Birding News and Features
Location! Location! Location!
Exactly where you plot your birding locations on the map is critical for eBird in many ways. When you are specific with your location information we can perform better analyses, and we can ensure that your birding lists are built correctly. eBird thrives on location specificity, and a good general rule of thumb when entering data is that it's always better to enter shorter checklists from more refined locations than longer checklists from a string of unrelated locations. In this article we'll discuss why being as precise as possible with your birding locations yields the best results.
eBird's Most Wanted Counties
Birders are not evenly distributed around the continent, and the same is certainly true for eBirders. There are some places, like Cook County, Illinois and Los Angeles, California, that benefit from having large populations. Birders have submitted over 21,476 checklists (341 species) for Cook County and over 19,000 checklists (489 species) for Los Angeles. But high populations alone don't always determine the number of checklists submitted. There are more checklists for Tompkins county, New York (24,285), than any other county--we suspect Cornell's location in the center of the county plays a critical role. And it's probably not too surprising that some exceptional birding locations like Cape May, NJ (14,197), rank high. Others benefit from a combination of factors: St. Louis, Minnesota, offers exceptional birding (home the Sax-Zim bog, Hawk Ridge, and Park Point); it's large (bigger than several eastern states) and benefits from the passionate participation of a small but dedicated number of eBirders. But there are other counties that are less well represented in eBird. We want your help to gather more information from those places.
eBird Express: New Excel tool to simplify data upload
We’re excited to announce a new tool for submitting your checklists to eBird. Jay Packer, one of our industrious eBird users created a tool to help upload checklists from Microsoft Excel--a tool that he’s appropriately named eBird Express. By writing code into an Excel template, Jay provides multiple levels of error-checking that will help you avoid any complications when uploading data to eBird. NOTE: If you are not familiar with Excel, this tool may not help you much. If you do use Excel, this tool helps to allow your bulk uploads to swiftly and easily upload to eBird without a hitch.
eBird Enters the Blogosphere!
A lot happens from day to day at eBird, and we want to share it with you. We've created a blog to enhance our ability to connect with our users, to address issues that arise from time to time, and to harness the power of the eBird community to better define the future direction of the project. Through the “Chip Notes – eBird Buzz” blog we hope to create an on-going dialogue with our users. We want to get to know you better, learn what you like about eBird and what you think needs improvement. We want to know why you use eBird, and we want to engage those who don’t to tell us why! We want to let you speak your minds about how we’re doing in providing this service to the birding community. Through collaboration, we’ll keep eBird evolving in the direction that best suits the needs of the birding community, all while keeping our internal focus on collecting valuable scientific data. We look forward to hearing from you!
What in the world is "Herring Gull (American)"?
Most species names in eBird are easily found with a glance at your field guide, but eBird also allows entry of a number of other birds (sometimes we call them 'taxa') whose names do not appear in any guides. These break down into three main groups: hybrids, spuhs, and subspecies groups. Hybrids all have the word "hybrid" in the name (e.g., Mallard x Gadwall (hybrid)) and all spuhs either have a "sp." (e.g., scoter sp.) or slash (e.g., Greater/Lesser Scaup) in the name. The subspecies groups, such as "Herring Gull (American)", are more complicated and explained in this article.
eBird and the World Series of Birding
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s “Team Sapsucker" has a long history of participating in the World Series of Birding, and this year we plan to win! For over 20 years the Sapsuckers have competed in this inspiring event, and in the process have broken fund-raising records to help support bird conservation around the world. This year, four members of Team eBird are on the Sapsuckers (meet the team), and we hope to convert our skill, innovation, and forward-thinking into a win! We hope that you will consider pledging your support for our team. Your contributions will help us continue to improve eBird, making it better for you, better for research, and better for bird conservation. Follow our up-to-the-minute progress this week on Twitter!
The trouble with 'X' - Why you should always estimate numbers!
Over the years at eBird we have always been flexible about allowing users to report either numbers for each species, or to provide an 'X' to indicate presence. In our latest round of analysis, however, we found that checklists where users estimated numbers for ALL species encountered were of significantly higher conservation value when compared with those that contain 'Xs', or even a single 'X' mixed in with numbers. In this piece we'll talk about why recording numbers is important, as well as provide some guidance as to how to estimate numbers in difficult situations. Read more about why making your best estimate of numbers always trumps the dreaded 'X'!
New Feature: eBird Top 100!
We're proud to introduce a new feature at eBird called the "eBird Top 100." Using this new tool found under the "View and Explore Data" tab, you can now see your position in relation to other eBird users in a variety of geographic regions including ABA area, country, state and county. We offer two different rankings: the total number of species reported, or the total number of complete checklists submitted. Our users have asked for a tool like this so that they can see where they stand in relation to other birders in their region of interest. We hope this new tool will inspire healthy competition among eBirders, and increase the amount of checklists submitted by inspiring birders to get out and collect more new data, as well as promote the entry of historic records. Click on "View and Explore Data" to find out how you rank among the best eBirders in the country!
Help Solve the Mystery of Hudsonian Godwit Migration
Sometimes it seems like there are not many mysteries remaining to be solved about birds that breed in North America. However, Hudsonian Godwits still represent a true mystery: we do not know how they migrate between their breeding grounds in northern Canada and Alaska and their wintering areas in extreme southern South America. Between their staging areas in southern Alaska and Canada and northern Argentina, godwits largely go unnoticed or unobserved each fall. Do most of them make the trip in one big jump? Is there some stopover site hidden away in some part of remote South America that we don’t know about? And how do they return north each year? Do they all meet up and travel together through the central part of North America? How often do they stop once they reach North America? With the help of eBirders across the western hemisphere we might just solve the mystery!
