Featured eBirder: André Desrochers

Name:  André Desrochers

Residence:  Québec City

Number of eBird checklists:  7321

Number of eBird locations:  1313

eBird lifelist:  2473 species

When I started birding in the mid-seventies, well before the advent of the personal computer, I soon realized the value of keeping records, not just for personal use, but eventually to serve a larger community of amateurs and scientists, much like in Astronomy, which I also practiced then. After joining the Club des ornithologues du Québec, I was delighted to see that visionaries Jacques Larivée and André Cyr had established a computerized  checklist scheme for Québec, called ÉPOQ, for all birders to share. I guess ÉPOQ was the first of its kind in Canada, perhaps in the World, and I sure was a big fan. Ever since I’ve had a personal computer, I have kept a personal database (in FileMaker) which by now contains over 120,000 sightings. Needless to say that I was thrilled to discover that I could share those observations with thousands of fellow birders throughout the World using eBird. What a marvel! Thanks to eBird’s data import tools, I was able to upload my observations rather smoothly, with a minimal number of taxonomic glitches or arguments with eBird’s team of regional “referees”.  In recent weeks, I was especially glad to see that eBird now has world coverage, which allowed me to complete uploading my records from over 40 countries.

 Now, I guess that importing a lifetime of birding records in a matter of days would make anyone an “eBirder” of the month! Of course, I am delighted to receive such an honor, but to me the most important thing is the feeling of being part of a global – and rapidly growing – community of birders, working together towards a better enjoyment of birds, and hopefully, more effective way to conserve them for future generations.