Ateneo Wild, Ateneo Institute of Sustainability, and Areté Launch Dawn Chorus in Celebration of Global Big Day
“Kiii-yaw! Tikling! Tikling! Kek kek kek!” The magic of birdsong is all around Ateneo! Through Dawn Chorus, The Ateneo Wild, Ateneo Institute of Sustainability, and Areté Sandbox Residencies prove that the campus is alive with the sound of music.
The Ateneo Wild, Ateneo Institute of Sustainability, and Areté Sandbox Residencies launched the Dawn Chorus, a free visual and auditory guide for urban birdsong, in time for the Global Big Day last May 8. Illustrated by Tracy Monsod and Ponci Soliongco, both faculty members of the Ateneo Fine Arts Department, this flashcard project features 27 resident, endemic, and migratory birds in the Ateneo campus. Some of the bird sounds featured in Dawn Chorus are those of the batu-bato (zebra dove), kuwago (Philippine scops owl) and tarat (brown shrike).
Dawn Chorus features the local name, common name, size, vocalization, scientific name, and sound QR code of various urban birds. The flashcards are available in digital and printable formats and are designed to appeal to younger nature enthusiasts who are learning from home. Through scanning of the QR code found on each flashcard, citizen scientists get to discover the sound that a specific bird makes. Plus, they are encouraged to vocalize its birdsong using the phonetic cues on the cards.
Abby Favis and Trinket Constantino, both faculty members of the School of Science and Engineering and co-founders of The Ateneo Wild, say that listening to wildlife is a way to assess how healthy an ecosystem is and how rich the biodiversity is. “Bird calls can help in identification of birds around us, just as much as seeing the bird can,” Constantino says. “What we can hear tells us so much about our surroundings. Sometimes, we take the campus for granted. But we’re very privileged to have a sprawling campus and only a small portion of it is built up. Most of it is green spaces. There are a lot of nooks and crannies we haven’t explored,” Favis adds.
To encourage people to explore our green spaces, Katipunan Wild (a group co-moderated by The Ateneo Wild) joined in on the celebration of Global Big Day, the annual international celebration of birds organized by eBird. Katipunan Wild encouraged the Katipunan community to take part in the celebration by using the Dawn Chorus flashcards. Enthusiasts used the Dawn Chorus flashcards to identify urban birds in the area, submit them to the Katipunan Wild Facebook Community, and contribute their bird sightings to the eBird database. Participants also got a chance to win bird stickers drawn by Monsod and Soliongco.
“The peak of birdsong is 30 minutes before sunrise,” says Nina Castro, Program Officer for Campus Sustainability. “Even if we are not on campus, we can still listen and acquaint ourselves with birdsongs in our own backyards and gardens.” Through Dawn Chorus, The Ateneo Wild, Ateneo Institute of Sustainability, and Areté Sandbox Residencies hope to further pique the interest of citizen scientists and cultivate people’s relationship with the urban environment.
The Dawn Chorus flashcards are available for free in digital and print-ready versions. To learn more about the flashcards as well as The Ateneo Wild’s other projects (including Nature Walk Bird Guide, the Hearing Aid project, City Wild Urban Biodiversity from A to Z and the Ateneo Wild Coloring Book Series), visit their official Facebook page.
Photos courtesy of The Ateneo Wild
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