Scientists are always looking for ways to apply new technologies to solve scientific questions. Ornithologists are among those that eagerly await the chance to try leading-edge ideas and gadgets to better understand the ecology of birds. Recently, we heard about several relatively new applications of technology to the study of birds that we thought we’d share with you.

Readers of this column will know that we love to discuss the wonders of bird migration. So when we heard about the MOTUS bird tracking project, we were entranced. According to the project team, the word “motus” is Latin for movement, and the MOTUS project takes advantage of the collective power of antenna arrays deployed by dozens of researchers across Canada, the U.S., and into Central and South America.

Tiny transmitters called nanotags are so small that they have also been used to track fish and even some insects and, of course, small birds. Each nanotag emits a unique signal that can be picked up by antenna arrays if the bird is within 5-10 miles. Right here in Maine, a number of projects have used this technology in recent years to study movements of a variety of birds including terns and sandpipers. As more researchers have deployed more and more antenna arrays, more birds can be detected across larger distances. Recently Bird Studies Canada, one of the lead organizations in the MOTUS project, reported that collaborating arrays had detected a number of Swainson’s Thrushes that had wintered in Colombia back in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario either on breeding grounds or headed to them. Expect to see a flood of new migration stories generated in the coming years thanks to the MOTUS project and similar technologies. You can see more about the project at: www.birdscanada.org

Another technology application that caught our eye came from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology where we were located for many years. Programmers there have recently released a beta-test for an ingenious application that can identify the species of a bird in a photo! Yes, we know it sounds impossible but we’ve tried it and, at least for 400 of the regularly occurring birds of the U.S. and Canada, it does an amazing job figuring out the species. The user is asked to answer a few simple questions like when and where the photo was taken. The program can then access bird data to exclude species that are unlikely to occur in that area. Then the user marks on the photo where the eye, bill tip, and tail tip are located and seemingly, magically, the program provides a list of possible species. Even if it doesn’t get it right it narrows the possibilities down. Plus, it’s just fun to try! You can check it out at: www.birds.cornell.edu