When birds cross borders freely, who decides that humans cannot?
An interactive data visualization juxtaposing migratory bird tracking data with human migration records across two geographic chapters: the Mediterranean and the Americas.
Live demo: [coming soon]
Status: In development — Week 1 of 8
Bird migration data is precise, continuous, and scientifically meticulous. Human migration data is fragmented, politically categorized, and full of deliberate gaps. This project makes that asymmetry visible — not by filling in the missing data, but by letting the absence speak.
| Chapter | Bird Data | Human Data |
|---|---|---|
| Mediterranean | White Stork (Movebank) | IOM Missing Migrants |
| Americas | Blackpoll Warbler / Swainson's Hawk | US Border encounters + gaps |
Bird migration
- Movebank — GPS tracking, individual-level, timestamped
Human migration
- IOM Missing Migrants Project — incident-based, incomplete by nature
- CBP Encounter Data — politically filtered
- D3.js — map projection, path animation, interaction
- Mapbox GL JS / Observable Plot — base map
- Scrollytelling framework (TBD: Scrollama or custom)
- Deployed on Vercel
This section will document key visual choices and the reasoning behind them. Updated weekly.
Week 1: Project initialized. Data reconnaissance in progress.
This project extends fieldwork and analysis from a thesis on urban identity and migration in Barcelona (2025–26), graded with distinction and recommended for publication.
- Week 1–2: Data audit & project setup
- Week 3: First map prototype
- Week 4–5: Interaction & animation
- Week 6–7: Visual polish & narrative layer
- Week 8: Portfolio documentation
Code: MIT
Data: See individual source licenses above
Writing & design: © [你的名字] 2026