If you are familiar with conservation, you know that having access to reliable and plentiful data is a must. Our plans for Bird Buddy to pitch in and contribute to global conservation efforts are no secret, and we are thrilled to say that we have finally launched the first phase in what will be a long lasting and, hopefully, impactful project.
It is called Heartbeat.
Our Global Network
The global Bird Buddy community is growing with each passing day, as is the number of bird species that stop by our feeders to grab a hearty snack. At the time of writing, there are 31,721 active feeders that have fed 359 different species of birds and snapped 16,675,907 photos of their visitors!
Now, you have the opportunity of watching the map of the world light up with each new species that visits a Bird Buddy feeder, see where the visit took place, and, if you’re lucky, also check out a photo of the hungry bird.
Well, approximately where the visit took place.
Privacy is incredibly important to us, and we by no means want to broadcast where each one of our customers lives, so the pings on the map show only an approximate location that is at least six miles away from the feeder’s actual location.
Catching the Action
Birds are active little critters and spend a good portion of their time on the hunt for grub – sometimes literally. However, they also need to rest every once in a while; that is why there may not be all that much going on on the page, depending on when you decide to check in.
Lucky for you, we carefully log the number of visits at different times, and you can see which times are busiest by clicking on the Info button in the top right corner. That way, you can set up a reminder on your phone and tune into the feeding frenzy.
In this case, bigger really is better. While the site works perfectly both on mobile and desktop, the best way to enjoy the full experience is definitely by viewing it on a big screen. Like a laptop or desktop computer… Or projected onto a wall, go nuts!
See for Yourself
A project like this creates a sizeable amount of data that might be of interest to many, whether you are a citizen scientist, researcher, creative or tech connoisseur. Throughout the project, you will be able to freely access and download the datasets of the last three months. These are available in the Information window we mentioned above.
Aside from purely scientific purposes, we believe this project has great educational potential – for example, if you had been wondering which birds from a particular region are regulars at bird feeders, or in case you were looking to deepen your knowledge of all the bird species that call this planet home.
Big Plans
As we have already mentioned, we have big plans for Heartbeat. The data generated throughout this project will prove a valuable resource for ornithologists and conservationists alike, and will be instrumental in better understanding the lives of birds. Future developments will allow us to efficiently track birds’ migration patterns, and will allow viewers to filter birds according to different parameters, like species, as well as showcase historical data.
All of this would not be possible without our wonderful community that is making this all happen by both supporting us and allowing us to use this data to help make birds’ lives just a little bit better.
