can be used to track occurrence in urban bird habitats.

 

Data is like clay. It can be moulded into any form. For the purposes of mapping abundance and trends, eBird emphasizes that stationary data collected within the period of three to four minutes is ideal. However, when the frequency of travel along the same route is very high, regular recorded observations made during the same time of the day can give a strong indication of the trends. Data collected from frequent travellers along the same route might be a more valuable input than an infrequent stationary observer.  This research supports the validity of data recorded through incidental observations by citizen scientists going about their everyday lives — while commuting, walking their pets, morning and evening walks, yachting, fishing, waiting in the school pickup queue, etc.

 

Urban environment, with its concrete jungles, recreational parks and gardens of private premises  provide nesting and roosting habitats with additional food supplies provided by man. (Rathod 2017) With every new construction that has come up in the area around the Bhayli canal area, there has been a decline either in the number of birds or the number of species. This is why bird counts are important. And counting each bird, even if it’s just a pigeon or a crow, can help researchers track the changes in the habitat.

 

(vi)  Recommendations:

●      Create more collaborations between scientific organizations and citizen scientists: When more ordinary citizens get into collaborative science projects there will be greater understanding within our cities of how much one needs to do in protecting biodiversity. Citizen science enables data generation at all levels; from the hyper-local to the global. There is a need to bring in more collaboration between scientists and citizen scientists in order to improve the data that is recorded so that it can be used for analysis. While eBird tries to do this through webinars and workshops, it largely caters to the audience in the global West and much less in the global South.

●      Stop feeding pigeons: When people settle down in new apartment blocks, there is a steep increase in the number of pigeons. They adapt quickly and are often fed by eager residents. Other species such as sparrows start dying out. Thus starts a sparrow campaign where everyone's feeding sparrows and their numbers treble in a couple of months. Some other birds that were already living there start dying out because they cannot compete with the growing population of sparrows. Remove humans from the feeding chain and nature will bounce right back. Human intervention is necessary but there is a need to learn when to step back and let the animals be. 

 

 

Feeding pigeons leads to disproportionate increase in the already huge population of the birds in the city and other species start dying out because they cannot compete (Pic by Eisha Sarkar)

 

6.0 LIMITATIONS OF CITIZEN SCIENCE

 

Citizen scientists are not scientists. Most are ordinary people with other day jobs who dabble in weekend science projects or have a passion for wildlife and nature. Many are happy with checking off birds on a list on an app. The ability to conduct an analysis of that data and draw inferences falls on the shoulders of scientists and researchers. The data citizen science generates is enormous but very raw. Also, people with the specific knowledge may not document their observations in a format usually used by scientists. Many bird photographers, for example, do not keep a record of birds they see on eBird. Yet, they have valuable evidence of the species they document through their images that may be put up on photography sites such as Flickr or Getty Images or on social media such as Instagram and Facebook. It becomes extremely difficult for scientists to cull through thousands of images to get what they might use for a particular study. The more citizen science apps become commonplace and easy-to-use, the greater it will be to generate accurate data for scientific research.

 

Wildlife tech apps also help bring communities of scientists, naturalists and amateurs together to help understand and protect the planet. Unfortunately, collaborative science projects in this part of the world are still underdeveloped. Also, the lack of mobile accessibility in very remote areas of the country may lead to problems in tracking and recording species. Take the case of Merlin Sound ID. It's only in the last three to four years that Merlin has been able to pick up and identify sounds of birds in tropical countries. An observer might not check X on a species on eBird (it means it's present) because they couldn't identify its call with the Merlin Bird ID. There will be errors in observation but as with anything else, practice makes one a keener birder. The more often one visits a particular area and gets acquainted with the residents and the visitors, the seasons and the environmental changes, the less likely one is to make a mistake. Still mistakes happen and that's why citizen science data needs to be vetted before it is used  for critical policy-making. Still, it is better to have something to work with than nothing at all, especially in urban habitats.

 

7.0 INTANGIBLE PROFITS AND NEW FRONTIERS

 

Post-pandemic, there has been a shift in the way we look at the planet, health and the economy. When some of the wealthiest countries in the world were brought to their knees by COVID 19, India and Africa managed it well enough to contain the deaths. When people were forced indoors, in spite of having money in their bank accounts, places with parks and public spaces which allowed for social distancing enabled their citizens to have better mental and physical health. Nature nurtures. The best ideas have often come while walking or canoeing or riding, not while sitting at the desk. If someone hadn't watched birds, we would not have been sitting in an airplane today. If we don't protect birds and their habitats today, our future generations may not get the benefits that we have because of them. There's the intangible profit in the future that we fail to project today.

 

8.0 CONCLUSION

 

The wildlife tech space is growing. Merlin Bird ID and eBird are centered on birds but there are so many kinds of wildlife that should be measured. Unfortunately, there are very few apps for other animals. The iNaturalist app still begs for citizen scientists’ attention. Aza Raskin, who is the creator of the ‘infinite scroll’ that keeps us hooked onto our mobile phones, is also the founder of The Earth Species Project where they are building machine learning models to support and deepen ongoing research into the behavior of other species and advancing conservation efforts on the ground. As more collaborative players come into this exciting space of wildlife technology, the prospects of citizen science will keep on increasing. No two humans are the same. No two birds are the same. When technology will help us communicate with non-human species, we’ll empathize with them and protect them better.

 

9.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Ali, S. (2002) The Book of Indian Birds Thirteenth Edition (Oxford University Press)
2. Malhotra, R. Bird sightings soared in Indian cities during the 2020 lockdown. (Nature India) June 6, 2022
3. Samarpan, A. (2008) Birds of India including Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Pakistan and Bangladesh (Wisdom Tree)
4. Rathod Jagruti, Deshkar Sonal and Padate Geeta (2017). Diversity of avifauna in Urban City, Vadodara, Gujarat. Biolife. 5(2), pp 224-231. doi:10.17812/blj.2017.5212
5. SoIB (2023). State of India’s Birds, 2023: Range, trends, and conservation status. The SoIB Partnership. Pp. 119.
6. Lorenz, L and Lepenies, R. (2023).Contributions of Citizen Science to the Sustainable Development Goals: Is Transformative “Global” Citizen Science Possible? Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 8(1): 42, pp. 1–9.
7. A Johnston, WM Hochachka, et al. (2021) Analytical guidelines to increase the value of citizen science data: using eBird data to estimate species occurrence Diversity and Distributions

  10.0 WEB REFERENCES

 

1. eBird https://ebird.org/myebird
2. Cornell Lab of Ornithology https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/
3. Foster, C. My Octopus Teacher (Netflix) 2020
4. Raskin, A. The Earth Species Project https://www.earthspecies.org/what-we-do/technology
5. Birds of Gujarat https://birdsofgujarat.co.in/district_bird_list.php?list=Vadodara
6. Charles Darwin and HMS Beagle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Beagle

 Just a month after I made this presentation, Making Birds Count - The growing intersectionality of Animal, Human and Artificial Intelligence in Citizen Science at the Second National Conference on People, Planet and Profit at Navrachana University School of Business, the red-wattled lapwing has lost one habitat to construction and her count in the other one is down to between 0-2 in a trip. The number of pigeons have gone up threefold to 210 in a trip. That's because people still feel pigeons need to be fed. Remove yourself from the food chain and the birds will do just fine. 

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