SongbirdSOS is heading to Europe for some final spring shooting. Director Su Rynard left for Paris this week to meet up with her crew from Films a Cinq. While there she will be on the look-out for European songbirds and then go bird-watching in a German forest with music composer Dominik Eulberg. Eulberg is an electronic music artist and popular German DJ who has reconciled his love of ornithology with his talent, skill and experience in techno music. Internationally known for his work, he has released numerous singles as well as full-length albums on Traum Schallplatten and Cocoon Recordings. Described as the “a raving ornithologist from the Westerwald”, Eulberg’s fascination with birds means he not only uses bird sounds in his compositions but he also works as a park ranger in some German national parks.

After experiencing a dance club event with Eulberg’s music, Su and the crew will head south to the Konstance Lake area to meet with Dr. Martin Wikelski.  Wikelski is a world-renowned behavioural ecologist at the Max Planck Institute of Ornithology.  He is researching the conservation of birds and small animals by studying how and why individual animals decide to go on the treacherous migratory journeys and secondly by educating the public about migration as a global phenomenon.   He is also developing an incredible app titled Movebank.

Wikelski was formerly at Princeton in the USA and he is now a leading scientist involved with the ICARUS project, a global undertaking with more than 100 biology laboratories across 17 countries.  With a team of dedicated scientists and engineers, he is working towards the miniaturization of live GPS tracking devices so they will be small enough for songbirds.   This means that in the future there is a real possibility we may be able to see the movements of songbirds during migration with real time  monitoring from the International Space Station.