SPI-Birds Network & Database
Welcome to the website of the Studies of Populations of Individuals Birds Network & Database. We are a network of researchers working on populations of breeding, individually marked birds. On this website, you can learn more about our work, search for populations of birds across the world, and request data for these populations.
To request data please send the list of wanted populations and a short description of the reasons for data request to spibirds@nioo.knaw.nl or a.culina@nioo.knaw.nl
Who are we?
SPI-Birds is a network of researchers who collect data on breeding, individually marked birds. SPI-Birds Network offers expert advice on:
- how to start with a monitoring of a new population (e.g. we can advise on the best approach to field set-up and data management). Please use our webform to get in touch.
- joining existing projects within the Network, or starting new projects based on the data hosted in the Database. We esepcially encourage students and young researchers to get in touch.
SPI-Birds Database, where those within and outside the Network can request the data:
- registers populations of breeding, individually marked birds
- hosts breeding data from over 80 breeding populations of individually marked birds, in the original data format (i.e. as stored by each researcher/research group) and in the standard data format (see here)
- acts as a central contact point for accessing the data
- conducts quality checks on the data to correct for any mistakes in the datasets, and to warn the users about potential issues when using the data.
Why do we do this?
- Archive data (prevent data loss)
- Make it much easier for users to identify populations that might be of interest for their project
- Reduce the time involved in formatting data
- Provide a community standard of data formatting and vocabulary that can be followed by anybody establishing a new study population
- Increase the data quality
Become a member or use the data
The network and database membership is open to anybody who collects data on individually marked birds, including researchers or members of the general public. Please use our webform to get in touch, or email our coordinator Dr. Antica Culina
Anyone can use the database to search for populations of interest, and to request the access to the data. Please go to the 'Find a population' tab.
Documentation
SPI-Birds standard protocol, agreed within the community, can be found here. This document defines the standard data format. The SPI-Birds team creates tailored pipelines to convert any data format (as stored with the data owner) into a standard one.
The pipelines are available via an R package, and can be found here.
Funding
The project is funded by NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research) grant to Dr. Antica Culina, and Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics (NTNU, Trondheim), and NIOO-KNAW.
The structure of SPI-Birds includes two main components:
- The executive component consists of the Executive Board and four Teams (Coordinators, Developers, Technical Architecture, Outreach).
- The advisory component includes the Advisory Council and the SPI-Birds Members.
- You can select populations by using any combination of the filters below.
- To select multiple options hold down the 'Ctrl' key (For Apple: 'Command' key).
- Click on the name of a population on the map or in the list for more details.
- To request data, please send the list of wanted populations and a short description of the reasons for the data request to spibirds@nioo.knaw.nl or a.culina@nioo.knaw.nl
18/11/2020
Two exciting news!
First, the SPI-birds paper is out in Journal of Animal Ecology. It is Open Access and you can read it here.
Second, SPI-Birds has received Dutch Data Prize. A nice cover of both topics (the paper and the Prize) can be found in the press release here.
02.07.2020
Open Science prize for Antica Culina's SPI-Birds project. Read more here
02.07.2020
Job - we are looking for a postdoc to join SPI-Birds team for one year. More info here.
12.03.2020
Our first 2020 newsletter is now out. We brief on a steep income of new data, our logo, and version contol protocol.
18.12.2019
SPI-Birds team member Stefan Vriend visited the Animal Ecology group at Radboud University in Nijmegen and talked about the value of short-term and long-term breeding data of marked individuals, the increasing need to establish a well-defined community for data archiving, standardization and access, and the objectives and workflow of SPI-Birds Network and Database. Find a link here to the slides of his presentation (NB: part of the content is made by Liam Bailey).16.12.2019
The final Newsletter of 2019 is now out. In this newsletter we summarize what we have achieved in 2019, the year in which SPI-Birds have launched. We also look into our exciting plans for 2020, which include a new team member, Dr. Chloé Nater, SPI-Birds paper, and introduction of SPI-Birds Technical reports. And of course, the continuous increase in the number of populations with the pipelines for data standardization.
21.10.2019
In our third Newsletter we introduce: 1) new data and pipelines added to the database; 2) the pipeline code that transforms data into a standard format has now been published online 3) data quality checks preformed on the original data to detect any potential errors.
19.08.2019
Our second Newsletter updates on:1) several new populations for which the pipelines have been created; 2) the newest version of the standard protocol (i.e. a standard format in which any data are mapped onto using the pipelines); 3) construction of the quality check of the data, currently underway.
Version 1.0.0 of the standard protocol for bird breeding data is available here.
20.06.2019
We are excited to publish the first SPI-Birds Newsletter! With this first issue, we officially launch SPI-Birds, and introduce SPI-Birds team members.
Please use the form to:
1) get advice on setting up a new population with individually marked breeders.
2) enquire about student projects and interships.
3) ask any other questions, or give comments on SPI-Birds.
NB. Please send your data request or any questions to Antica Culina (a.culina@nioo.knaw.nl)
