Satellites Outperform Traditional Methods for Predicting Bird Locations in Amazon Rainforest

Scientists have discovered that satellite data may be more effective at predicting bird locations in the Amazon rainforest than traditional methods. A 16-year study of 135 bird species found that satellite measurements of vegetation and forest conditions were better at predicting where birds occurred.

The research, published in PLOS One in June 2026, analyzed 3,129 bird surveys conducted over 16 years in the Tambopata Forest in southeastern Peru. Researchers compared satellite-derived measurements from Landsat with more traditional descriptions of habitat and forest cover to see which could better predict bird species occurrence.

The study's findings could help make biodiversity monitoring more scalable across vast tropical forests, where conducting field surveys over large areas is difficult and expensive.