The relaxed birder

(Press-News.org) Kyoto, Japan -- Citizen science has allowed regular citizens to participate in data collection as well as expanded biodiversity monitoring. Yet many datasets are still limited to the coverage of certain regions and habitats in particular seasons. In bird research, for example, traditional point‑count surveys often have strict rules regarding the location, timing, and spacing between observation points, making it challenging for citizen volunteers to participate casually.

This inspired Masumi Hisano, formerly of Kyoto University and now at Hiroshima University, to try a more flexible approach by conducting counts whenever and wherever possible, as part of his daily routines. As someone who hates waking up early, Hisano tried to bend the traditional time rules to suit his desired schedule.

"I thought it was a wasted opportunity to not record birds I encounter in daily life, like in the supermarket parking lot or at the train station," says Hisano.

"After applying this approach for two years, I began to wonder whether it could be academically validated, or at least shared with the wider research community to invite further discussion," he continues.

Hisano developed a flexible, scalable framework for collecting robust, geographically extensive datasets while relaxing time, distance, and spatial constraints, so that surveying can happen anytime and anywhere. The framework accounts for potential biases from spatial and temporal autocorrelation, differences in observer skill, and varying environmental conditions by incorporating random effects and relevant covariates into the analysis, highlighting the need for statistical adjustments.

With this approach, counts can take place in many settings, including cities, along travel routes, or during daily routines, at different times of day and in different seasons, even outside a species' breeding period. The distance between points can vary, and the same location can be surveyed on multiple days.

"With this relaxed approach, I can survey birds truly anywhere, anytime, without being restricted by rigid research rules: it’s fun, relaxed, and something I can enjoy as a hobby," says Hisano.

By conducing point counts whenever and wherever he travels, regardless of whether the trip is personal or academic, Hisano has already collected data at more than 1,300 survey points across Japan. Not only is it enjoyable, but it also allows him to easily increase sample size, which is often challenging in field ecology.

"I want to encourage ecologists and citizen scientists to expand the spatial and temporal coverage of bird monitoring data," says Hisano. "It is a pity that so many birders around the world are missing out on opportunities to record birds in ways that could help build species assemblage datasets linked to landscape characteristics."

Next, Hisano plans to analyze the data he has collected in terms of landscape and community ecology, and to empirically test how far the relaxed approach deviates from data collected under standard protocols while statistically accounting for the "noise" that may have resulted from relaxing the traditional survey rules.

###

The paper "Facilitating large-scale bird biodiversity data collection in citizen science: 'relaxed' point counts for anytime, anywhere monitoring" appeared on 25 September 2025 in Ecology and Evolution, with doi: 10.1002/ece3.72176

About Kyoto University

Kyoto University is one of Japan and Asia's premier research institutions, founded in 1897 and responsible for producing numerous Nobel laureates and winners of other prestigious international prizes. A broad curriculum across the arts and sciences at undergraduate and graduate levels complements several research centers, facilities, and offices around Japan and the world. For more information, please see: http://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en

END