Powering Up Participatory Science in Bird Watching

Crowdsourced Data

Crowdsourced data have the potential to power up conservation programs with bird checklists from millions of birders. Data from participatory science programs and platforms, such as the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird, are being used to locate wind farms in places where eagles are less likely to be, and to select rice fields for temporary flooding in places where migratory shorebirds are hungry for stopover habitat.

Communities can use participatory science data to track environmental changes and boost representation in policy decisions, but this potential can be compromised by social inequities that reduce access. For example, across the U.S., formerly redlined areas—neighborhoods where discrimination by banks prevented home purchases by Black and immigrant families—have fewer eBird submissions than wealthier areas.

The Black-stewarded, Bird-filled Neighborhoods of Southwest Atlanta

eBird data from Atlanta are concentrated in the wealthier northeastern section of the city, even though southwest Atlanta is home to hundreds of acres of forest that have been stewarded by Black communities for generations and are filled with birds like Scarlet Tanagers and Brown-headed Nuthatches. The decreased eBird engagement relative to northeast Atlanta, and resulting data gaps, could yield an inaccurate understanding of urban biodiversity.

Additional data would improve the ability of local communities—in Atlanta and beyond—to monitor environmental changes and advocate for resources that protect the health of people and birds, particularly in historically redlined neighborhoods where people are already exposed to heavy pollution and increased warming from the heat-island effect.

Empowering equitable participatory science is a first step toward generating the data to direct environmental resources to historically redlined communities. The legacies of racism, economic disenfranchisement, and segregation have created predictable patterns for identifying gaps in participation.

To ensure a vibrant future for people and birds, Black and Brown communities in these gaps must have access to necessary resources, such as funding and programming, that allow for widespread participation. Importantly, such participatory science initiatives must be community centered and community-led, to ensure science-empowered communities and an accurate understanding of urban bird diversity and distribution for equitable conservation planning.

Birding to Boost Representation

The Walnut Creek area in Raleigh, North Carolina, has significant gaps in bird data along racial and socio-economic lines. A community birding project organized by Deja Perkins, ornithologist and PhD student at N.C. State University, is bringing social equity to participatory science data.

Perkins is running workshops that teach residents how to use eBird, Merlin, Seek, and iNaturalist apps as tools to gain representation for the biodiversity where they live. Through guided practice, Perkins is empowering historically underrepresented communities to make sure they are included in data coverage.