Central America

In 2018, nearly 4,000 new eBird users submitted records for Central America, bringing the count of eBirders for our region to 15,316. This wonderful group of people have submitted over half a million complete lists for the region (508,668 to be precise). While many are tourists from around the world, local birders are now providing the majority of contributions and accumulating tremendous data sets from their local patches.  In 2018, 44 observers submitted more than 365 complete checklists, a 50% increase over last year. Ten remarkable observers from five different countries contributed over 715 lists each, while Jan Cubilla of Panama once again submitted the most complete eBird lists (1,536 lists submitted).  Of special note in 2018 was the amazing participation of Belizean birders, contributing more than 32,000 complete checklists to the eBird data base, second only to Costa Rica in Central America.

More bird species than ever before were reported in Central America, once again!

As in 2017, Central American eBirders again reported more species than in any previous year. The 1149 species in 2018 included 7 reported for the first time in the region, including 5 found during the year, and two generated by taxonomic changes. New species were all vagrants occurring each in a different country; they include American Robin, Great Black-backed Gull, Bare-faced Ibis, Red-throated Pipit, and Black Turnstone. No Central American Big Year records were set in 2018. Chris Fischer deserves recognition for reporting the highest diversity (753 species) but that wasn’t enough to break the records reported in 2014.

Great photos! Over 100,000 of them

In this article, we have shared the photo from each Central American country with the highest community rating in 2018 (the photo of the toucan being the top rated photo for Costa Rica). During its third complete year for photo submissions, eBird collected its 9 millionth photo worldwide, and reached 300,000 in Central America. More than 123,000 were uploaded just last year (Table 1). You can find how many species you photographed at your personal profile page (and right on the main eBird portal page after logging in).

4th Global Big Day

On 5 May 2018, Central American birders collaborated on the world’s biggest birding day ever. And we were in the middle of all the action! The Cornell Lab of Ornithology selected southern Honduras for their big day activities, and three eBird staff members joined local experts to compete for a new Honduras record, 242 species. Throughout the region, new records were set, such as 270 species in Belize, and 238 species in Guatemala. In all, birders in Central America reported 1037 species during the 4^th Global Big Day, a new record (previous record was 952 species in 2017). Save the date for the 5th Global Big Day on Saturday, 4 May 2019.

1st October Big Day

Interest in October Big Day on 6 October 2018 was high throughout Central America, although some areas were hampered by inclement weather. A Costa Rica team reported 239 species (the “Northern Raptors”), the number to beat in 2018. The total species reported this day in Central America was 936.

A few more details

In 2018, the Central American portal published 28 announcements or articles, including three bird ID articles such as this one about Buteogallus black hawks. The eBird Central America Facebook group was active, and the group followers increased by almost 50% compared to a year earlier, numbering 1376 by year’s end.

Central American “ebirders” continued to gain experience, evidenced by their Regional life lists. According to the Top 100 in Central America, membership in the informal “700” club (i.e., 700 species reported to eBird from Central America) surpassed 100, so in the future we won’t be reporting on it anymore. Membership in the “800” species club reached 48, up from 37 a year ago, and the “900” club reached 12 members, up from 9 last year. Will anyone reach 1000 species in 2019?

In 2018, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology integrated eBird Mobile app with Merlin, the free, bird-identification app that includes photos and reference sounds for virtually all Central American birds. Now, if you have downloaded one of the country packs to your phone, you can access Merlin right from your eBird list as you are birding in the field. In 2018, packs were launched for El Salvador and Honduras as well as Panama and Nicaragua, which completes all of Central America.

We are proud that one of our own, Belize’s Jorge Eduardo Ruano, was recognized by eBird as its eBirder of the Month award winner in December, 2018. Congratulations, Jorge!

For lots of great ideas about how to use eBird in 2019, check out eBird’s article about new year’s resolutions, and to learn more about eBird’s advances in tools and technology, see their recent annual review article.  At eBird Central America, we wish everyone a great year of birding in 2019.

Contributed by Oliver Komar, Zamorano Biodiversity Center, Zamorano University, Honduras.

Country	Photos 2017	Photos 2018	Audio 2017	Audio 2018
Belize	7,639	15,548	114	706
Costa Rica	29,828	51,639	855	1004
El Salvador	6,835	7,300	249	313
Guatemala	7,509	9,254	360	143
Honduras	12,717	19,277	1,379	1,381
Nicaragua	4,282	4,033	443	226
Panama	8,300	16,228	739	246
CENTRAL AMERICA	77,110	123,279	4,139	4,019

 Table 1. Volume of rich media uploaded for 2018 (Source: eBird, 12 Feb 2019)