The coronavirus pandemic caused a severe global crisis. The dramatic silencing of human activities in the first wave also made the sounds of the natural world far more noticeable. The Dawn Chorus project was born in this time, to encourage people to stop, listen and record one of the marvels of the natural world.
Your recordings will contribute to a global soundscape of the dawn chorus. They will also be included in a scientific database for biodiversity research. From now on, the Dawn Chorus project will take place every year and thus provide important comparative data.
Despite its obvious negative impact the coronavirus pandemic also created a unique opportunity to reconnect with nature. With human disturbance minimised, people once again began to hear and listen to bird song. The Dawn Chorus project was rapidly conceived and deployed to help people record this event for scientific and creative purposes. In the first year (2020) 3,500 recordings of bird song were uploaded to the website. In 2021 we built and launched the Dawn Chorus app which enables people to:
- record and upload their dawn chorus recordings in situ.
- identify and add the species present in the recording.
- view and interact with all records on a map
By the end of 2021 more than 7,300 had been uploaded.
Want to enjoy the sound of bird song all year around and help us make the data more useful? You can interact with all of the records via the Dawn Chorus app and help the project by:
- Listening to the 1 minute recordings and telling us which species you hear
- Flagging any erroneous records
Where to from here?
The aim of the project is to continue over the long term to provide an ever increasing record of the dawn chorus from around the world. In 2022 we are also hoping to integrate AI into the project so that the species people capture in their recordings are automatically identified. Watch this space!
If you wish to find out more about the Dawn Chorus project, please visit the website.
