Begin forwarded message: From: Brian Sullivan <[email protected]> Date: June 26, 2006 12:02:18 PM CDT To: [email protected] Subject: [BIRDCHAT] eBird--Are you using it??? Reply-To: Brian Sullivan <[email protected]>
Birders I've been wanting to post a message for a while about eBird=20 (www.ebird.org). This program is really taking off across the Western Hemisphere, and I really think that many of you would enjoy the benefits provided by this=20= free online birding tool. In addition to bringing your attention to this application, I'd like to engage in some discussion about what you might=20= like or dislike about the program. We are in the process of building a third version, and having your collective input can help us steer its=20 development. I invite you to take a look at eBird (www. ebird.org). This online collaborative project between the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and=20 Audubon has recently been updated (and soon will be again!), and now provides=20 birders with free access to this extraordinary online checklist program and=20 database. eBird is not only a warehouse of observational data, it's an online tool that allows you to record, retrieve, and archive your data, all while=20 making your efforts available to scientists interested in using these data for=20= bird conservation. New features include a more comprehensive listing=20 capability found on the "My eBird" pages, which include automated listing=20 capabilities down to the county level in each state. It's simple, you enter your observations into the database, and eBird keeps all your lists for you. Coming soon (late summer) will be the ability to bulk upload data from=20= your personal databases and from AviSys directly to eBird. Geographic coverage is also expanding. We now cover all of the US,=20 Canada and Mexico, and eBird has recently been launched in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Plans are in the works for=20 collaborations in the near future with Cuba, Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama, as well as several other islands in the Caribbean. The goal is to implement eBird across the whole of the Western Hemisphere eventually, allowing bird monitoring at scales heretofore unimaginable, and allowing birders to=20 keep comprehensive lists on the site. eBird is backed up by a group of regional experts who have created=20 filters to control data quality. As these regions become more refined, and new filters are created, the database will be even more clean and precise. =20= At minimum we have one filter working in each state/province, but in many states, like California, we are currently working on county-based=20 filters. As more people participate in eBird the value of the data set will=20 increase exponentially. This May we recorded over 500,000 bird observations, and gathered over 30,000 checklists=97a massive amount of data. I invite = you=20 to browse the web site, explore the data output available in your area=20 through the "View and explore data" pages, and please enter your own=20 observations into the system. If you get out birding this weekend just record the=20 birds you see at each location, log in to www.ebird.org, and join the bird conservation revolution! Brian Sullivan Monterey, CA --=20 Brian L. Sullivan eBird Project Leader < www.ebird.org> Photographic Editor, Birds of North America Online < http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/BNA/> Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd. Ithaca, NY 14850 Photographic Editor, North American Birds American Birding Association < www.americanbirding.org> [email protected] 609-694-3280 ------------------------------- BirdChat Guidelines: http://www.ksu.edu/audubon/chatguidelines.html Archives: http://listserv.arizona.edu/archives/birdchat.html
