Klamath Bird Observatory Banding Intern Publishes eBird Research
Frequency of Observation of Orange-crowned Warblers on eBird checklists in Western Oregon During Spring Migration, 2004-2008
Fairchild, a recent Oregon State University graduate, used eBird data to map the spring arrival of Orange-crowned Warblers in Oregon between 2004 and 2008. Within the “View and Explore Data” tab of eBird, Fairchild selected the “maps” function, and then typed Orange-crowned Warbler in the Species Selection box. Fairchild then downloaded data for 18 counties in Oregon into Microsoft Excel using the “Download Histogram Data” function. Since data were lacking for some counties, he combined the data into two broad regional sets for northwestern and southwestern Oregon. Fairchild then graphed the data, displaying the frequency of occurrence of Orange-crowned Warblers by week (all years combined) between March and May, within the two regions.
As shown in the published graph, Fairchild’s research shows higher numbers of Orange-crowned Warblers arriving in southwestern Oregon (blue line on graph) than northwestern Oregon (purple line) during the early part of the breeding season in March. As you can see, the frequency of observations of Orange-crowned Warblers for both regions drops off sharply by late May. These data confirm what is currently known about the Orange-crowned Warblers' migratory and breeding behavior in Oregon, demonstrating the usefulness of eBird data for analyzing trends and changes in bird migration. Fairchild published his results in the Winter 2008-2009 edition of Oregon Birds (http://www.oregonbirds.org). Such research shows us that through the power of free and accessible eBird data, all of us can be scientists!
