eBird is a wonderful tool, a great resource, and a chance to participate in and contribute to real time science. It is open-ended and is very much what you make of it. You don't need to be a hotshot birder to participate, and it can help you with your birding. It lives on the web at http://ebird.org/... but you will wind up there if you just enter "www.ebird.org" in your browser, or at least in Firefox. In fact, in Firefox, all you have to do is type in "ebird".
According to the "about eBird" tab on the homepage, (http://ebird.org/content/ebird/about):
A real-time, online checklist program, eBird has revolutionized the way that the birding community reports and accesses information about birds. Launched in 2002 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, eBird provides rich data sources for basic information on bird abundance and distribution at a variety of spatial and temporal scales.
You should eventually read the entire page there, but first, follow me below the fold.
The about tab also tells us that:
eBird documents the presence or absence of species, as well as bird abundance through checklist data. A simple and intuitive web-interface engages tens of thousands of participants to submit their observations or view results via interactive queries into the eBird database.
eBird is a "citizen science" project. The idea is that if enough conscientious amateurs submit enough data, then the error rate will become statistically insignificant, and the data will be useful for science. This is especially true, because the data is reviewed, and claimed sightings of something like this:
from Cleveland will be rejected for the science database (but not your private one) unless there is adequate support for the sighting. That is really as it should be. I had this happen with a bird not unheard of in the location where I saw it, but rare enough there. I was asked for any corroborative evidence, other witnesses, photos, species specific behaviors noted and the like, and had none to offer. This doesn't bother me at all – it is very much all for the better that way.
Though anyone can use eBird's database to plan birding outings or check the likelihood that the Pale Chanting Goshawk shown below frequents the Pismo Beach area, the greatest benefit to the individual and the birding and science community comes from full participation. Hence, this Diary, such as it is, is aimed at assisting one in getting started with that process, and promoting that process.
Full participation requires a login and I will simply assume from your presence here that you are all capable of creating and using one. On the home page, under the banner, are five tabs, "Home", "About eBird", "Submit Observations", "View and Explore Data" and "My eBird". Below the tabs, to the left are links for signing in and registering, and the rest of the page is worthy of attention and perusal, but save that for later, during your anticipated frequent logins.
When I sign in, it takes me direct to the Submit Observations tab, but I am not stuck there if I wish to go elsewhere. We will start with that process, however, since it is the foundation of the entire scheme. In order to submit observations, you must state where you made the observations and eBird provides several methods of doing so. The easiest is to pick from your personal list of previously selected or created locations. You click Select from my Locations, and it expands into a pick list. Once you enter data for a given location, it is automatically added to your personal locations pick list. (You can instruct the site to hide specific locations in order to minimize clutter if need be.)
The other options are all links situated beneath "Select from my Locations". Though you can select an entire city, county or state, such information isn't overly useful and they recommend against it. Accordingly, I won't address that option, but it is there and is somewhat user friendly. You should feel free to experiment and poke around because there are tools under the My eBird tab which allow you to delete locations and to to correct or delete observations.
The newest and probably best method of selecting a location is identified by the Find it on a Map link. You enter county, state and country information and it brings up a map. You drag the map and use the zoom in and out scale to the left to get to the most precise view of your location and single click to create an identifier, which you then give a name in a text box above the map. This is the preferred method, because your location might already exist as a "hotspot", which you can simply click to select.
Alternatively, you can simply enter longitude and latitude after clicking the appropriate link, assuming that you have that information with a high degree of specificity (fractional seconds, as I recall.) The map is far and away the best, however, because there are so many hotspots already in existence and because you can readily enter other countries for "country" to record sightings abroad. Entering Belize allowed me to discover that both Chan Chich and Crooked Tree are already hotspots, which would allow me to record both of the following, if only I can find where I stashed my field notes for that trip. In fact, I might eventually get to enter most of my non-local trips yet, after I get done with all my local stuff.
Once you pick a location and click the "continue" button, you will be taken to an area to record the date and other relevant information, such as the number in your party, the type of count, the duration, area or distance covered, and, optionally, the elevation in feet. For a stationary count, they want duration, for a traveling count, distance covered and duration, and for an area count, area covered and duration. A brief explanation of each type of count is is given. One can also submit a "Casual Observation", but they discourage this, and I will address it later, if at all. Clicking on the continue button takes you to the next section.
"Step 3 – What did you see or hear" will now appear, and near the top of the page are two questions:
"Are you submitting a complete checklist?" (Be Sure To Answer This!!!) and "Do you wish to report age/sex or add species comments?". I will return to that first question in a bit. The second seems to default to no, which is the appropriate answer for me, so I have no idea what happens if you say yes.
You next get to select how the data entry checklist is presented with respect to two variables, whether to use most probable species or include rare species, (I always go with the former) and whether the list is to be presented in alphabetic or taxonomic order. I go with taxonomic because that is what I'm used to from field guides, feederwatch, locality checklists, and the like.
The lists are then presented by taxonomic group with each locally occurring member of the group listed beside a corresponding rectangle. For data entry, one simply clicks on the appropriate box and enters the number seen. If you are uncertain as to some it is no problem. Most common confusions are accommodated by the provision of species level boxes, such as for: gull sp., hummingbird sp., goldfinch sp., etc., and "either or choices" such as "Rufous/Allens Hummingbird". This permits entries such as 4 American Goldfinch, 2 Lesser Goldfinch, and 3 somekinda goldfinch.
