Birding News and Features

Two new ways to make your birding count!

From its inception, the grand hypothesis of eBird has been that the observations of birders can make a valuable contribution to understanding broad-scale patterns of bird distribution and abundance. With its vast geographic scope and dedicated contributors, eBird has a growing capacity to help answer questions about birds at scales never before imaginable. As the eBird dataset continues to mature, scientists are just beginning to explore and tap its potential. Early results are promising, and thanks to our close working relationship with talented computer scientists and biologists, we’ve identified two ways that you can help greatly improve the utility of the eBird dataset. Read more by clicking the image at right.

Minor change to eBird Top100

Those of you that keep a close watch on the eBird Top100 may have noticed a change this past week. It may have seemed that the numbers suddenly changed last Friday. In actuality though, all we did was change the default on the year selector in the top right. While it previously defaulted to "All Years", it now defaults to the current year. If you want to see who has the best All Time list, just use that selector box to select All years. The reason we did this was because we wanted to keep all active eBirders involved in the Top100 lists--year lists can be competitive for anyone, but a lifetime list takes a lifetime to accumulate. In any event, don't be alarmed by this change, just select the period you want to check.

EZBird--enter eBird checklists by email!

One of the most frequent requests we get from eBirders is for a way to make data entry easier and quicker. We have done our best to develop new quicker ways to enter data and to publicize new and quicker ways that others have developed. To that end, we are excited to announce the release of EZBird, which allows you to create an uploadable file just by sending a formatted email message. You can even submit directly to eBird, which makes it possible to use your handheld or smartphone to enter sightings from the field.

Sale on neotropical audio CDs

The Cornell Lab or Ornithology is offering a special discount on packages of neotropical bird CDs. These packages include everything from parrots to antbirds, to regional CDs covering Costa Rica and Ecuador to the Andes and the Amazon. Find out more here. In fact, why not use this as an opportunity to start planning your winter break? The changing season's first snows, lines of migrating Canada Geese, and clumsily singing immature White-throated and White-crowned Sparrows are a welcome addition right now. But by February, shoveling snow usually loses some of its novelty. Why now pick up some audio CDs, grab your ebird notebooks and join our neotropical migrants to the south. Don't worry. The snow will probably still be here when you get back.

 

eBird Map Quiz #5

We're pleased to bring back the eBird Map Quiz. Periodically we will put up a map taken directly from eBird and you can try to guess the species. After a while, we will post answers to the old "map quiz" and include a map for a new species. This map is taken directly from the Maps section in the View and Explore Data tab and includes all eBird data from all months from 1900 - 2009. Good luck! If you still see the last map, hit Control Refresh (or F5) to reload the new map image.