voices.

>> Hundreds of millions of birds migrate over Chicago every spring and fall.

But most of that activity happens at night, making it nearly impossible for researchers to eyeball which bird species are passing through and how they're using the city's airspace.

So scientists from the University of Illinois are partnering with Chicago's Windy City Bird lab to track and identify the birds by their sounds.

Instead.

Our Patty wet Lee joins us now to tell us more.

Patty.

So these researchers they put around 45 to 50 acoustic monitors across the city, even in the burbs.

You tell us about their broad on the 111 for Tower Are tell us about that project?

And one of the questions are trying to answer, right?

So like you mentioned, they can't see the birds because most of them are nocturnal migrating at night.

They can hear them and they've used machine learning to be able to identify those sounds down to the species.

So what they want to know are what species are passing through Chicago, not necessarily landing here, but they're using our air space and they have discovered some rarities that we don't really see around here.

>> But there are actually flying over and then it's really like where are they are?

Are they using certain corridors more than others?

But really the acoustic monitoring helps them get that species level detail that they're not able to with other technology.

That's impressive because they've also been using other methods like thermal imagery to study these birds.

that works.

Yeah.

They're also able to use radar, which gives you kind of a larger landscape view like when birds are moving.

Thermal imagery will give them a picture of like the altitude that they're flying at in the direction that they're doing in more of their behavior.

So they can tell our birds like flying in unusual patterns that might indicate that they're disoriented.

Maybe they're circling, you know, our bright lights in the city are is when driving them toward the Laker or toward more toward inland, they can put all of this information together into a more complete picture, like you said of using the airspace.

If you think of the air space as a habitat, just as much as the ground is.

So how are they using that habitat and then how do they want to use all the that they're gathering?

Will you could be able to tell are there changes over time of when they're arriving?

Are they flying low or are they flying higher if they're using certain corridors?

that's where we were planning on putting an airport, maybe not they're suddenly over here where we happened a habitat restoration shows that it's working.

It just gives them, you know, migration it.

There's still so much mystery surrounding it and it will help them answer so many of the questions that we have and also how to make the city safer for these birds as they're flying through because as we now, Chicago is quite dangerous for migrating birds.

It an architectural exhibit.

Those set to open on June first that will highlight the dangers birds face in urban in urban Chicago.

Tell us about the will be at the Chicago Architecture Center, which is on the ground floor, Illinois Center, which is where I went up to the roof where they were installing one of these monitors.

And Jeanne GANG's architecture practice studio gang is curating one of 2 exhibits and it's really out.

Here's the problem that our built environment has.

We have this buffet of solutions that we can use that maybe we're not using in here some the materials that you can use all the way from architects like Jeanne Yang, designing skyscrapers to you and I at home to make our windows safer for birds as they fly through.

Right.

I have the window clings on my windows all right now.

wet thank you so much.