Do birds in our towns and countryside more readily choose to eat alone or with others? Does their strategy for feeding favor competition or cooperation? And if the birds cooperate, can we specify how?
So many questions that scientists ask themselves, the answers to which can only go through a large number of observations impossible to achieve for teams of researchers. The solution ? Involve citizens of all ages, offering them a stimulating and formative experience!
BirdLab is a collaborative research action initiated by the National Museum of Natural History in France. It is intended to better understand the behavior of birds to access food during the winter period. It is part of the research coordinated by Vigie-Nature. The goal? Have numerous field observations, in various territories and at any time of the day.
It was necessary to appeal to citizens, families and schools to multiply the collection of information. The national museum of natural history, accompanied by several partners, has thus developed an application and an operating procedure so that each person, whether or not they have a garden, can usefully observe the behavior of birds.
The strength of the project lies in its pedagogical interest and in the variety of learning situations that it allows.
To start a little carpentry
Before observing and practicing on the digital platform, Birdlab offers a little carpentry. The citizen science project asks participants to make flat feeders, according to the directions. You have to measure, saw, drill, plant. Depending on the age of the apprentice researchers, we will of course be careful about the use of the tools. The models provided by the application are simple and encourage observation. In addition, information from Sikana will be very useful.
The virtuosos of the circular saw or the band saw will be keen to make more aesthetic feeders, which resemble small houses and also serve as shelters. The online tutorials are numerous, but risk moving us away from the project which aims to collect data on the behavior of birds.
Recognize birds
For the collection of information to be meaningful, observers still need to know how to identify birds. The second activity therefore consists in learning the characteristic traits of the main species. The application offers fact sheets and self-assessments.
Very many sites provide reference points to find your way around and summary documents, even posters. Exercise is not easy, but it can be stimulating. A class of science and life of the earth (svt) of approximately 11-year-old students reports on their blog “Long live the svt ».
Reproduce the behaviors seen
These long and necessary preparations bring us to the final stage, which is of particular interest to Museum researchers. Participants are invited to observe the birds that come to eat the seeds and to reproduce on their tablet or phone the behavior of the birds.
It’s a drag and drop thing. There is a playful aspect to the manipulation and less risk of abandonment or errors than if people had to go through the writing. However, nothing would prevent an educational team from extending the activity with a field notebook where writing, diagrams and drawings would have their place. The application is responsible for sending the data to the museum.
A broad interdisciplinary approach to “celebrate” urban birds
The site celebrateurbanbirds.org favors interdisciplinarity. He also offers to observe urban birds after learning to recognize them. The report is made by a form, then by computer entry. The animators have chosen to address an entire continent. As the territory is vast, participants are invited to specify their country (Mexico, United States or Canada) and their region.
The interest lies above all in the variety of educational situations offered in addition to the collaborative activity. Thus, the site gives avenues for artistic activities, around Haikus, drawing, folding, gluing and making mobile phones. It gives some sources of inspiration for gardening adapted to birds, their nesting or their need for water. Finally, it brings some (too rare) elements to arouse the scientific curiosity of the participants.
Study the movements
The previous activities were aimed at a fairly large audience, without specific prerequisites, even if the identification of birds requires real prior work. The project carried by the site motion aims to better understand migration.
Motus relies on more than 500 telemetry antennas which capture the passages of birds carrying nano-transmitters which send signals several times per minute. The maintenance of transmitters around the world relies on the volunteer work of scientists, researchers and citizens. They share digital tools and procedures for project management or the maintenance of receiving stations.
Participating in a citizen science activity often means being part of diverse learning situations, individual, family, and sometimes in groups, as in the last example we cited. This is an opportunity to discover your environment in a different way, for example by identifying strategies of association or avoidance in the choreography of birds. And when you are limited in your movements for some reason, it allows you to travel at home, or a few hundred meters around!
Illustrations: Frédéric Duriez
Resources:
Paris Museum of Natural History – BirdLab – accessed March 13, 2021
https://www.mnhn.fr/fr/explorez/applications-mobiles/birdlab
For the presentation of the Vigie-Nature project: http://www.vigienature.fr/fr/vigie-manip/birdlab
https://www.mnhn.fr/fr/participez/contribuez-sciences-participatives/observatoires-vigie-nature
Sikana “Making a bird feeder “- uploaded in November 2016, accessed March 13, 2021
https://youtu.be/dwtawa31o3k
The Cornell Lab of ornithology – website consulted on March 14, 2021
https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home
Celebrateurbanbirds.org – https://celebrateurbanbirds.org/
Motus – website consulted on March 14, 2021 – https://motus.org/about/?lang=fr
Keywords:
Ornithology Birds Participant observation
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