WingMap -- Bird Monitoring and Research

Chris Wong
Oct 25
2 min read

Updated: Oct 30

We’re thrilled to introduce WingMap, our new environmental research project developed by Jaden, Julian, Arsh, and Ayaansh (plus Zachary, our visiting maker).

WingMap is a bird‑monitoring system built on the open‑source BirdNET‑Pi platform. Using a Raspberry Pi 4B+ and a high‑sensitivity microphone, it automatically listens for, detects, and identifies bird calls. The results are then uploaded to BirdWeather, a global map showing bird species and their activity in real time.

Through this project, we hope to explore how birds migrate across Hong Kong, where they settle, and which species are found in different habitats — giving us a clearer view of our city’s rich biodiversity.

Why It Matters

Wildlife Observation: Helps monitor and understand local bird populations.
Conservation Research: Supports scientists and nature groups studying migration patterns.
STEM Learning: Encourages hands‑on environmental sensing and data collection.
Community Awareness: Promotes care and curiosity about urban wildlife.

Timeline

We plan to complete the experiments and testing by the end of December, ensuring the system performs well in real‑world environments before publishing results and sharing live data on BirdWeather.

Hardware 

Raspberry Pi 4B+ as the main controller.
External microphone for capturing natural sounds.
Custom‑built parabolic microphone design to collect bird calls more clearly.

Week1 - 2

3D Design & Print, Field Testing

We’ve conducted a series of indoor and outdoor experiments to fine‑tune detection accuracy and minimize background noise for more reliable bird‑call identification. The parabolic microphone design has greatly improved sound capture and sensitivity, but the city environment is still far too noisy for consistent results. Our next step is to find a quieter, nature‑rich location — such as the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens — where we can continue our research and collect clearer, high‑quality bird data.