A new project from the UK Agri-Tech Centre and Chirrup.ai is said to use birdsong as a way of unlocking the secrets of biodiversity management.
The technology will reportedly make nature monitoring simpler and cheaper.
ChirrupNano has received funding from Innovate UK and uses birdsong to monitor wildlife previously unseen in nature reserves, on farms and in back garden bird counts.
The bio-recorder is self-locating and remotely deployed and is designed and built in the UK. The artificial intelligence is preloaded to recognise more than 100 species from across the UK and Ireland.
Using the website app, farmers can compare the species found on their farm with standard benchmarks, other businesses and historical data from their land.
Hayley Gerry, project manager at the UK Agri-Tech Centre, said: “The expanse of knowledge we can gain about biodiversity in an area using the bioacoustics of bird song is extremely impressive.
“To enable sustainable farming, we need to encourage multi-species habitats to enrich the areas, which in turn makes the farming of livestock and arable products sustainable.
“In order to do this we need to be able to measure the baseline of the current situation, and that is where this project comes in.”
Dr Stella Peace, executive director for Healthy Living and Agriculture at Innovate UK, said: “These innovations are crucial for safeguarding our natural environment.
“By investing in these pioneering projects, we’re helping businesses unlock innovations that make life better, ensuring that the UK leads the way in developing sustainable solutions that benefit both our economy and our communities.”
The project will be tested throughout the spring, with expert ornithologists and ecologists analysing and validating the data collected.