The spotting of subtropical birds dozens of miles north of where they traditionally have been seen is the inspiration behind a new online bird observatory that could help researchers better understand climate change.
, which is short for the Collaborative Observatory for Natural Environments at the Welder Wildlife Refuge in South Texas, involves the use of a tele-robotic camera that anyone can access via the Web to help Smithsonian Institute researchers track birds. Participants can take pictures of Green Jays, Great Kiskadees and other birds, plus comment on them. What’s more, those that participate can make a game of it, competing with others for such honors as the Daily Night Owl Award for the last picture of the day and the Daily Parrot Award for best comment of the day.
Online observers are being supplemented with researchers who are onsite at Welder Wildlife Refuge, home to one of the highest number of bird species in North America.
Some of the latest observations can be found at the Networked Bird Observatory Blog .
In addition to Welder and Smithsonian, the University of California at Berkeley, Texas A&M and the National Science Foundation are also involved in the project.
Calling the effort to our attention was Ken Goldberg, a professor at UC Berkeley who recently discussed the school’s Jester joke recommendation system with us.
We wrote last year about a smaller but similar online bird observatory project dubbed CONE Sutro Forest that focused on birds in San Franciso.
