The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Evening all,
An unusual post, but as this is the rare bird forum here it is. Cornell University, the force behind e-Bird, have launched a software programme to ID birds using a variety of information, from photograph, GPS location and likelihood of occurrence based on date. It can be found here:

https://merlinvision.macaulaylibrary.or ... itor/about

Their quote as follows:

Merlin Photo ID is able to identify 400 species of North American birds, and our goal is to improve the accuracy and number of species Merlin can identify. Once Merlin’s engine is fully trained, we’ll use it to verify the identification of birds in images submitted via eBird to the Macaulay Library.

I saw it demo'd at the Bird Fair and it looks very promising. Could be very good for those record shots when you get home from a foreign trip, as well as for UK stuff.

Cheers Phil

Maybe better off in "General Lincs birding' but as Phil is plugging eBird we are also hoping to expand Birdcast http://birdcast.info/ to Europe when we have enough data - eBird data, plus satellite bird migration data + weather data (and where possible nocturnal migrant flight call data) is being used to model and predict bird movements. This is already being used in the US to turn off nocturnal lighting on structures with high collision frequency at peak times.

For those that use eBird, profile pages went live today http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/profilepages/ and there are lots more developments in the pipeline including improvements to Merlin such that in the future if someone posts an Amur on the internet alarm bells should ring more quickly

If you don't contribute to Birdtrackor eBird (which will hopefully eventually merge or at least share data - http://www.birdwatch.co.uk/channel/news ... te=__13922 ) then now's the time!

cheers

Alex

_________________
Dr Alexander C. Lees
Lecturer in tropical ecology
Manchester Metropolitan University

Lab Associate
Cornell Lab of Ornithology,
Cornell University

http://www.freewebs.com/alexlees/index.htm
@Alexander_Lees

I'm not sure "plug" is the right description, as that implies some gain for me. Just thought it might be of interest to some! Hopefully software to collect global records will continue to converge for the benefit of our feathered friends!
Best

Phil