Stora Karlsö is the second oldest natural reserve in the world and home to many colonies of breeding guillemots and razorbills. These birds are now pioneers for how marine research could be conducted. “Traditionally bird research on the island – which dates back more than a century, the first birds were ringed in 1913 – has been done in a good old fashion way; ringing, counting and, at the best daily, field observations. With new technology at hand, marine research can cover every second of the birds’ life ashore”, says Olof Olsson, affiliate to Stockholm Resilience Centre, who is involved in the AI projects and a long-time researcher at Stora Karlsö. The results are outlined in the research paper “Seabird surveillance: combining CCTV and artificial intelligence for monitoring and research”.