[brabel]

I don't know... you might as well ask people who live near trees which ones are preferred by birds?? I know I have lots of trees around my house and I can clearly see which ones tend to attract birds, and which kinds of birds. And I am no expert... with a little training, people like me might be able to contribute floods of data.

But of course, that's not as cool as using lasers to scan trees and AI to analyse the data. And I admit that in the case of the Australian bush, there may not be enough people living in the affected areas to collect enough information, so perhaps this is in fact the way to go.

[alexholland]

Citizen science approaches are a great way to collect data but the data can also be 'lumpy' (ie. focused on charismatic species, or easy-to-measure things). But the main idea of this approach was to produce quantitative descriptions of trees that could then be fed into a design system. This system can then output many different designs using those as constraints but also other constraints (ie. being lightweight, fitting around existing objects, etc).

This is just an initial test - the next step is to deploying prototypes in the field and observing bird responses (ie through some citizen science initiative). The idea is that a bird can 'read' a design (by using one structure over another), and that data can be fed into the system to then produce an updated generation of structures. Lots of work before we get to that stage!

[KineticLensman]

Really interesting study!

I'm curious as to whether the study is considering whether birds will use an otherwise undesirable tree (or a part of it) if there is some other factor (e.g. adjacent food) that also drives their behaviour. For example, I know from observing my own (UK) garden birds that many of them will perch in trees near to my feeders for an initial recce or to eat collected food, but that they don't otherwise use these trees for perching.

[natsucks]

Really neat work. I have a friend who designs green spaces in urban environments and it makes me wonder what he could do with these kinds of tools/approaches.

[bastawhiz]

> you might as well ask people who live near trees which ones are preferred by birds

I live in the woods and I have zero idea which trees the birds prefer. They go in most of them, I think. Sadly being near the birds and the trees for years has not made me a bird and tree expert.