Acoustic bird monitoring – advantages and disadvantages
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59463/2y22bq72Abstract
Abstract
Globally, there are approximately 10,000 bird species, 75% of which have their habitat in forests. Forests provide essential resources necessary for life cycles, offering food sources, nesting sites or thermal refuges. But, in addition to the benefits brought to bird populations in forests, there are a number of threats to birds in managed forests. Well-designed monitoring programs can identify the decline of bird species populations, as it is known that birds can be used as indicators of biodiversity. Along with classical methods of bird monitoring, recently, automatic recorders are increasingly used. Through this article, we aim to present the acoustic monitoring method used to determine bird species in sample plots located in mixed stands (beech and sessile oak) both in managed forests and in the Runcu-Groși Natural Reserve. Thus, we used eight Song Meter Mini Bat recorders for the managed forest located in eight sample plots, and for the natural forest we used six Song Meter Mini Bat recorders and two Song Meter Mini Bat 2AA recorders located in another eight sample plots. The audio recorders were mounted on trees at a height of 2 m. The recorded sounds were analyzed using the Raven Pro and BirdNET Analyzer software. We also presented the advantages and disadvantages of this method.
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