Tech and nature can go hand in hand thanks to these clever gadgets

People might not think that tech and nature go together, but they really can go hand in hand. The latest tech allows you to enjoy your local wildlife and nature with ease, letting you capture moments you’d otherwise miss and identify exactly what you’re seeing without any required knowledge.

Exploring the natural world takes time and space, which are luxuries that many of us don’t have, especially if you live in a city. Thanks to a range of smart gadgets and apps, though, you can still get back to nature while only having the smallest spaces to do it in. What’s more, you can help conservationists to monitor the wildlife in your area with just a few clicks.

Chantelle Lindsay is a London-based wildlife conservationist who presents her own channel on Instagram and TikTok about conservation. She showed us some of the ways that you can enjoy the nature around you, while also playing your part in helping conserve it.

Feed the birds

Smart tech bird feeders are ideal for the garden or a smaller space. Even if you just have a balcony or a window, they allow you to see the birds up close without disturbing them.

Devices like the Birdfy Feeder include a built-in webcam to record any birds arriving at the feeder. The AI detection alerts your phone and even identifies the type of bird that’s there. You can then either watch the feed live or playback the recorded clips in your own time, ensuring you never miss a sighting.

Motion detection

If you want to watch larger animals in your garden, wildlife trail cameras can help you to spot even the shyest of creatures. These smart camera traps are weatherproof boxes designed to be left out in the elements and are triggered by motion, allowing them to record video or images of anything that passes them.

Wildlife professionals use these in forests and undergrowth but you can place them anywhere in your own backyard. Most units feature night vision to allow them to record nocturnal creatures too, so you could spot hedgehogs and badgers, or even an owl. You can either collect the SD card the next morning or connect via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to your phone to play the clips back and discover what it’s seen.

App’s magic

Like a Shazam for bird song, the Merlin Bird ID app can identify the birds in your garden (or anywhere) from their calls or songs. Created by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in the US, it calls on its huge database of audio to pinpoint 1,382 species of birds across the United States, Canada, Europe and other regions.

Just using your phone’s microphone, it will bring up the name and image of the bird and allw you to find out more information about them. The app also features a Bird ID wizard for visual identification and a photo ID tool to identify birds based on your own pictures.

Contribute to science

The iNaturalist app brings together a community of naturalists to capture, share and discuss your findings, while also helping to provide scientific data to important repositories. The app allows you to simply take a picture of your local wildlife or nature and get a description of the item, whether it’s a plant, insect, mammal or reptile.

You can become a citizen scientist, joining one of the community projects or creating one of your own. Alternatively, simply use it to document what you see in your local area. It’s free to join, and you can really make a difference by adding to the database.

Naturally great data

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