NestCams

Since 2018, automatic camera systems have been mounted in the nesting places of greylag geese and nothern bald ibises in the Cumberland Game Park in Grünau im Almtal in Austria. The behaviour of the birds on the nest needs to be classified for scientific purposes. Therefore, we need your help! The NestCams project runs on the Zooniverse platform and you can participate directly there:

Open project

 Citizen Science Award 2019

NestCams is part of the Citizen Science Award 2019 in Austria! Join in and have fun observing the behaviours of greylag geese and northern bald ibises on their nests.
If you are going to compete for the Citizen Science Award, please send us an email with your

• Zooniverse user name,
• email address and
• contact information

to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. This information will exclusively be used for Award purposes.

When: 1st April to 5th July 2019

Where: online on BirdScience.net or the platform Zooniverse

Who can participate: children, school classes, adolescents, adults, everybody who is interested

How can you participate?
During the research period citizen scientists can watch and code short video sequences of breeding greylag geese and northern bald ibises, i.e. determine what the birds are doing on the nest.

Just register on the platform Zooniverse and go to the project "NestCams" via this LINK!

Research goal:
The aim is to investigate the breeding behaviour of two bird species that use two different strategies.

Greylag geese: precocial, long-term monogamous, the nest is exclusively cared for by the female
Northern bald ibis: altricial, seasonally monogamous, the nest is cared for by both partners

The observation of breeding behaviour should reveal why there are successful and unsuccessful pairs within a flock or colony.

What happens to the contributions of the citizen scientists?
The contributions of the citizen scientists, the coded video sequences, represent the data set from which the results are statistically evaluated in order to relate the observed behavioural patterns to the reproductive success of the individuals. The results will be presented as papers at conferences and in journals.

How are the winners determined?
For organisational reasons, prizes will only be awarded to participants from Austria.
The winners will be determined by the quantity of coded videos. The more the better! The correctness of the observation is automatically checked by the system. The data of the winners will be sent to the Centre for Citizen Science for the award ceremony.

Prices:

1st price | 1000 EUR for the best school class

2nd price | 750 EUR for the second best school class

3rd price | Material price for the best single person

Photo credits: KLF archive & Verena Pühringer-Sturmayr