Citizen Science - Birds of Prey
As part of Mid Macquarie Landcares current BBBB (Bats, Birds, Bills and Bears) the raptor project was created to capture a snapshot of local birds of prey across Dubbo, Wellington and Narromine. Project BBBB is proudly funded by EnergyCo’s Community and Employment Benefit Program.
Capacity building - LP-082-01
The issue
A lack of local raptor sightings and distribution data across Central Western NSW was identified. With raptor species broadly being recognised for their status as keystone species, valuable information can be drawn from identifying, observing and recording their occurrences within the environment, especially in ever changing environmental times such as now. It is important to find opportunity for members of our community to feel they are contributing to change, regardless of the perceived scale of that contribution. The gap in available data on raptors shaped the creation of our formal project within iNaturalist, as an avenue for local citizen scientists to contribute their birds of prey sightings in a simple and easily accessible way.
The solution
All currently available bird sighting mobile apps were assessed and trialled in order to settle on the most suitable tool for this particular project. There are numerous high value apps currently available for recording bird observations, however iNaturalist was the most suitable on various fronts. iNaturalist is one of many apps which is syphoned into another scientifically significant resource Atlas of Living Australia (ALA). ALA is used broadly by industry professionals, scientists and researchers within the field. In order for an iNaturalist observation to be transferred to being listed to the wider community of ALA, the observation needs to be verified by other iNaturalist users. Through the verification process, this then changes the status of the observation to research grade, allowing it to become a formal tangible observation on ALA.
An official project was formed within iNaturalist, titled - Birds of Prey - Mid Macquarie Landcare. This project was programmed to only include certain taxonomic groups, and observations recorded within specific locations of the Central Western region. The ability to create formal projects with a set purpose, taxonomic subset and across a specific region is a key benefit to using iNaturalist for community projects and engagement.
This project now operates in perpetuity, with in the intention to become increasingly valuable over the longer term.
The impact
Currently there have been 32 local observations included within the project, with a total of 11 species. Of these observations, 78% have been verified to the status of research grade, meaning they will now be included within the ALA platform for use and access by industry professionals for further research and scientific investigation. Over time as this project captures a broader distribution of birds of prey across the various seasons, this will create a valuable resource not only for the Mid Macquarie team, but for broader application within the scientific community. Citizen science really can have an impact on shaping our tomorrow.