1. IxD Studio Project : Data Visualization
Urban Birds
Lisa Woods, CCA MFA Design, February 2012

2. Oo-wah-hooo, hoo-hoo...
Urban birds are not the first animals we imagine when we think of “nature”
despite the fact that we hear them and interact with them on a daily ba-
sis. Perhaps this is because they are city dwellers like us, and like all good
urbanites, we both have learned to go about our business while ignoring
each other.
But urban birds can’t fully ignore us. In fact, some need to change to live
among us. But I did not know that when I began this data visualization as-
signment. I just stumbled across a recording of a mourning dove (Zenaida
macroura) online and was mesmerized by it.
You can listen to it here:
http://www.birdjam.com/birdsong.php?id=7.

3. First thoughts
An early idea was to integrate the mourning dove audio into a mathematical
flocking animation like this one from Daniel Shiffman (http://processing.org/
learning/topics/flocking.html), and add a motion sensor that activated the
animation whenever someone walked by.
An interesting tidbit about mourning doves—they are not endangered. In
fact they are so numerous that up to 10% of the population is allowed
be legally hunted. I considered basing my animation on some sort of
population data, but the class’s feedback was that a steady population is
not a compelling story. Also, since doves don’t migrate, they are not truly
flocking birds.
I knew I wanted to do something with sound, but I was not sure what. So I
started really looking at all kinds of sound data about birds and looking at
visual representations of sound.

