What MRI Platform does

Make regional biodiversity change easier to see

East African biodiversity information is distributed across many public services. Those services are essential, but they are designed primarily for searching and viewing their own records. It can still be difficult to tell what is genuinely new in a country, what has changed since last week, or where the regional record remains thin.

Maiyo Research Institute builds the layer between those public records and the questions people ask about them. We run recurring audits, add regional context, and turn the results into focused views and field tools. The aim is not to reproduce every record; it is to make important changes discoverable and explainable.

A repeatable audit, not a one-time search

The weekly cadence gives each change a point of comparison. That is what makes it possible to distinguish a new addition from an old record that is simply being viewed for the first time.

1. Review the public record

   We inspect public biodiversity platforms and collect the metadata needed to understand new observations, media, sounds, species, places and contributors.

2. Compare what changed

   We compare the latest source snapshots with earlier ones to find additions and changes that are difficult to see through a single platform viewer.

3. Apply regional criteria

   Each workspace uses criteria suited to its source: research-grade, photo-backed records for Country Firsts, or new sound activity and coverage gaps for the audio watches.

4. Publish a usable view

   We present the result with its source context, so a reader can follow the trail and decide what deserves closer attention.

Different sources, different questions

Each source workflow stays distinct rather than flattening into one generic score. That preserves the meaning and the limitations of the underlying records.

• iNaturalist country firsts — research-grade, photo-backed species records newly recorded in an East African country, with global-first records shown separately.
• eBird and Macaulay watch — changes in bird media and sound coverage, new regional activity, species representation, and the contributors adding to the public record.
• Xeno-canto sound watch — wildlife sound activity, new field uploads, species with audio coverage, and the gaps worth attention for bioacoustic research or field preparation.

We collect metadata, not the providers’ media

MRI Platform collects public metadata, comparisons, source links and the context needed to explain a change. It does not replace the public viewers operated by iNaturalist, eBird, the Macaulay Library, Xeno-canto or other source platforms.

Nor is it an archive of provider images or audio. Where a view links to or displays source material, that material remains subject to the original provider’s ownership, licence, attribution and access rules.

A shared starting point for regional work

Researchers can use the audits to locate changes worth validating. Fieldworkers can check species and sound reference coverage before going outdoors. Educators and learners can use the regional checklist and the Bird Quiz to build familiarity with East African species and calls.

The platform currently covers nine East African countries, weekly automated audits, a 1,706-species bird reference, and daily five-call practice. Coverage counts describe the scope of the platform’s source records; they are not estimates of abundance, population size or survey completeness.