Bird Moment

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.

2007 marks an anniversary of world-wide importance – the 100th birthday of Rachel Carson on May 27. Carson’s works, especially Silent Spring, are read to this day. As the voice of the modern environmental movement – some even consider her to be the founder – her words have the power to move us to action still. To celebrate Carson’s birthday, we’d like to honor her memory with a special bird count. On May 27, 2007 , the 100th anniversary of Carson’s birth, join bird lovers around the world for a bird count in honor of the woman who did so much to save them. Count the birds you see at home or at work on May 27 - Rachel Carson's birthday - then log on and post your findings on eBird.

This year eBird and International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD) have partnered to provide a repository for all of the bird observations made during IMBD events. To find out more about IMBD and eBird, visit the IMBD eBird site. If you would like to download a checklist that you can take in the field to record the birds you see during IMBD, click here. This will open a PDF document that you can save and print.
If you have used eBird before and want to enter your IMBD observations, just enter a checklist as you normally would and then enter "IMBD" anywhere in the comments section. If you are new to eBird, we have prepared a short introduction to eBird--just click on the Cape May Warbler image.

Did you know that every record submitted to eBird goes through the eBird data verification process? Using a combination of automated data filters and a network of local experts, eBird tackles the issue of data quality in Citizen-Science. In order for us to maintain the integrity of the database, and for it to be used fully by the science and conservation community, we as observers must fully understand and strive to reach the highest level of data quality. Therefore, we've developed procedures to facilitate communication between eBird observers and scientists, including some new and improved review tools for our editors. Through our combined effort to maintain high data quality, eBird will take its place among the most valuable large-scale data sets on bird distribution and abundance in the world. Read more about our data verification process....

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.

eBird and International Migratory Bird Day

eBird has revolutionized the way that birders report and access information about birds. Launched in 2002 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, eBird provides information on bird abundance and distribution at a variety of spatial and temporal scales.
eBird’s goal is to gather, archive and disseminate the vast numbers of bird observations made each year by bird watchers. It is amassing one of the largest and fastest growing biodiversity data resources in existence. For example, in 2006, participants reported more than 4.3 million bird observations across North America!
The observations of each participant join those of others in an international network of eBird users. eBird then shares these observations with a global community of educators, land managers, ornithologists, and conservation biologists. In time these data will become the foundation for a better understanding of bird distribution across the western hemisphere and beyond.