5. Bird-skyscraper collisions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird-skyscraper_collisions
Bird-skyscraper collisions
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bird-skyscraper collisions is a problem in urban areas. Several major cities like Toronto in Canada and
New York City in the United States have programs to abate this, such as Toronto's Fatal Light Awareness
Program (FLAP) and New York City's Lights Out New York, a program of New York City Audubon an
environmental organization. According to FLAP, between one and nine million birds die each year in the 1,000M
city from hitting skyscrapers due to mistaking reflective windows for open sky, or being drawn to lights
at night.[1]
900M
References
What Kills Birds? http://www.currykerlinger.com/birds.htm
1. ^ [1] (http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2006-07-06/news_onthestreet.php)
Consultants to the Wind Power Industry
800M
External links on birds and other wildlife issues.
Fatal Light Awareness Program (http://www.flap.org/) 700M
What Out New York (http://www.nycaudubon.org/projects/safeflight
Lights Kills Birds?
/lightsout_pressrelease.shtml)
Birds & Buildings Forum - Chicago (http://www.birdsandbuildings.org)
Human Causes of Bird Fatalities
600M
Curry & Kerlinger has compiled the following
information from environmental organizations
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bird-skyscraper_collisions&
and goverment agencies. 500M
oldid=378875470"
Categories: wind turbine fatalities in perspecitve.
Bird mortality Skyscrapers Ornithology stubs Bird stubs Health stubs
This list is meant to inform the public and to
put
400M
This pageWindows
Glass was last modified on 14 August 2010 at 13:51.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms
Bird Deaths a year: 100 to 900+ million
may apply. See Terms of use for details. 300M
Wikipedia®Klem registered trademark has the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit
Dr. Daniel is a of Muhlenberg College of done studies over a period
of 20 years, looking at bird collisions with windows. His conclusion:
organization. birds than any other human related factor.
Bird of Conservation Concern
glass kills more
House Cats 200M
Survey Used for Analysis
Breeding habitat obligate
Bird Deaths a year: 100 Million
100M
Coastal Wintering
The National Audubuon Society says 100 million birds a year fall prey
Urban/suburban
to cats. Dr. Stan Temple of the University of Wisconsin estimates that
in Wisconsin alone, about 7 million birds a year are killed by cats
Automobiles / Trucks
Wetland
Bird Deaths a year: 50 to 100 Million 0
Common Name estimate the number of birds killed by cars and trucks on the
Scientists Scientific Name Habitat Hunting Towers Power lines Vehicles Urban light Glass Cats
nation's highways Dendrocygna autumnalis
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck to be 50 to 100 million a year. Those statistics were
M Yes Yes BBS
cited in reports published by the National Institute for Urban Wildlife
Fulvous Whistling-Duck
and U.S. Fish and Dendrocygna bicolor
Wildlife Service. M Yes Yes BBS
Greater White-fronted Goose Anser albifrons A Yes Yes CBC
Electric Transmission Line Collisions
Emperor Goose Chen canagica A Yes Yes Yes Yes NO DATA
1 of 1 2/7/12 4:21 AM
Snow Goose Bird Deaths a year: up to 174 million
Chen caerulescens A Yes Yes CBC
Ross's Goose Estimates made by therossii Fish and Wildife Service demonstrate
Chen U.S. A Yes Yes CBC
millions of birds die each year as a result of colliding with transmission
Brant Branta bernicla A Yes Yes Yes CBC
lines.
Cackling Goose Branta hutchinsii F-B Yes Yes NO DATA
Canada Goose Agriculture Branta canadensis GEN Yes Yes NO DATA
Bird Deaths a year: 67 million
"Canada" Goose (lumped) GEN Yes CBC
Mute Swan Cygnus olor
Pesticides likely poison an estimated 67 million birds per year Yes CBC
Trumpeter Swanaccording to the Smithsonian Institution. Cutting hay may kill up to a
Cygnus buccinator F-B Yes Yes CBC
million more birds a year.
Tundra Swan Cygnus columbianus A Yes Yes CBC
Wood Duck Land Development
Aix sponsa F-E Yes BBS
Gadwall Anas strepera GEN Yes FWS
American Wigeon Anas americana GEN Yes FWS
1 of 3American Black Duck Anas rubripes F-B Yes Yes 2/7/12 4:03 AM
CBC
Mallard Anas platyrhynchos GEN Yes Yes FWS
Mottled Duck Anas fulvigula C,M Yes Yes BBS
Blue-winged Teal Anas discors G Yes Yes FWS
Cinnamon Teal Anas cyanoptera M,G Yes BBS
Northern Shoveler Anas clypeata G Yes Yes FWS
Northern Pintail Anas acuta G,A Yes FWS
Green-winged Teal Anas crecca GEN Yes FWS
Canvasback Aythya valisineria M Yes Yes FWS
Back for more data
Redhead Aythya americana M Yes Yes FWS
Ring-necked Duck Aythya collaris F-B Yes Yes BBS
Greater Scaup Aythya marila A, F-B Yes CBC
Lesser Scaup Aythya affinis F-B Yes Yes FWS
Steller's Eider Polysticta stelleri A Yes Yes Yes Yes NO DATA
Spectacled Eider Somateria fischeri A Yes Yes Yes Yes NO DATA
King Eider
Common Eider
Somateria spectabilis
Somateria mollissima
A
A, C
I found interesting data about what kills urban birds, what diseases they
Yes Yes Yes
Yes
CBC
CBC
Harlequin Duck
Surf Scoter
Histrionicus histrionicus
Melanitta perspicillata
F-W,F-B
F-B
carry that infect humans, and general stats on population sizes. But still
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
CBC
CBC
White-winged Scoter
Black Scoter
Melanitta fusca
Melanitta nigra
F-B
F-B,A
wanted to focus on bird calls. Finally I found some data on the difference
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
CBC
CBC
Long-tailed Duck Clangula hyemalis A
between urban and rural birdcalls. This was the story I was looking for.
Yes Yes CBC

6. Visual design explorations

7. 1st sketch
I then found an audio-visualization processing
sketch that I altered to toggle with a key press be-
tween two different bird calls and the sound of
urban traffic.
While this visualization was beautiful and really
allows the viewer to focus on the sounds in the
sketch, this code lacked the ‘handles and knobs’ I
needed to tell the story of how birds change their
calls to be heard in the noisier urban environment.
On the Processing reference site there is some
much more bare-bones code that turns audio in-
put into a line-based audiogram. I used this code
to create the next iteration.

8. Final visualization
The final visualization is a screen-based Processing sketch, not the large-
scale projected piece I initially imagined. What I like about this iteration
however, is that it tells the story about an interesting bit of data about
urban birds—they sing at higher frequencies in order to be heard over the
low-frequency drone of urban traffic sounds.
This version is perhaps less emotionally engaging than the previous Pro-
cessing sketch, but here the participant is easily able to visually and audibly
compare the urban and rural birdsong of five different songbirds as well as
turn off and on sample background traffic noise.