In a Nutshell
Dawn Chorus is the English term for the early morning concert produced by various animals, particularly birds. The dawn hours hold particular significance for numerous bird species.
Recordings of the Dawn Chorus play a vital role in scientifically documenting the presence of diverse bird species through sound recordings and acoustic biomonitoring.
Beyond the captivating melodies, each bird species contributes to a complex network of biological relationships. Consequently, these recordings provide an abundance of information, allowing for comprehensive insights and conclusions. This is why birds are frequently regarded as indicator species, offering valuable cues about the overall health and dynamics of ecosystems.
Dawn Chorus’ variables
A dawn chorus is anything but static:
Different bird species join the chorus at different dawn times to avoid competing for acoustic space.
The Dawn Chorus Score beautifully illustrates this diversity. As spring unfolds, you’ll hear a changing singing activity among species that is influenced not only by weather but also by factors like noise and light pollution. To truly understand fluctuating populations, species declines, and local habitat changes, we need to observe this activity over several years.
We invite you to help us capture this complexity by making multiple recordings from the same location on a given morning, both on regular workdays, weekends, and public holidays. Don’t hesitate to record from any habitat, even seemingly “boring” places – every recording is scientifically interesting and important.
The ultimate goal? Collecting images from the same spot, around the same date, and approximately at the same time relative to sunrise over many years.
Citizen Science
The success of the Dawn Chorus project relies on dedicated citizen scientists like you to contribute recordings for a solid database. However, your support is not limited to data collection; you can also play a crucial role in analyzing it!
Collecting recordings from Bavaria, all across Europe, and globally, simultaneously and consistently over many years, is a task beyond the capability of any single scientist.
If you find inspiration in expanding the dataset of the Dawn Chorus and wish to derive your insights from it, we warmly welcome you to incorporate the recordings collectively gathered into your research. Reach out to us at vogelstimmen@lbv.de or through the Dawn Chorus contact form to explore this opportunity further.
Analyzing the data
Dawn Chorus is an app for everyone. So that you know who sang in your Dawn Chorus, the new version of the app features automatic bird song recognition using “AI” (artificial intelligence).
We use the algorithm from BirdNET, an app from Chemnitz University of Technology and the Cornell Lab for Ornithology, which uses machine learning to recognise and classify bird calls and provides an innovative tool for nature conservation, biology and birdwatching.
BirdNET (and therefore also our bird call recognition system) can already recognise around 6000 bird species based on their songs and calls. At least in theory; unfortunately it is not yet error-free. Especially in the polyphonic Dawn Chorus, when many bird species sing at once. Some bird calls are also easier to recognise than others.
To ensure that bird call recognition continues to improve, we work with citizen scientists who are experts in bird call recognition and help us to check the results of the AI and improve them in the long term.
Citizen Science projects using Dawn Chorus data and infrastructure
Data Challenge: Global Tinkering for Science
The DCASE Data Challenge is a free competition for teams of scientists and other digital inventors. Datasets, available on the homepage, are meant to be analysed from specific perspectives. Participating teams subsequently create competing algorithms, striving to develop the most effective solutions for the presented “puzzle.”
FEdA: The CitySoundscapes project
The project “Soundscapes across Cityscapes” investigates the impact of audible biodiversity on the soundscape and how it affects the subjective well-being of people who visit these places, using methods from diverse scientific fields. With the Dawn Chorus App, the research team aims to directly involve the local community, initially focusing on Munich:
What does the neighborhood sound like? And how do I feel in this soundscape?
Why the morning concert?
The joint morning concert has probably developed because the air movement is particularly low at this time of day. The night has led to even cooling and has equalized temperature differences. As long as the sun has not yet been able to warm individual areas again, there is little wind. Under these conditions, the song carries particularly far. Another theory is that the birds utilize the twilight of dusk, as they are less visible to some predators at this time while exposing themselves through their songs.
Acoustic Biomonitoring
Biomonitoring involves regular surveillance of an ecosystem, biotope, community, or individual animals and plants to assess environmental quality. The frequency and standardization of data collection significantly impact the quality of the conclusions drawn. When citizen scientists participate, efforts are made to address certain deficiencies by gathering a large number of data points while maintaining uniform recording practices. The major advantage of this data collection method lies in the ability of the collective contributors to compensate for minor inaccuracies in individual data points due to the diverse participant pool.
Acoustic biomonitoring offers a distinct advantage as the archived recordings are available for later analysis, allowing experts to verify statements on the occurrence of individual species. The recording radius and area covered are incomparably larger than achievable with photography. Unlike a camera, which relies on factors like quality, lighting, and skill, a microphone captures a broader, unseen area from the recording location, facilitating easier evaluation later on.