Automating the Count: Advances in AI-Based Seabird Monitoring
Endemic to New Zealand’s subantarctic islands, the Salvin’s Albatross is helping to redefine how seabird populations are counted. © Paul Brooks
Fieldwork and Technology

Automating the Count: Advances in AI-Based Seabird Monitoring

High cliffs, cold winds, and narrow weather windows once defined the limits of seabird science. Now, drones and artificial intelligence are extending our reach — and changing what it means to count a colony.

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Real-Time, Real Impact: Revolutionary Bird Tracking with Interrex’s UBILINK
A Northern Lapwing is being carefully processed for research before release. Studies like this provide vital data on migration and survival. © Eunbi Kwon, Department of Ornithology, Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence

Real-Time, Real Impact: Revolutionary Bird Tracking with Interrex’s UBILINK

Satellite technology is evolving fast – Interrex’s UBILINK system offers a game-changing solution for high-resolution, remote wildlife tracking.
Fieldwork and Technology
The Ornithologist

The Ornithologist
Fabricated Birds: AI and the Future of Ornithology
AI-generated image. A Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex) in papyrus habitat. The bird depicted here does not exist – a reminder that in the age of generative imagery, realism is no longer proof of presence. Image created by Daniel Szimuly/The Ornithologist. All rights reserved.

Fabricated Birds: AI and the Future of Ornithology

When we generated a Shoebill that never existed, the realism was flawless – and unsettling. In an age where synthetic plausibility becomes effortless, ornithology must reconsider what authenticity means and how it is protected.
Editorial
Gyorgy Szimuly

Gyorgy Szimuly
Upstream of Science: The Role of Bird Art in Understanding — An Interview with Szabolcs Kókay
A reconstruction of a species now considered extinct, placed carefully within the landscape that once held it. Slender-billed Curlew with Eurasian Curlews on oil (2010). All Rights Reserved by Szabolcs Kókay

Upstream of Science: The Role of Bird Art in Understanding — An Interview with Szabolcs Kókay

Ornithology begins not with numbers, but with looking. This conversation with Szabolcs Kókay examines how bird art operates upstream from science – shaping what we notice, understand, and value.
Editorial
Gyorgy Szimuly

Gyorgy Szimuly