A1 Journal article (refereed)
A Mobile Application–Based Citizen Science Product to Compile Bird Observations (2024)

Nokelainen, O., Lauha, P., Andrejeff, S., Hänninen, J., Inkinen, J., Kallio, A., Lehto, H. J., Mutanen, M., Paavola, R., Schiestl-Aalto, P., Somervuo, P., Sundell, J., Talaskivi, J., Vallinmäki, M., Vancraeyenest, A., Lehtiö, A., & Ovaskainen, O. (2024). A Mobile Application–Based Citizen Science Product to Compile Bird Observations. Citizen Science : Theory and Practice, 9(1), Article 24. https://doi.org/10.5334/cstp.710

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Nokelainen, Ossi; Lauha, Patrik; Andrejeff, Sebastian; Hänninen, Jari; Inkinen, Jasmin; Kallio, Aleksi; Lehto, Harry J.; Mutanen, Marko; Paavola, Riku; Schiestl-Aalto, Pauliina; et al.

Journal or series: Citizen Science : Theory and Practice

eISSN: 2057-4991

Publication year: 2024

Publication date: 10/09/2024

Volume: 9

Issue number: 1

Article number: 24

Publisher: Ubiquity Press

Publication country: United Kingdom

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/cstp.710

Research data link: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13326225

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/98941

Abstract

Citizen science covers initiatives from crowdsourcing, distributed intelligence, and participatory science, to extreme citizen science. Terminological overlap, varied project aims, and cultural differences in the fields of research have, however, led to discord regarding how impactful citizen science projects can be. Here, we showcase a mobile application–based citizen science campaign (in Finnish: Muuttolintujen kevät), an automated bird sound classifier of Finnish birds. Over a single season (2023), the method attracted 140,000 participants who uploaded close to three million recordings containing six million bird observations. We report the spatial and temporal distribution of the observations collected, characterize the user behaviour, and discuss reliability of the user-based validations of the AI-powered species identifications. To circumvent data quality problems that characterize many citizen science projects, our approach stores the raw audio in a centralized repository, enabling rigorous validation and re-analysis. Mobile application-based citizen science initiatives can be harnessed to probe the state of our environment almost in real time and potentially guide conservation acts in the future.

Keywords: birdsvalidation; ornithology; animal sounds; determination of species; mobile apps; artificial intelligence; citizen science; crowdsourcing; nature conservation; 

Free keywords: biomonitoring; birds; bird sound recognition; Finland; mobile app; validation

Contributing organizations

Related projects

Ministry reporting: Yes

VIRTA submission year: 2024

Preliminary JUFO rating: 2