Hotspots

Hotspots are public birding locations created by eBird users. Using Hotspots, multiple birders can enter data into the same shared location, creating aggregated results available through "View and Explore Data". When you suggest a location as a hotspot, it must first be approved by a hotspot administrator before it becomes available to the public. The idea is to avoid the creation of duplicate hotspots, and to make sure that the location in indeed a hotspot (e.g. Milwaukee Coast Guard Impoundment) and not a personal location (e.g., My Backyard). This process can be lengthy and involved, and our volunteer hotspot administrators sometimes can take weeks to approve requests. To help speed this process up, it is important that you try to ensure that the hotspot you suggest does not already exist.

What locations are appropriate hotspots?

Hotspots can be any public birding location, but you should think about scale when making a suggestion. Right now hotspots are represented by a point on a map, not a polygon (though we hope to do that in the future). With this in mind, a general rule of thumb is that the smaller or more spatially refined the location, the better. This way we can know exactly where you saw the birds and we're able to analyze landscape variables associated with the location. This becomes hard if you are reporting from large geographic areas (e.g., Nicolet National Forest). Instead try suggesting a more refined location like "Nicolet NF--Waupee Swamp". We are trying to avoid the inclusion of large-scale hotspots in the database (e.g., long traveling counts like cruises) that don't really represent specific locations.

Hotspot naming conventions:

1. Single Locations

Single locations are places that do not need modifiers and are generally well known or large scale birding localities (e.g., Milwaukee Coast Guard Impoundment or Crex Meadows). Naming for single locations should follow typical grammatical structure, and use the following abbreviations:

County Park – CP
County Forest – CF
State Park – SP
State Forest – SF
State Wildlife Area – SWA
State Natural Area – SNA
State Fisheries Area – SFA
National Wildlife Refuge – NWR
National Forest – NF
National Lakeshore – NL
Road – Rd.

2. Sub-locations

Sub-locations are smaller scale birding locations found within a larger
primary location. These sub-locations are meant to allow more specific data entry for locations found within a larger area of interest. For example, one might bird Horicon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge. But within Horicon Marsh NWR there are several major birding locations including Dike Rd. and Highway 49. Sub-locations should always follow the primary location separated by a double dash (--). These would be listed as follows:

Horicon Marsh NWR--Dike Rd.
Horicon Marsh NWR--Hwy. 49
Horicon Marsh NWR--Old Marsh Rd.

3. Locations needing additional modifiers

Occasionally to clarify matters locations require additional modifiers, typically county designations. For example, there are over 65 different lakes called “Long Lake” in Wisconsin, each with its own set of associated sub-locations. We need to add both sub-location and the county modifier to make it clear to the user which location to choose. County modifiers should always follow the primary location name and the sub-location name (if present), and should always appear in parentheses.

Long Lake--Boat Launch (Bayfield Co.)
Long Lake (Vilas Co.)

Can I get a list of all the hotspots?

The easiest way to see where hotspots are found is to simply use the mapping tool when you submit observations. There you can move around within a state and click on the icon to see the name of each hotspot. Note, that hotspots do take 24 hours to process through our system, so even if our editors have approved a hotspot, it may not show up until the next day.

Some eBirders occasionally ask us for the list of all hotspots, along with coordinates. A list of these hotspots has been made using our eBird Hotspot API and is available here:

https://confluence.cornell.edu/display/CLOISAPI/eBird-1.1-HotSpotsByRegion

Can I help with hotspot management?

If you are interested in helping administer hotspots in Wisconsin or your county, or have an urgent hotspot request that requires immediate attention send us an email at wiebird@gmail.com.

Sections