Hi, it's Anna here.
Recently, I was sitting in a friend's garden when some noisy birds flew overhead. Someone quickly whipped out their phone and confirmed they were Ring-necked Parakeets, using the Cornell University Merlin app. I thought I was alone in this bird identification phase of my life. Turns out I'm not.
Technology is often posed in opposition to nature. When someone is too online we tell them to “go touch grass”. But as the tools we use to identify and understand the world around us evolve, I find myself more in touch with nature through my phone rather than without it.
This is obviously exemplified by the Merlin app. I've identified 96 birds through the app so far, by the time this article is published I could easily have 100 birds on my “Life List”.
Merlin has plenty of identification features, but my favourite is how it listens. When a bird calls, it identifies the species in real-time. Point your phone at the sky, and a list appears on your screen. The app enhances your senses. It becomes an extension of your ears, your knowledge.
Walthamstow Wetlands provides the perfect backdrop for my bird listening. This massive urban nature reserve hosts over 140 bird species each year. Rare waterfowl, Kingfishers, and even a resident Peregrine Falcon visit or make their homes there.
It’s also the workplace of Lira Valencia, a conservationist and influencer, using social media to get a new generation interested in birds. The birdwatching demographic is changing. It's younger, more diverse, more technologically equipped.
I once identified an Alpine Swift at the Wetlands, using Merlin. I wanted to confirm this very unusual sighting with the staff at the visitor centre, but they dismissed me. Saying there was no way an amateur would have spotted a bird that rarely visits the UK. The next day, multiple confirmed sightings came in from the exact same spot. Technology has turned me from an amateur to an expert.
The Romans believed birds were messengers from the gods. Augurs were priests who would interpret the flight patterns, feeding habits, and calls of birds to determine if planned actions should proceed. A bird appearing on the left or right, flying high or low, alone or in groups, all carried different meanings.
Artist Gaston Weisch, has created a website that lets users ask questions to contemporary bird oracles. Based on ancient Roman augury practices, the AI-generated system watches birds through webcams and interprets their movements as answers to your questions. AI tracks the birds on camera, considers your question, and delivers an interpretation. This use case is not about identification. It's about meaning. What are these creatures trying to tell us?
There are so many wasteful and thoughtless uses of AI that gravely threaten the future of our planet. And yet, the Merlin app, Lira’s instagram and Weisch’s oracle project all reveal an interesting truth; technology can bring us closer to nature. This might seem contradictory. Shouldn't we disconnect from screens to connect with wildlife? The answer is increasingly no. Our phones don't always separate us from nature. They can help us interpret it.
As AI continues to develop, we might eventually translate bird calls directly. We already decode their patterns and identify their species. Full translation feels like the next step. But the Roman augury tradition reminds us that people have been interpreting animals for millennia. What technology does is democratize this knowledge. It turns amateurs into experts and maybe also listening into understanding.
Anna Rose Kerr,
Freelance Creative Director & Consultant
Further reading:
DM me when you have more than 100 birds
Augury Birds, the webcam oracle
