'Bird facial recognition' aids avian conservation

This undated monitoring image shows the AI-powered "bird facial recognition" system recognizing black-headed gulls and other birds in Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan province. [Photo/Xinhua]

KUNMING — Every winter, tens of thousands of black-headed gulls complete their long journey from as far away as Siberia to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, where it is renowned as the "Spring City".

This year, these regular visitors will be greeted not only by enthusiastic Kunming residents, but also high-definition cameras and drones stationed at the city's Dianchi Lake, ready to monitor them using AI-powered "bird facial recognition" technology.

The enduring bond between the people and the gulls is a distinctive ecological and cultural feature of Kunming. Now, this relationship is being redefined by technology, as research teams collaborate with institutes and tech firms to integrate artificial intelligence deeply into bird protection — creating an intelligent observation system centered on this novel identification method.

Since October 2022, the Kunming Dianchi Plateau Lake Research Institute has used an intelligent observation program for gulls at a monitoring station near Haigeng Dam.

After two years of continuous tracking, this system revealed that the main flock's arrival in Kunming in 2024 was about 10 days later compared to 2022 and 2023. The system will continue monitoring arrival times and population numbers this year, accumulating crucial data for migratory bird research, according to the institute.