We have developed the interdisciplinary Birds Online project birdsonline.cz that presents a new approach for Citizen Science. This comprehensive project has been dealing successfully with most of current problems of Citizen Science. In particular, it emphasizes education, popularization, and scientific effects to the general public.
The cornerstone of the project is the Smart Nest Box (SNBox), a bird box equipped with a computer, one or two cameras, an optical sensor that senses activity, temperature and light sensors, and a microphone. SNBox has been developed through interdisciplinary collaboration between biologists and technicians for monitoring the daytime and nocturnal activities of animals, and it is characterized by some specific technical features (see Zárybnická et al. 2016).
Anyone can watch the activity in the nests through direct transmission or videos. Video streams are stored in a computer located in the box, from which they are transmitted by the user’s local Internet network to the central server birdsonline.cz Currently, we are looking for collaborators worldwide who would like to cooperate on the project.
