eBird Site Survey
What is the eBird Site Survey?
You are about to join the ranks of
elite eBirders who contribute some of the most valuable data for
scientific analysis: repeated observations from the same location. In
order to understand what's happening with the birds in your backyard,
you need to go out and count them regularly. The dynamics of migration
quickly become evident, as new species pass through en route to
breeding or wintering areas. You begin to understand when the local
birds breed, when the intensity of their singing peaks, and when they
quiet down to be inconspicuous around a nest with young. Imagine being
able to understand bird populations with this granularity across a vast
scale. Imagine not just your backyard, but thousands of backyards sewn
together across the landscape providing a real-time snapshot of living
bird communities--all available to scientists with the click of a
button. This is the concept of the eBird Site Survey. Welcome to the
team!
Why become part of the team?
How to participate?
Once you've determined what site to do, you'll need to decide how often you'd like to do your count. We suggest at minimum once a week, with once a day being ideal. Don't worry if you'll miss a week here and there, that's okay, we all need a vacation now and then!
The kind of count you do is up to you, as long as it's one of our "effort-based" choices (e.g., traveling, stationary, or area count). We require a minimum duration of five minutes, and we also require that you count ALL the birds you were able to identify to the best of your ability, and answer 'yes' to that question on the checklist page. To what extent you can, try to keep the protocol the same (e.g., Traveling Count), but the duration and time of day might vary depending on when you can get out, and whether or not you have lots of birds to look at!
Once your site is registered you're finished with the paperwork, just start doing your counts using eBird as you normally would. There is no special protocol to select, but now that we know about your site, we can automatically add your data to the Site Survey dataset. All of your previous counts from the site will automatically become part of the Site Survey dataset as well!
Tell us about your count
Your Name:
Your eBird username:
Site Survey Location Name:
State:
County:
Type of Count (e.g., traveling, stationary):
Frequency (e.g., weekly, daily):
Click here to register your site! (to register multiple sites just fill out the form once for each site).
Questions?
By participating in the "eBird Site Survey" process you'll be helping us do more with citizen-science data. If you have questions about the process, please email us at ebird@cornell.edu.
