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.
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.
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.
