Voices of the Night: Ecoacoustics and the future of the Powerful Owl

About the Event

The ARDC, in collaboration with BirdLife Australia and Open Ecoacoustics, invites researchers, citizen scientists and conservationists to a catered workshop at UQ, St Lucia on the Powerful Owl project. You’ll hear from leading observers on identification techniques and the nuances of locating these magnificent birds within Southeast Queensland’s forests. Participants will discover how citizen science efforts have improved our understanding of powerful owl distributions, how ecoacoustics is accelerating our understanding – and how you can help us!

Crucially, we’ll demonstrate how you can contribute to this national data effort by helping to train AI models to identify Powerful Owl calls – turning vast amounts of audio data into actionable conservation insights.

Join us to learn how high-quality data and collaborative digital tools are being used to mitigate threats to these Powerful Owls and advocate for their long-term protection.

Who Should Attend

This event is designed for anyone interested in wildlife conservation, citizen science, ecoacoustics or the application of machine-learning in environmental research. We also welcome government professionals working in the environment.

Speakers

• Andrew Dinwoodie, Powerful Owl Project Coordinator, BirdLife Australia
• Dr Christina Zdenek, Urban Birds Program Coordinator, BirdLife and Lecturer, UniSQ
• Dr Nick Hamilton, Honorary Senior Research Fellow, UQ and Powerful Owl Project Volunteer
• Lucy Parker Paul, Educator, Ironside State School and Powerful Owl Project Volunteer
• Callan Alexander, QUT PhD candidate and BirdLife Australia Threatened Species Technical Coordinator
• Dr Rob Clemens, Skills Development Lead, Planet Research Data Commons, ARDC
• Kevin Jensen, Citizen Scientist for the Powerful Owl Project

What Will I Learn?

Learn more about nocturnal birds, what they sound like and the insider tips on how to find Powerful Owls. Learn about what the BirdLife Powerful Owl project has achieved so far, and what are some of the emerging risks to our owl populations. Understand how acoustic recording sensors can be placed in nature and how you can help us from home by verifying if Powerful Owls were recorded by those sensors.

Format

This workshop will be held in person in Brisbane and will also be available to attend virtually.

Some of the presentations will be recorded, and made available to all registrants.

Pre-Workshop Challenge

To give you a taste of what you’ll learn at the workshop, we invite you to take the optional pre-workshop challenge!

Visit the Verification Website and login, click the verify button and listen to 3 second clips to determine if the AI has correctly identified these clips as a Powerful Owl (hint: the AI is still labelling calls as Powerful Owl, that clearly have no Powerful Owl calling). Can you identify 10 correct Powerful Owl clips before the workshop?

Resources

• Find out more about BirdLife Australia’s Powerful Owl project
• Learn Open Ecoacoustics and the Ecosounds platform
• Visit the Verification Website
• Find digital research resources in the ARDC Resource Hub

Learn More

Have questions? Contact us.

To keep up-to-date on the latest digital research news and events, subscribe to the ARDC Connect newsletter. Please note that this event may be recorded and published by the ARDC. This may include your contributions during the session. Attendees are expected to comply with the Code of Conduct for ARDC Activities during this event. ARDC respects the privacy of individuals. Information collected is in accordance with the ARDC Privacy Policy.