Fill in the gaps--bird the road less traveled (February 2012)

eBirders often email us and ask where they should go birding in order to make the biggest impact in regions with little data. It's perhaps little surprise that eBird checklist submissions are most dense in areas with large human populations, so getting away from those areas is a good first step for filling in the data gaps in eBird. But seeing these gaps can be really astonishing, and with the help of map wizard Paul Hurtado, we've come up with a few neat ways to visualize eBird data density at the county level. These maps are a visualization of the total number of eBird checklists submitted in each US county in the month of February across all years. These maps show the total number of checklists per square mile of county area--a better way to see data density in states with large counties. Pull up your state map and see how your home county is faring. And better yet, find a county that's white, pink, or yellow, and go do as many eBird checklists as you can there this February!