An expert in digital publications will speak about how birders can use technology to monitor the natural world.

Brian Sullivan will have a Zoom presentation for the Whidbey Audubon Society on Thursday, Feb. 8. The program is free and open to the public. Please register on the Whidbey Audubon Society website, www.whidbeyaudubonsociety.org. There is a short meeting and socializing at 7 p.m. and the program begins at 7:30 p.m.

“It’s easy to feel hopeless these days. Our planet is on the edge, nearer than ever to the point of no return. Bird populations are crashing, as ecosystems around the world suffer from climate change, habitat loss and myriad forms of anthropogenic deterioration,” said Sullivan, who will be describing ecosystem tools anyone can use to monitor bird populations and behavior.

Sullivan is the digital publications lead for Information Science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. His team creates these apps to engage a global community of birders to generate the best most actionable science from the data and get these data into the hands of decision-makers around the world — all in a collective effort to “bend the curve” for birds, biodiversity and humanity.

“Learn how you are making a difference in this battle,” he urged, “or how you could. Together, we can measure the heartbeat of our planet through birds.”