A Registration Algorithm for the Identification of Individual Parrots Based on the Patterns of Filing Ridges on the Internal Surface of Their Upper Bill Tip

Ridges on the internal side of the upper bill tip (i.e., “filing ridges”) of parrots and some cockatoosform patterns that are characteristic of genera and, therefore, can be used for the classification ofparrots and cockatoos. These patterns are also individually variable and, thus, could be used tofingerprint individual parrots. The objectives of our project were to evaluate the degree ofindividual variability and to develop a method and algorithm for registering and comparing thepatterns of ridges by using a rigid registration technique. Within the datasets, we have beensuccessful in identifying each unidentified dataset using this method. For 22 of the 27unidentified datasets, we found a degree of magnitude (i.e., the total error taken as the sum ofdistances between corresponding points) to be on the scale of 101 or greater between the matchwith the correct dataset and the match with all other datasets of the database via a squaredresidual error assessment. For the remaining datasets, instances occurred in which thedifference was smaller for two birds, but the correct bird was identified, nonetheless, whileaccurately ruling out over 90% of the incorrect bird matches.