82 animal-tracking information. In total, 283 institutions have contributed to the Bird Migration Explorer. Collaborating to Create a Complete Picture Smith worked with staff members across Audubon, contractors, and partner organizations to ensure that the bird migration science was accurately and meaningfully depicted. Audubon director of enterprise GIS Connor Bailey facilitated the integration of cutting-edge GIS capabilities with the project’s broader vision. “Early on, we had to find the right technology and work closely with Esri to make sure that our underlying infrastructure could handle the immense amount of information we were bringing together,” Bailey said. Bailey and his team partnered with Esri partner Blue Raster—a company that creates an array of dynamic web and mapping solutions—and other organizations to build a fully functional application. With a two-decade-long career in enterprise GIS for nonprofit organizations and conservation initiatives, Bailey said that the Bird Migration Explorer is the largest project he’s worked on. More than 100 people were involved in the development stage alone. The Explorer launched in September 2022, but Smith, Bailey, and the rest of the Audubon team know their work isn’t finished. “This is an ongoing project that will continue to live,” Bailey said. “We’re looking forward to building out more capabilities and processes for long-term maintenance, because this is intended to be a living, breathing, interactive The Whooping Crane was brought to the brink of extinction in the 1940s, but strict protection has brought the wild population back to well over 100.
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