Birding News and Features
Bird new sites and help advance migratory bird conservation this spring!
We are seeking experienced volunteer birders who would be available to monitor specific sites this spring, going out at least 3 times over the course of the 5-6 week migration. We will work with your schedule to find sites and sampling periods that work for you. It doesn't matter if you have never participated in a citizen science effort before - training will be provided. Some money is available to cover volunteer travel expenses associated with this study.
NYSOA Launches Searchable Ornithological Data Base
In January the New York State Ornithological Association (NYSOA) announced a terrific new resource for ornithologists, students, and birders. The Kingbird, NYSOA’s quarterly ornithological journal, has been in print since 1950. Now anyone can go online and search a database of 57 years of The Kingbird free of charge. Being able to find specific information quickly with a computer will save researchers the countless hours of work that were previously necessary when sifting through hundreds of paper issues of The Kingbird.
This unique research and educational resource, which can be found at www.nybirds.org/KBsearch.htm, clearly demonstrates NYSOA’s commitment to its mission to “further the study of bird life and to disseminate knowledge thereof.”
eBird & Birds of North America Online
New iPhone App harnesses the power of eBird--Check out BirdsEye!
Two new ways to make your birding count!
Exposing eBird Species Comments
eBird has two comments fields that can be used however you choose. Checklist comments can be personal comments on the day, where you went, or what the weather was like, and this is also a great place for personal notes. The second field, species comments, is very useful for providing additional detail on the rare birds you see, helping others to find a bird you discover, or generally for providing more information on specific sightings within a checklist. Team eBird is committed to making eBird data as useful as possible and as we develop new ways to push eBird data out to birders, this free text field will become increasingly important. However, since everyone may use this field differently, we wanted to give a heads up. Starting in a few weeks, we plan to make your species comments available through new output tools (not the checklist comments) along with the date, location, and count of species you observe.
eBird is for Every Birder!
Occasionally we hear about birders who tried eBird once, but then did not return because they felt they were not qualified to contribute, or that eBird caters only to “expert” birders. This is not the case at all! At eBird we believe that all bird observations have value. You need not be a globetrotting expert—some of the most valuable checklists are repeated observations from people who have never looked for birds outside their own backyard! You need not know every bird that flashes through your binoculars either, the eBird data quality process guards against many potential identification errors. Furthermore, the exchange of information between experts and beginners during this process is a valuable learning tool. We want eBird to be used by birders of all skill levels: our only request is that you try to use eBird to its fullest capacity, report the birds you see and hear to the best of your ability, and err on the conservative side if you are unsure about your identification.
Data entry overload? Learn eBird tricks and tips!
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 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.
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.
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'!
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'!
The Second Atlas of Breeding Birds in New York State – published!
by Kimberley Corwin
What a time for celebration for New York’s birders! The long-awaited volume, The Second Atlas of Breeding Birds in New York State, edited by Kevin J. McGowan and Kimberley Corwin, is published. As copies of the book make their way into the hands of birders across the state, such exuberant words such as these from Angus Wilson have been heard: “This morning the [book] landed on my doorstep with a resounding thump! At 696 pages, it is much heftier and more solidly produced than I was expecting. Clearly, the book is a treasure-trove of information and of considerable interest to all NYS birders.”
Report on the Twelfth Annual Muckrace
74 birders participated in the twelfth annual Montezuma Muckrace, held Friday and Saturday, September 12-13, at the Montezuma Wetlands Complex in Cayuga, Wayne, and Seneca counties. The 20 teams tallied 186 species during the 24-hour event, only two fewer than the record 188 species recorded in 2006, up from 177 in 2007.
In contrast to last year’s drought and low water levels, this year’s challenge was the generally high water throughout the Complex. Friday’s more-or-less continuous rain did not bode well for participants, but shortly before the start time of 8PM, the rain stopped, and dry but extremely humid conditions prevailed for the 24-hours of the event.
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.New Breeding Bird Atlas Published in New York
The Second Atlas of Breeding Birds in New York State, edited by Kevin J. McGowan and Kimberley Corwin was released in December 2008. Five years of fieldwork by more than 1,200 contributors provided the data for this latest addition to our understanding of New York’s avifauna. This substantial book reveals striking changes in the distributions of many of our breeding birds since New York’s first Breeding Bird Atlas was published in 1988. Over half of our 253 species showed a significant change in their distribution, with 70 species showing increases and 58 species showing declines.
Western hummingbirds in the East--set your feeders out!!
Effort-based Observations -- An eBird Thank You!
At eBird we strive to gather data from birders in a useful way, and then make these data available to science and conservation. eBird allows birders to select from four methodology choices, three of which have associated effort information, thereby greatly enhancing the utility of the data. Back in June we made a plea to eBird users for more observations with effort, in the hope of pushing more eBirders away from using "Casual Observations" and toward using the three effort-based protocols. We'd like to thank those of you that have graduated to effort-based birding, and here we'd like to share some of the recent good news concerning the decrease in overall use of "Casual Observations" as a birder's "default" methodology.
Download My Data Released!
Birders have asked for eBird functionality that allows one to back up their data on home computers. We have built a tool for this, and are pleased to announce its release. We've recently added the ability for users to retrieve a file containing all the data they've ever entered into eBird in spreadsheet format, which can be easily read using Microsoft Excel, manipulated and analyzed using tools outside eBird, and saved and stored on your home computers. This new tool gives users the ability to analyze their own raw data and to look at patterns in their own observations beyond what the eBird View and Explore data tools now provide. The idea is to make eBird as versatile as possible, and give you the raw data in order to allow you to perform your own data exploration!
