May 19, 2021 12:20 PM EDT
DELRAY BEACH, FLORIDA - MAY 15: A Purple Gallinule wades through the Wakodahatchee Wetlands on May 15, 2021 in Delray Beach, Florida.
(Photo : Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
The idea of counting all the wild birds in the world sounds as impossible as counting every single strand on a person's head. However, as computing technology gets more advanced, so does data accuracy.
Thus, it is why the research group behind popular bird watching site eBird have boldly proclaimed that planet Earth currently has around 50 billion birds living in the wild today. This was the result of over two decades of managing one of the internet's most popular bird watching platforms and opens the door to using the same approach when monitoring populations of other species.