Bird detection and overall bird situational awareness at airports

Bird behaviors have been widely detected and studied as important ecological indicators. As one of results of bird flight behavior at airports, bird strike has received constant attention due to its impacts on significant economic and life costs. Therefore, bird detection and awareness play a crucial role in the bird strike prevention at airports. Meanwhile, bird identification and detection has become a sub-topic of many research and application areas. This paper reviews the development of bird identification and detection technology in professional and general areas and discusses the potential for the technology to be applied at airports and to reduce the risk of bird strikes. The results show that (1) the number of publications is in a rapid growth in bird identification and detection field; (2) acoustic monitoring, image and radar detection are three primary technologies according to the analysis of the co-occurrence and keywords evolution trends; (3) all three technologies are still in the development stage and artificial intelligence-assisted multiple detection technologies combination should be the direction of technological innovation based on S-curve analysis; (4) a conceptual model can be proposed for airport bird detection and overall bird situational awareness to establish a comprehensive airport bird strike prevention system. The results provide information on the prospects of technology development and future hotspots in bird detection and situation awareness, which will be useful for scholars and policy makers in related fields. Graphical Abstract: (Figure presented.)