eBird Quick Start Guide
Thanks for joining eBird! We welcome your participation in the
project, and we hope you find it rewarding to become part of our family
of thousands of birders who are providing millions of records each
month from around the world. Your contributions are a critical part of
the puzzle, and every record you submit is a valuable piece of
information. Below are some basic data entry tips, and eBird concepts
that are important to understand.
The most effective and useful way to get your data into eBird is at the
site level. Each time you go birding you should try to keep a complete
checklist of birds with estimated counts of each species, and try to
limit your checklists to fairly refined geographic areas (e.g., your
yard, a local park, a favorite birding location). eBird has the ability
to accept data at the county and state level, but these broad-scale
observations are harder to work with for analysis, and eBird really
thrives on site-specific bird information. The more specific you are
about your locations, the better the My eBird tools are at building
your lists, so it's a nice mutually beneficial relationship. There is
no limit to the number of locations you can have, and a good general
rule for eBird is that the more specific you are with your site
information the better. More information about this topic is available
here: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/location_specificity.
To enter your data into eBird take these steps:
- Go to 'Submit Observations'.
- Click the 'Find it on a map' option.
- Enter your country, state, or county (if relevant) to help zoom the initial map extent.
- Use the 'search' option at the top of the map to find a more specific location. You can type your address in here to zoom in on your house, or you can enter coordinates from a GPS, and you can even search for other landmarks of interest. You can also just use the controls on the map to pan, and zoom in or out. To quickly zoom in on an area hold your shift key down and then draw a box on the map with your mouse.
- Once you are zoomed in to the area where you made your
observations, you can click on the map to create a new location, or if
there is an eBird hostpot marker very close by, choose that for data
entry by clicking on it. eBird 'Hotspots' are simply existing public
locations where many birders are entering data. You can use these if
they represent the location where you were birding, or you can create a
more specific new personal location. If you create a new location, give
it a sensible name and then click 'Continue'. If your new location
should be an eBird Hotspot, select the 'suggest as birding hotspot'
box, but make sure not to duplicate a hotspot that already exists on
the map.
- The next step is a way for you to tell us 'How' you went birding. In other words, were you walking a trail, sitting in one place, etc. Most birders are performing some kind of 'traveling count'; in many cases very short ones. A walk around the block in your neighborhood is a 'traveling count' of .5 miles. Also pay attention to duration, i.e., the time you spent birding in the field. These things matter for analysis. There is a big difference between covering 10 miles in 10 hours and seeing 10 Black-capped Chickadees, than there is in covering 1 mile in 1 hour and seeing 10! This information helps us analyze your data, and it really adds value to your observations.
- The next step is the checklist page. Here you can use the "Jump to Species" box to quickly type and find the birds you'd like to report. You can type in species common names, and you can even put in things like 'Empidonax sp.' if you were unsure of a bird's identity. If you can't find the species you're looking for on the checklist, use the 'Add a species' box to search our taxonomy. Ideally you report estimated counts for each species, but some people prefer to put 'X' to indicate 'present'. There are many reasons why counts are better, and those are elucidated here: (http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/trouble_with_X). More data entry tips can be found here: (http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/ebird-tricks-and-tips).
- At the bottom right there is a very important question: "Are you submitting a complete checklist of the birds you were able to identify?". We want to find out whether you are reporting all the birds you were able to identify to the best of your ability. Answer "Yes" to this question when you record every species present that you found; not just the highlights. We realize that all birds are not identifiable and user abilities vary. You should always answer 'Yes' to this question unless you are purposefully excluding some species (e.g., European Starlings) from your checklist. You do not need to count all the individuals present to answer 'Yes' to this question (you can enter 'x' for species you observed but did not count). Please do try to report all species; it improves our ability to analyze your data. More discussion about this information is here: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/are-you-reporting-all-species-heres-why-its-important.
eBird Data Quality
eBird has a highly advanced data quality process that combines computer algorithms based on historic precedent with a network of volunteer regional editors who help vet all the incoming data. Every record goes through some level of review, and most times the birds you report will pass through the filters unimpeded. But if you report a rare bird, a bird out of season, or an exceptionally high count of a given species, you may be asked to supply more details about the observation. You'll be prompted to 'confirm' any record that is flagged as unusual, and it is here that you can help by providing details. Next to each species name on the checklist during data entry there is a place to provide comments. Here you can write details about your rarity, paste in links to photos, and even embed pictures of rare birds (more on how to do that here: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/embed-photos-in-your-checklists). By providing as much detail as possible when you're asked to confirm birds, it makes the job of our regional editors that much easier, and it helps your records get into the public database that much faster. Your records are your own, and even if our editors cannot confirm your observation, you are free to keep it on your personal eBird lists, which are displayed and updated in real-time on the "My eBird" pages. Learn more about the eBird Data Quality Process here: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/ebird-data-quality
Thanks, and welcome to eBird!
