282 Million Songs and Calls

2023 was a big year in Haikubox birding!  We added many new Haikuboxes to the bird identification network, resulting in over 282 million bird songs and calls detected, identified, and recorded.  During spring and summer when birds are most active, each Haikubox can collect over 3,000 identifications per day.

An analysis of combined data across North America showed that five species dominate the soundscape: House Sparrow, House Finch, Northern Cardinal, Blue Jay and Carolina Wren.  Together they made up one-third all vocalizing birds identified by North American Haikuboxes. House Sparrows continue to be the most vocal, with over 24 million recordings, with the House Finch close behind with over 21 million recordings.

The 15 next most common species made up a further 35 percent of all birds: Tufted Titmouse, Black-capped Chickadee, American Goldfinch, American Crow, American Robin, Anna's Hummingbird, California Towhee, House Wren, Carolina Chickadee, Common Grackle, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Gray Catbird, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Downy Woodpecker, and Song Sparrow. The remaining birds, over 500 species, made up the final 32 percent of all identifications.

 A difference in top species between eastern and western North America is not surprising, and the difference in overall abundance is likely due to the number of Haikuboxes in each area. Most frequently identified eastern birds were the House Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Blue Jay, Carolina Wren and Tufted Titmouse.  Most likely western bird visitors were the House Sparrow, House Finch, Anna's Hummingbird, California Towhee, and Chestnut-backed Chickadee.

Haikuboxes in Europe are just coming online, but results there show that the House Sparrow is also a frequent visitor: over one million were identified by European Haikuboxes in 2023.  Other frequent vocalizers were the Eurasian Blackbird, Common Redpoll, Redwing and Eurasian Blue Tit. These five species made up over 47 percent of all European bird identifications. We expect these numbers to change with the addition of new Haikuboxes and continuing data collection through the coming spring and summer.

The Haikubox team already is at work analyzing this huge dataset for insights and has plans to submit findings to scientific journals for future publication.