eBirder of the month -- Fabrice Schmitt

Name: Fabrice Schmitt

Residence: Providencia, Chile

Years eBirding: 3.5

eBird Life list: 1355

Number of eBird Locations: 445



Number of complete eBird Checklists: 801

We are very pleased to introduce this month's eBirder of the month, Fabrice Schmitt of Providencia, Chile. Fabrice has led our efforts in Chile, and  spearheaded our efforts in much of South America. Who better to introduce Fabrice than the author of Birds of Chile, Alvaro Jaramillo, who nominated Fabrice as our eBirder of the month.

From Alvaro Jaramillo:

While getting to know the birds of Chile over the years I met birders in the country here and there, all doing their own thing sometimes in their own little patch. Communication between birders was not well developed, and there was a pattern of people keeping information to themselves. This began to change, slowly at first, and then several younger birders truly revolutionized birding in Chile seemingly overnight. This new set of birder was interested in communication, keeping information freely flowing, and including all in the pursuit of birds, beginner to pro. At the forefront of what you have to call a “movement” was a Frenchman with a German name, Fabrice Schmitt. As is often the case someone from the outside often has the chance to really shake things up as their experience is different and complementary to what is going on internally, and this is what Fabrice has done for Chilean birding. Since Fabrice has been around in Chile, we now have quick online communication via the online obschile list, many weekend bird outings, we have an online journal (Chiricoca) with birdfinding information, rare bird summaries, conservation notes, and even articles on Chilean lizards and bats! We have a new club, the ROC (Red de Observadores de Aves y Vide Silvestre de Chile or Network of Bird and Wildlife Watchers of Chile), which is promoting innovative ideas bringing birding, conservation and ornithology forward a few more notches. Fabrice has been instrumental in helping, starting, and cheerleading for all of these innovations and certainly new ones to come in the future. Chile is lucky that a skilled, energetic set of talented birders were able to connect with Fabrice. I think the word is overused, but the synergy has been fantastic! Because of these folks now my book on the birds of Chile seems seriously outdated, but in the end that was the point. I nominate Fabrice as eBirder of the month as representative of the new Chilean birder, plugged in, eBirding away like mad and adding knowledge to a distant corner of the earth faster than anyone ever thought possible!

From Fabrice:

Living in a South American country, Chile, where basic information about birds is still weak, eBird is definitely a wonderful way to increase our knowledge about our country’s birds! After I moved to Chile 5 years ago, I met some birders interested in developing a data collection/sharing system. Discouraged by a lack of funding for these kinds of projects (typical in South America!), we decided to collect data on an excel sheet. The prehistoric way…

Fortunately, Alvaro Jaramillo, author of the excellent “Birds of Chile” field guide and well-known birder (and eBirder!), quickly put us in touch with the eBird team. It took a few months of work by the friendly eBird administrators and our Chilean team of Rodrigo Barros, Pablo Cáceres, Fernando Díaz, Alvaro Jaramillo and Ricardo Matus (all members of the ROC (Red de Observadores de Aves y Vide Silvestre de Chile) a recently-created NGO), but by mid-2009 the eBird Chile portal was operational. So far, more than 70,000 observations have been collected in eBird Chile—something that would have been unbelievable just a few months ago!!

And the results obtained from these data are already impressive! The new maps available directly from eBird provide the best available distribution information for many species -- better than any published paper! The arrival and departure dates of migrants, information that is unpublished for most species migrating to Chile, is now available to anyone in the world! Where else but eBird would you find that the Giant Hummingbird arrives in central Chile by the end of July?

Along with other Chilean ornithologists, we are already dreaming of a way of running a Breeding Bird Atlas--using eBird of course--that would be another huge step forward in the knowledge of our birds!

eBird in Chile not only increases our knowledge and ability to do research, but also plays a critical role in conservation. For example, working on the Important Bird Areas (IBAs) project led by BirdLife, the data provided by eBird have been extremely important for the designation of some areas. Some IBAs have been proposed only thanks to the data provided by eBird, and hopefully tomorrow they will be formally protected. Personally, I can’t see a better use of my data than conservation. And when I know that my sightings will be used by conservationists, I just want to take my bins and go birding!

I also greatly appreciate eBird’s ability to bring people from around the world together. It is amazing to see people from the north or the south of the country, yesterday without any kind of relation, and now all eBird friends, sharing sightings and competing on the Top100! Muy buena onda! Leading birding trips all over South America, I also try to submit the sightings I do during these trips. Unfortunately, due to a lack of time, it is not always possible to do so and in the end many records are lost. But during one of my last trip to northern Peru, the participants themselves sent the sightings from our trip to eBird and shared the sightings with me! It was phenomenal to bird with these eBirders, all in the California Top100 and all taking notes, GPS locations and counting the birds we saw on every stop. It brought more purpose to our trips, added to the fun and was great to finally share our sightings on eBird!! With eBird, you can now travel all over the world, and share your sightings with a worldwide community. Amazing!!

Past winners of the eBirder of the Month are featured here:

http://ebird.org/content/ebird/about/past-ebirders-of-the-month

Our goal with the eBirder of the Month is to highlight how an individual is using eBird to inspire others to follow in their footsteps. One does not need to be a well-traveled or expert birder to be featured. Anyone who uses eBird is eligible, provided she or he understands the overarching goals of eBird and is committed to using the program regularly and properly. We are particularly interested in featuring people who are participating in our eBird Site Survey or County Birding initiatives. If you know of a candidate for the next eBirder of the Month, please contact us. See all of our winners here.