The four minutes of darkness from the April 8 total solar eclipse will be unexpected for animals.
This phenomenon piqued the interest of Indiana University Ph.D. student Liz Aguilar and associate professor Kim Rosvall, who wanted to see how darkness may affect common bird behavior.
In collaboration with the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering, they created a smartphone app called SolarBird, and are asking people to submit information on bird behavior during the eclipse.
“The goal was just really to engage the public in this project, to really enhance the experience of the eclipse, especially if it's cloudy, this is something else to participate in,” Aguilar said.
The app will prompt participants to find a bird and observe it for 30 seconds before, during and after totality. There will be a prompt of common behaviors and size estimate of the bird.
“Just as a reminder, to not only be looking up at the eclipse, safely with the correct glasses and such, but also just really remembering that nature, animals, so much around us, is also experiencing this event,” Aguilar said.
The app will also be connected to GPS coordinates to see how birds are responding at different points along the path of totality.
"This is nature, these are wild animals,” Aguilar said. “And that's what we really still want to capitalize on. So, I think the main thing will be seeing what patterns emerge from the data at those three time points.”
The app is available on Google Play and will be available on the App Store Thursday.
