Central America

Today we recognize the most active contributors to eBird Central America during 2013. Last year, hundreds of eBirders (perhaps more than a thousand) uploaded their observations, contributing valuable information to the ornithology of Central America. The information is especially valuable when it includes all species observed (not just the rare ones), and when effort data is submitted as well, i.e., time and distance covered while watching birds.

There are many ways to measure contributions of eBirders, but we will focus on the number of checklists published in eBird as the indicator that is most useful for science. We recognize the 20 people who have published the most checklists for 2013, up through 7 January 2014. We are thankful for their enormous contributions, and also for the contributions of all eBirders during 2013.

The people in the first five positions published more than 400 checklists each, or on average more than one checklist per day. These observers sometimes submit 10 or more checklists during a single day of birding. ¿Surprising? Remember that the most valuable data for eBird are collected at fine-scale, specific localities, even if during a very brief effort. In fact, checklists collected with the Stationary protocol (a point count), permit the most accurate modeling of the relationship between bird abundance and habitat or geography. If you wish to increase your contributions in the future, consider using point count methods, or short transects (5 km or less) in homogeneous habitats, with observation efforts of at least 10 minutes.

In eBird, you can see the Top 100 contributors for each country and each department during 2013 (or previous years, or all years combined). From the Explore Data menu, select Top 100 from the box in the right margin.

For each hotspot, eBird shows you the 10 most active contributors. From the Explore Data menu, enter the Hotspot Explorer. Search or zoom into the map to find the hotspot you are interested in, click on its pin, and from the description box that opens up, select View Details. The list of the “Top eBirders” is in the right margin. At present, you can set the time period for the current year, last 10 years, or all years combined. You can see leaders based on number of species reported, or number of checklists submitted.

Many thanks to all of the contributors to eBird Central America. Safe and successful birding during 2014!