Last April I posted about AI bird recognition and the bird recorders we now have in the wood (here). By year-end they have captured roughly 600 hours of bird song, and AI analysis of these recordings has made 32,431 individual detections with a confidence level of 90% (we have enough data to concentrate just on the most promising). Below is the summary of those figures.

AI identification is by no means foolproof, although if the number of detections for a species is high, we could probably accept that as sole confirmation the species is present. For lower numbers, the need for supporting evidence gets greater. In practice, all species confirmed as present below have been verified by human observation of one form or another.

Of course, just because we can’t confirm the odd detection doesn’t mean it’s impossible. For one thing, the recorders do record during the night, and it’s possible that migrating birds, especially waders, could be picked up as they fly overhead.

Some of the discounted species above are mis-identifications of more common birds or other sounds:

I posed the question to my search engine’s AI: “What is the expected number of bird species in a small UK Midlands wood”. The answer it gave was 20-30, which, if correct, suggests that Oakley Wood is doing well.

What for 2026?

The main purpose of the recorders was to get a better idea of what species are present in the wood, and perhaps where. The first of these is pretty much been done (the table above). The recorders were moved around the wood to different locations during the year, so the data (yet to be analysed!) should also provide some idea of distribution.

I came across this article by the Woodland Trust about how a woodland had been monitored for increases in bird numbers as woodland management measures took effect. Many of the measures are similar to or the same as those being followed in Oakley Wood, and so it seems useful to now place the recorders in two permanent locations so data can be compared year-on-year (being optimistic that they will last that long!). Hopefully we should see similar increases as the improvements take effect.

Chris