Are you reporting all species? Here's why it's important!
On every eBird checklist birders are asked a simple question: "Are you submitting a complete checklist of the birds you saw/heard?" Though simple in concept, the power of reporting all species should not be underestimated. By submitting a complete checklist of the birds you saw or heard to the best of your ability, you are telling us not only about the birds you found, but you're also telling us that you did NOT observe a suite of other potential species. By submitting a complete checklist of birds we can learn more about where a species occurs with regularity, but equally important we can begin to say with certainty where it does not occur. This allows us to map entire species' ranges with more accuracy. When you submit a complete checklist of birds to eBird you're gathering data for only the species you observed, you are also gathering important "negative data" on a suite of other birds.
Birder’s Diary export to eBird is released!
We are pleased to announce that the Birder’s Diary eBird Toolkit has been released. The utility, written by Gerco Hoogeweg, allows users to exchange bird observations between Birder’s Diary and eBird. The toolkit allows you to create eBird Record Format (extended) files for import into eBird and you can create Birder’s Diary import files from eBird observation reports. To make stored observations useful to eBird, the toolkit includes a comprehensive interface that allows you to specify how you were birding (protocols). Information for each birding adventure can be updated in a similar fashion as if you were entering your observations directly into eBird. Also, the toolkit automatically checks if your location is an eBird hotspot!
Using the eBird Comments Fields
eBird has two comments fields that can be used however you choose. While birders sometimes leave these fields blank, entering submission notes can help make your checklist more valuable. Your comments can assist our eBird reviewers as they try to assess records of rare and unusual birds. By supplying some extra information in your comments you can make your records easier to interpret and make the review process faster. Your eBird data (including comments fields) are also shared with editors of local and regional bird journals, authors of articles and books on bird distribution, state wildlife agencies, and conservationists.
Learn to record bird vocalizations in California
Many birders are intrigued by the idea of recording bird songs. For some of us, it provides a mechanism for learning songs, for others its a critical part of a research endeavor. Here’s your invitation to retreat to the Sierra Nevada for a week where you’ll spend each morning in the field recording birds, birding along the way. Join experienced instructors from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library for classroom sessions covering everything you want to know about recording equipment, tips, and techniques. The workshop will be held at San Francisco State University's Sierra Nevada Field Campus in the Tahoe National Forest.
Explore eBird data on maps: new feature!
only) and look for most recent reports which are indicated by yellow markers. Read on for more on how to use this new mapping interface and for a review on how to get the most of eBird's grid maps and its new point maps.
eBird Annual Report 2008
Winter has set in here at the Lab as we bring to an end yet another great birding year. We'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for making eBird part of your everyday birding this year, and to extend our thanks to our coworkers who have worked hard behind the scenes all year to make eBird the ever-growing, forward-moving birding tool it has become. 2008 has been a very successful year for eBird. Thanks to your hard work we now gather over a million observations per month--and it's still just a drop in the bucket compared with what's possible! We've seen participation grow across the continent, users have become better-informed citizen-scientists, and a host of new developments have been launched that make it easier for birders to enjoy eBird to the fullest! In this report we highlight some of these important updates and set our sights on an even better 2009!
Introduction to Differences in Crossbill Vocalizations
by Matt Young*
It can be quite challenging to differentiate and identify the calls of the White-winged Crossbill and the various “vocal types” of Red Crossbills. In order to find and identify crossbills, it’s essential to develop a familiarity with their flight call vocalizations. As one would expect, knowing when and where to look for crossbills is also quite important. For example, birds flying over are often the most vocal, and believe it or not, birds feeding atop a spruce or pine just 20 yards away can be fairly easily missed. When intently feeding, the sound most often heard is the very subtle crackling of the birds’ extracting the seed from the seedcoat. Also look for seedcoats dropping to the ground for hints to where they’re feeding.Honduran Emerald Rediscovered in Western Honduras!
In November 2008, a team of American and Honduran researchers and conservationists traveled to western Honduras in search of the critically endangered endemic Honduran Emerald (Amazilia luciae) in the Department of Santa Barbara. The principal cause of its decline is habitat destruction, with approximately 90% of its original habitat lost, and the remaining pieces occurring in isolated patches of arid thorn-forest and scrub of the interior valleys of northern Honduras. Based on specimen data, the species was originally known to occur in four Honduran departments; Cortés and Santa Barbara in western Honduras, and Yoro and Olancho in northeastern Honduras. Despite efforts to find the species in western Honduras, it has not been detected there since 1935. Because of its status as critically endangered and “Red Listed” by The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the fragmented nature of its habitat, the rediscovery of these additional populations is of major conservation importance.
eBird & Birds of North America Online
eBird Bar Charts Upgraded!
We are pleased to announce improvements to the eBird frequency histograms--or as they are more popularly known--the eBird bar charts. These charts represent how bird occurrence changes over the course of the year and are pulled directly from eBird data. Each month is broken down into four periods (each approximately 7 days). Then we calculate the percentage of checklists reporting a species, but only those that report all species. The wider green bars show the periods when a species is least likely to be missed, while the narrower green bars show when species is present (or sometimes present), but infrequently detected. It is possible to explore data by state, county, or Bird Conservation Region (BCR), a birding hot spot, a personal location...even your backyard! You can do this for all years, a range of years, or a single year! We also give pointers on how to PRINT the bar chart, a common request.
