AI to listen in on barn owls without risk to their nests

AN artificial intelligence tool is being developed to count barn owl chicks by the sound of their calls to avoid disturbing nests.

- By Ben Mitchell

The tech is able to recognise distinct identifying noises made by each young bird of prey that the human ear would fail to pick up.

Bournemouth University PhD student Kavisha Jayathunge is leading the project as an alternative to the stressful installation of video cameras to monitor chicks.

He is working with biologist-turned-electronics engineer Brian Cresswell to create a computer model to calculate the number of owls by distinguishing their individual calls.

Mr Jayathunge said: "We're using AI to count baby barn owls by sound instead of disturbing them in their nests with video cameras.