Citizen-collected media helps identify elusive seabird, widening its known range
A growing trove of photos, videos and sound recordings uploaded by the public is reshaping wildlife research, turning casual observations into data that can answer questions once out of reach. A new study led by UNSW Sydney and published in the journal Diversity and Distributions demonstrates how these citizen-science archives can become practical conservation tools—pinpointing and tracking species that have long eluded study.
The team tested the approach on the Kermadec Storm Petrel, a rare seabird subspecies with an estimated population of just 100 to 300 pairs. Researchers analyzed more than 1,000 individual birds using publicly available photographs from platforms including the Macaulay Library via eBird, alongside museum specimens and published records.
“If you can’t identify something, you can’t know where it exists and where it doesn’t,” said lead author Simon Gorta, a Ph.D. candidate at UNSW Sydney. From the images, scientists manually scored subtle physical traits—such as rump color and tail shape—then used statistical modeling to determine which features reliably distinguish the subspecies.
Once the records were classified, the team mapped them and found the birds travel far beyond their known breeding site, with confirmed records across the Tasman and Coral seas, including sightings off Australia’s east coast. “As we now know they’re crossing the Tasman and Coral seas, we can start to work out what threats they might be facing away from their breeding grounds,” said co-author Peter Allen, a Ph.D.
candidate at Monash University. According to the researchers, the same method can be applied to other animals and plants wherever measurable traits can be extracted from existing media. As global citizen science databases continue to grow, so does their potential to fill critical gaps in conservation knowledge and inform efforts to protect hard-to-study species.