HPR interview: UH Hilo biologist Patrick Hart’s lab develops AI to analyze forest bird soundscapes
For the last decade, Prof. Hart has been trying to improve how researchers track forest bird population trends. His lab is turning to AI.
By Susan Enright.
University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo biologist Patrick Hart‘s lab is developing artificial intelligence programs to help with monitoring bird populations in Hawaiʻi’s forests.
Professor Hart is the founder of UH Hilo’s Listening Observatory for Hawaiian Ecosystems, commonly called LOHE Lab, where scientists and students research the ecology and conservation of native Hawaiian forests and birds. One of the primary methods Hart uses in his research is recording birdsong through strategically placed recorders within Hawaiian forests.
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For the last decade or more, Prof. Hart has been trying to improve how researchers track forest bird population trends. After 10 years manually recording bird song throughout Hawaiʻi Island and the state, Hart is now using AI to help process the lab’s huge database of bird song.
“One of the things that we need to do to be able to manage our forest birds is to have better information on where they are and how many of them there are,” Hart says in a Hawaiʻi Public Radio interview with Catherine Cruz. “It’s been really hard to get that with our traditional techniques where we send people out in the forest and count them.”
Hart and his students have been recording forest soundscapes for months at a time over many years and uploading the files to a computer. Now they are developing ways to teach a computer, using AI, how to detect every bird’s song.
Hart and his research team have been recording at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge on Hawaiʻi Island continuously for almost 10 years. Recording at that and other sites have been a collaborative effort, including the help of local landowners, supported through federal grants. The new AI recording analysis is already being implemented across the state with partners such as Haleakalā National Park.
“It’s kind of an automated way to monitor our forest birds to improve the way we can manage them as they continue to decline around the state,” says Hart.
While launching the new AI system of processing birdsong, the plan is to also process the large database already collected over the past decade.
Hart’s team will soon be expanding their research efforts out across the Pacific and will be working in Pohnpei, Palau, and Guam.
Story by Susan Enright, a public information specialist for the Office of the Chancellor and editor of UH Hilo Stories. She received her bachelor of arts in English and certificate in women’s studies from UH Hilo.
