Third Annual Magpie Count June 3-6!

Third Annual Yellow-Billed Magpie Survey, June 3-6 2011

For more information, go to Audubon California's website .

Yellow-billed Magpie Survey Protocol

Audubon California and its partners are interested in knowing where, when, and how many Yellow-billed Magpies you see.  It’s simple!  Follow these easy instructions:

1. Go birding anytime between June 3-6. You can do one hour,  two days – whatever you choose!
2. Pick a place where you might find magpies (they prefer oak savannah woodland).  Don't know where to check?  Go to this map to see magpie records from your area.
3. Record what you see (tell us how many magpies you saw and where you were (be as specific as possible); you can tell us about other species too!)
4. Enter your data here! (see instructions below if you are new to eBird).  PLEASE SUBMIT BY JUNE 30th to be included in survey results.

eBird Instructions:

Recording Your Field Observations

Note: It’s important to submit your observations even if you didn’t find Yellow-billed Magpies! Negative data is incredibly valuable and it tells us a lot if you specifically went out searching for Yellow-billed Magpies and did not find any.

Submitting Your Data

If you already have an eBird account you can simply log in and enter your data. If you are a new eBird user, you’ll have to click the “Register as a new user” link at the top of the page to create an account.

Step 1

1. click on the “Submit Observations” tab at the top of the page.
2. Next you will see “Where did you go birding?” If you have GIS coordinates for your location simply click the “Use latitude and longitude” option. If not, use the “Find it on a map” tool to plot as accurately as possible the location where you collected your data. You can quickly zoom in to a county by filling out the ‘county’ and ‘state’ options. Zoom in as far as possible using the tools at the upper left, remembering that the more accurately you plot your location the better. The red markers on the map represent ‘eBird hotspots’ or public birding locations from which others have submitted data. You can click directly on those markers to select one, or simply click on the map to create a new location. A new marker will appear at your new location. Click the map again to reposition the marker as you see fit. Don’t forget to name the location in the box above!
3. Click ‘Continue’.

Step 2 ("Date and Effort")

Select the “Yellow-billed Magpie Survey” protocol from the options. You can choose from "general observation" or "traveling count". Then fill in your date, start time, duration, and, if you recorded it, ‘distance covered’. (Number of observers and elevation are optional.)

Step 3
The fun part! This is the eBird checklist page.
At the top of the checklist page there are two very important questions:

1. Are you submitting a complete checklist of the birds you saw/heard? This is a critical question, and here’s what it means: “We want to find out whether you are reporting all the birds you were able to identify to the best of your ability. You do not need to count all the individuals to answer "Yes" to this question.”
2. Do you want to report age/sex information or add species comments?” Answer ‘no’ to this question.
3. Enter the number of bird of species you saw or heard into the corresponding boxes on the checklist page. If you don’t have numbers an ‘x’ will do to indicate presence. Click ‘Continue’ when you’re satisfied.
4. Optional: on the next page you can provide more information about your observations in the comments field for that species. When you’re finished click ‘Continue’ at the bottom of the page.

Step 4
This is a simple confirmation page where you can check over your submission for accuracy. When you are satisfied click ‘Submit’ at the bottom of the page. Check the ‘email me this report’ box if you’d like a copy of the submission sent to you.

YOU ARE NOW DONE! THANK YOU!!

Step 5
Go to ‘My eBird’ to see your results, and to have fun exploring your lists. These get better over time as you add more data!

Repeat this process for each discrete location that you sampled for Yellow-billed Magpies. The general rule is that more checklists from more refined locations is better.

Optional Advanced eBirding: Traveling Counts
You have the option of doing ‘traveling counts’ at each location to survey for Yellow-billed Magpies. Traveling counts can be very short in length, or longer, but preferably always five miles or less. The length is up to you, just make sure to record this and provide the distance traveled during data entry. Counts should be conducted on foot where possible, and might consist of walking a nature trail, or birding your local park. If birding by car, consider getting out of the car and conducting a count at periodic intervals, or wherever you want to count birds. It is important to record your location as accurately as possible, and plot your point at the mid-point of your traveling survey. So if you covered 1 mile on foot, plot your location at .5 miles. Try to stay away from county-wide surveys, or excessively long traveling counts.