Illustration for Engineering Insight magazine for an article about the Cacophany Project. The Cacophany Project is a way of recording birdsong levels in New Zealand’s bush, and transmitting the data to be analysed. By setting up cheap smartphones in specially-designed weatherproof boxes, data can be collected and transmitted automatically. If an area is found to have a cacophany of birds, great! On the flipside, if there is no birdsong, that’s a sure sign that the area has been overrun by nasty predators like stoats, rats and possums, and pest control should be a priority. With art direction from Angeli Hudson.