Welcome to eBird Peru
Birding News and Features
Summary of Peruvian Shorebird Census Results
During the first two weeks of February 2010, a coalition of groups, headed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, BirdLife Peru, Calidris (Colombia), Corbidi, Naturaleza y Cultura Internacional y Museo de Historia Natural de la UNSA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service teamed up to hold a series of shorebird workshops and censuses at sites up and down the Peruvian coast. Nikon generously supported the effort by providing telescopes for use in the surveys. Each of three coastal regions—south, central, and north—hosted a daylong workshop covering the basics of shorebird identification and survey methodology lead by shorebird experts from around the Western Hemisphere.
Census of coastal shorebirds in Peru
What do we know about migratory shorebirds in Peru? The answer, at least for that past 20 years, is "not that much." Twenty years ago, Peruvian ornithologist and conservationist Gonzalo Castro, along with his colleagues in the U.S. and Chile, finished up the last of their work on Sanderlings, Calidris alba, wintering in South America. Since that time, a number of Peruvians have taken up surveys of local sites—such as Paracas, Paraiso, and Pantanos de Villa—but there has been little work beyond these sites and no work that takes a comprehensive look at shorebirds populations across the country.
We need more eBirders for Peru!
In order for the information in eBird to be significant and with good coverage, it’s crucial to have lots of eBirders. The more people that participate, the more useful the database will be. Even prior to the eBird Peru launch in early 2010, there are already eBird lists for Peru from many years ago. At the present the earliest data come from a list collected on the 27th of August of 1975, by David Willard, who recorded 282 species in the Cocha Cashu Biological Station in Manu, southeastern Peru. That was the only list in that year.
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.
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.
Using the eBird Comments Fields
eBird has two comments fields that can be used however you choose. While birders sometimes leave these fields blank, entering submission notes can help make your checklist more valuable. Your comments can assist our eBird reviewers as they try to assess records of rare and unusual birds. By supplying some extra information in your comments you can make your records easier to interpret and make the review process faster. Your eBird data (including comments fields) are also shared with editors of local and regional bird journals, authors of articles and books on bird distribution, state wildlife agencies, and conservationists.
Make Your Checklists More Meaningful!
As the eBird database grows by leaps and bounds, it is becoming ever more valuable. Your observations are making a huge difference in our understanding of birds at many levels. Our scientists are now analyzing your data to find new patterns in bird distribution, abundance and population trends. Although every record submitted to eBird is valuable, only observations with effort can be used in these more rigorous analyses, so we would like to promote several bird survey techniques that we consider most valuable in this regard. Make the most of your birding by conducting traveling counts, stationary counts and area counts in a more meaningful way. In this feature we'll give examples of how to make your observations count for bird conservation!
Are you really making Casual Observations?
We've noticed at eBird that many observers are choosing the "Casual Observation" methodology when in fact they are actually conducting more rigorous types of surveys while birding. Casual Observations are of limited value because there is little effort information required, which allows them to be used in fewer analyses because we know less about how you went birding. It's important to let us know what kind of effort you put into making your observations. Please read on for a better understanding of the eBird methodology choices, and to learn how to make your data most valuable.
Bird Counting 201
In this second installment of our series on counting birds we'll discuss some approaches to counting more problematic groups of birds including large numbers, moving flocks, and mixed species flocks. How do the hawk counters do it? How should you count that constant stream of Cormorants passing your local headland? How do you go about picking out different species in large flocks of birds. "Birds of a feather flock together!" Well, sometimes, but more often than not we're presented with heterogeneous flocks of birds comprised of many different species. Learning how to look at species ratios within flocks is important, and developing an eye for picking out what is different will help you find that proverbial needle in the haystack that we're all hoping for--a rarity. Armed with the tips in this column we hope you'll improve your ability and begin to enjoy counting birds.
Bird Counting 101
At eBird we encourage you to make your best estimate of bird numbers on every checklist. Your best estimate of numbers is always more useful than putting an "X' to indicate presence. An "X' could be one or it could be a thousand! We can always simplify numbers back to presence/absence for analysis. Your estimates of numbers help us judge relative abundance, and are an important part of checklist data. So what do you do if you're having trouble counting birds? Large flocks of birds are always challenging, and in this article we'll talk about some techniques for estimating numbers so that you can practice and become more proficient at counting birds. This will be the first in a series of articles discussing techniques for counting birds.
Document Actions
See All News and Features
- eBird Perú Pool
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- eBird Resources
