Accurately identifying species

By: Simone Burzacott-Gorman

Working on the ‘Monkey Bridge’, Observation Deck 7, Dr Ben Arthur (MNF) and Dr Eric Woehler (Uni Tas) discuss a small flock of shearwaters, captured within the 300m recording zone on one side of the vessel. Researchers compare high quality digital imagery of the birds with bird books, looking for specific markings consistent with the photographs that can accurately identify the species. They critically compare the underwing bar of the birds with footage, as well as their flight behaviour to determine which is most consistent with texts when visual observations are ambiguous to the naked eye.