World Migratory Bird Day

ISPRA releases a documentary dedicated to bird monitoring

10 October 2026 marks World Migratory Bird Day. Birds are remarkable bioindicators: sensitive to changes in the landscape, their presence and population status provide valuable insights into environmental quality and the biodiversity richness of the ecosystems they inhabit and travel through.

To celebrate this day, we are releasing the third episode in our documentary series dedicated to biodiversity monitoring. The series was produced with funding from Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) as part of the DigitAP project, promoted and implemented by the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE), with support from ISPRA and funding from the European Union – NextGenerationEU. ISPRA played a leading role in providing scientific guidance for the project.

Set against the spectacular and complex landscape of the Cinque Terre National Park, this third episode shows how technological innovation is transforming field research. By installing acoustic recorders and using machine-learning-based software for species identification, researchers can continuously and non-invasively detect, track and analyse the presence of species across the territory. These methods improve the quality of the data collected and strengthen our ability to protect biodiversity in Italy’s national parks.