Report your fall sightings to New Hampshire Bird Records

Reporting your sightings to New Hampshire Bird Records

Fall of 2009 will be our first fall using New Hampshire eBird as the primary system for reporting bird sightings for publication in New Hampshire Bird Records (NHBR). Current eBird reporters will no longer need to send separate files to NHBR. We will also be integrating the current NHBR review processes with the eBird system.

In the past, sightings for NHBR were collected in a variety of ways: excel files, emailed reports, field cards, and other sightings were all entered and organized by our volunteers, reviewed by our team of editors, and stored in a NHBR database. Starting this fall, eBird will automatically organize these sightings, provide a first level of error checking, and securely back up the observations within eBird. Furthermore, the data will be put to much more use both inside and outside New Hampshire since eBird data will be available to anyone and everyone with an interest. By collecting sightings via eBird, we will free up our precious volunteer hours for other projects (like the entry of historical sighting cards). But please note that we will continue to provide support for those that do not have high-speed internet or do not rapidly adjust to this switch in protocol—eBird is a state-of-the-art system and does have an associated learning curve! To report your sightings you have several options:

1)    Report your sightings to New Hampshire eBird

2)    Upload a spreadsheet to New Hampshire eBird

3)    Send your reports to NHBR to upload on your behalf – we’re still working this out so look for more information to come.

We hope that people will use option 1 or 2 and we think birders will prefer this so that they have access to all of their reports. However, we’re committed to providing option 3 for those who do not have internet access, but reporting forms will be changing. Regular NHBR reporters will be receiving more detailed information about how to report sightings using eBird. One major change regular reporters will notice is the concept of reporting all birds, not just the “interesting” ones. This is important to the fundamental goals of eBird and NHBR supports reporting of complete checklists whenever possible. The other big change will be the mapping of your birding locations. This is certainly the way of the future and provides possibilities we cannot begin to consider with our current data base. We’re looking forward to this new development in bird reporting in New Hampshire and believe it will lead to better accessibility and use of the data.

Some tips to reporting your bird sightings

Although any bird sighting will be accessible from eBird, there are a few things that you can do to maximize the value of your sightings. Many of these are covered in stories accessed on the via the eBird story archive:

1) Use precise locations. eBird and NHBR reporting thrives on location specificity. While it may be easier to report birds from "Rockingham County" or "New Hampshire," it does not contribute much to our knowledge. Certain species, like Piping Plover and Roseate Tern, are unlikely to be found anywhere but the immediate coast, so plotting your locations inaccurately could alter how the data represents the ranges of these species. In general, the more specific you can be about where you saw birds, the better. Read more.

2) Submit complete checklists. With each submission, eBird will ask you if it is a complete checklist. Whenever possible, it is worth trying to report all birds you observed and were able to identify. While it may seem tedious to report  Great Black-backed Gull every time you see it on a checklist, notice how the eBird maps for this species capture its different frequency in northern New Hampshire vs. southern New Hampshire. This is possible only with the reporting of complete checklists, because only then can we assess when a species is absent. Read more.

3) Report effort. By recording how long you spent looking, how many miles you traveled or how many acres you covered, you allow eBird to quantify the numbers that you report. Only this will allow eBird to compare the numbers you report with those of other eBirders. It is just like on a Christmas Count, where party miles and party hours are used to standardize counts from year to year. Read more.

4) Document your rarities and unusual sightings. eBird has two comments fields that are great to use for unusual sightings. Note that the species comments field is the most appropriate place to provide a description of the bird. It can be useful to use an asterisk or other symbol to mark rare birds. Submitting a description (or link to photos) directly in your eBird submission has many advantages: 1) it provides support for your sighting that can be used by editors that may review your sighting; 2) it ensures that if the sighting is analyzed years in the future, it will be supported; 3) it demonstrates your awareness that you saw a rarity or a bird at an unusual time or place; 4) finally, your notes may be important to you some day in the future. The more detail the better. Read more about using eBird comments fields. For the rarest species please fill out a New Hampshire documentation form. This will ensure that all the pertinent details are included in your report. Read more about documenting rarities. 

We thank you for sharing your bird sightings and for your continued support of New Hampshire Bird Records. So whether you observe common birds at your feeder, an unusual Buff-breasted Sandpiper (above), or a mega-rarity like the Fork-tailed Flycatcher (below), be sure to support New Hampshire Bird Records and submit it to New Hampshire eBird!

Fig. 2. Fork-tailed Flycatcher (ad. male), Odiorne SP, NH, 20 Nov 2006. First state record. Photo by Marshall J. Iliff.