Bird Spotter

Trekking up a mountain on our last vacation, we came across a bird watcher who had been vainly searching for a local bird species for days. Shortly after we left him, we came across one of the birds by chance, flitting from tree to tree, and calling its distinctive call. (I have to thank our guide for pointing the bird out - I never would have seen it on my own.)

Now, gunshot triangulation devices are a must for every urban police force or counter-insurgency team, automatically identifying and pinpointing gunshots, so security forces can quickly surround the culprit. (See link.)

So, my proposal is to take this system, and adapt it for bird watchers. Ten or twenty microphones, linked by radio and using GPS to track their own locations, are spread out in a large grid by the bird spotter, documentarian, or poacher. Oh, wait a minute, maybe we won't sell the things to poachers.

Anyway, the central computer unit will listen for the distinctive whistles of birds, and triangulate the positions of bird calls on a map, including height off the ground. If the calls in question are distinctive enough, it will even identify the bird(s).

While it will still require human intervention to actually spot the birds, of course, this will pin down their location to a three dimensional box small enough for even the squiffiest-eyed spotter to find them. Until the bird flies off, of course.

The microphones are fluorescent orange and have a flashing light and beeper that can be triggered remotely, to aid in finding them again, once the birding session is done.