Are you reporting all species? You should!

Why you should report all species

Reporting all species allows us to infer that you didn't see or hear any other species. So instead of gathering data on just the species you entered, we are gathering data on all birds.

Reporting all species you identified allows us to do a variety of things. We can show where species are found and where they aren't. We can calculate what the chances are that the species will be found at a given time of year at a given place. We can also begin to understand how detectable each species is at different times of the year. For instance, during the breeding season it's easy to find a singing Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodromus savannarum), but outside the breeding season, when they are silent, it is much more difficult. When your observations are pooled with those of hundreds of other observers, we can try to quantify these differences.

The above map of Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) shows the power of reporting all species. The gray shaded areas show where birders have submitted complete checklists, but have not detected Black Vulture. These are different from the tan areas, where we have not received enough complete checklists to determine if Black Vulture is found there. From this map we can see that Black Vultures are found from southeastern United States down into Mexico and Central and South America. We can also see they are not found in the western United States. But we can't determine if they are found in much of northern Mexico, because we don't have enough complete checklists from this region.

Black Vulture, Photo courtesy Lands in Love Hotel

What if you don't know how many individuals you saw? It is always best to obtain a count or estimate of the number of individuals you detected for each species. However, that’s not always possible, and if you really have no idea how many you saw, you can simply enter an “x” into the checklist for those species you didn't count. There is no problem submitting a checklist that has both “x”s and numbers. This way we’ll be able to see what you found and what you didn't.

What if you didn't see a bird well enough to identify it? Can you still say that you are reporting all species? Absolutely yes. Even the best birders won't be able to find and identify every bird. So as long as you try to identify as many of the birds you see as possible and report them to PurasAves, you should still say that you are reporting all species that you identified. So from now on, please report all species.