After you have gone completely through, you will again click the "continue" button and will very probably wind up back at the top of the page because you forgot to check whether or not you were submitting a complete checklist. This happens enough that there is another "continue" button way up there to use after you fix that omission. Eventually, continuing will take you to a final screen where you can review your data and add a comment if you should see fit. I almost always add a comment telling how I do my counting, and, if I am reporting on a day at home, how I am reporting my time. Then you can click "Done" and wind up with more options.
You can:
Submit another checklist for the same location
Submit a checklist for a new location
View and explore data
Go to My eBird
Manage my locations
Manage my observations
The first option up there is why I submit my data in batches, a week or so at a time. When you select that option, some of the basic data remains in place, so you have less to enter. Also, I can copy and paste my standard comments, saving typing. The last two choices are also options under "My eBird", which is also available as a tab. You can edit, analyze and massage your data in many ways from "My eBird". The middle option for "View and Explore Data" allows you to explore, analyze and massage all the data as well as merely yours.
Gratuitous Jacamar:
Let's now look at the whole thing with casual observations and submitting a complete checksheet. I had an e-mail discussion of many things with one of their people which left me convinced that one should not do casual observations, but I cannot recall in any significant detail the arguments presented by the eBird staffer involved. Generally, it is that casual observations have so little data that they aren't really useful or used.
If, during a two hour session, one lone bird is seen, and it is a crow, that information can be combined with what is known about that location, the time of year and day and that species to make some inferences. If only one crow is seen, but varying counts of twenty other species are also seen, the same is true, and the two data sets give a clearly different picture. If, however, all we know is that at one instant of time, a crow was at that location, almost nothing is really known and almost nothing can be inferred. If the bird is a rarity, then the information is of greater use perhaps, but if it is, then it needs to be documented well enough to almost take the observing session out of the "casual observation" category.
One should always submit a complete report of what one has seen, because if one doesn't, they have no idea what was omitted and why, so they lose valuable statistical constraints, making the data really difficult to use. For what it is worth, what they really want is a complete report of what you saw and identified, with no picking and choosing what to report, which seems like it would always be feasible. Anything you cannot identify doesn't belong in the data set, so the answer would still be yes if you simply excluded mystery birds. In addition, they are fine with conservative counting techniques, though they would like them to be noted in the comments section.
If you walk out a trail and back, and see a sharpie in the same tree going both ways, it is probably the same sharpie. You can count it, and all such instances as two, and add a comment that you listed every instance of a bird seen on a two mile out and back, and thereby probably included some duplicates. You can also count it but once and do similarly with other possible duplicates, and explain that you tried to count so as to eliminate likely duplicates and hence possibly underreported. This kind of thing is what the comments block on the last screen is for.
As an example, I am retired and my yard and neighborhood are full of birds. Whenever I stop to look out the window or go outside, I see birds, and make a note of anything which changes my count. When I leave the house and return, I see birds and note any changes in the count. At the end of the day I estimate the total time spent doing so, and part of my standard comment for such a day is: "The time recorded is the total cumulative time spent birding this location today during daylight hours. It is discontinuous."
I participate in feederwatch and use a counting methodology based on a modification of their procedures, and comment to that effect as well. My comment, which changes and evolves, is currently: "I use a modified feederwatch counting method, counting all birds seen and heard, but still only the greatest number of each species seen or heard at any given time." They are familiar with this methodology because feederwatch is another of Cornell's citizen science projects. What it means is that if I see two robins at 10:00 am, I count that as two robins. If an hour later, I see one more, the count stays at two. But if I later see three all at once, then the count goes up to three. This gives an idea of population density and eliminates double counting.
A lot of you might very well have a lot of old, historic information stashed away. You can input that too, so long as it contains the necessary ingredients of time, date, place, what you saw and the like. I have a whole binder of such information I accumulated for the simple purpose of trying to get a handle on seasonal changes at a few local areas, which I am slowly but surely entering into the system. I hope to eventually dig out some of my old field notes on special trips and see if any of that has enough specificity to be used too.
So how do you start, beyond what is here? For my backyard birding, I rule 6 or 7 vertical columns down most of a sheet of lined paper, leaving a little unruled space on the right side for bird names and other line identifiers. Starting at the top, I make spaces for date, time started, duration, high temperature, low temperature, hours of rain, and one labeled "input" which gets a mark once I have input that column. I skip a line, and list a few of the daily regulars around here and then add others to the list as they are seen. In the boxes where line and column intersect, I enter the appropriate numbers, adjusting them upward as needed. I keep a stack of these on the kitchen counter near a window that looks out on my feeders. It is nearly impossible to start the day without making some kind of entry, and then I'm off and running.
On field trips, I try to remember to capture all the extra information that eBird wants in my notebook. I then transfer that information to my lined sheets for input, and, later to my binder (which is now becoming obsolete, since I can look my stuff up on eBird instead of in my binder.)
Its easy, it is useful, and it keeps you in practice. There is no reason not to do it. Go for it. If you screw up, you can always go to "My eBird" and fix things. On the side, for you listers out there, it gives you a new checklist:
all the stuff you've seen that has been rendered useful to science.
This could be, in a way, your most significant checklist. An interesting challenge would be to try to see just how much of your lifelist you can get entered into eBird and thereby render useful.
So, Away we go!