Re: [cobirds] Birding, eBird and eBird review(ers)

I would like to add some comments, since I started all this discussion.

I know eBird reviewers are volunteers, and they have a very hard and (usually) thankless job. I AM grateful for them. There are MANY who are willing to explain in detail why your sighting of one gull was really another gull (insert many laughing emojis here!). I've been birding for decades, and I learn new things constantly, and I love that!

It was only this year, and only in a few counties, that I noticed my rare bird sightings were going  largely unconfirmed. This is also the first year that I've heard private complaints from other eBirders.

When l started using eBird, it was very sporadic. Joe Roller was constantly encouraging me to use eBird all the time to get my data recorded for use by ornithologists, as well as fellow birders. I wonder what advice he would give us all now?

I wholeheartedly agree that birding should not be a competition. It HAS become that for some people, sometimes to the point of "not recording lists accurately",  to be very polite. I'm sure that is discouraging for reviewers. I no longer have my "ranking" on eBird public. I don't want anyone to think they have to "beat me". I don't need to "show off". 

My real concern is that reviewers are overworked,  getting burnt out, getting discouraged, or even just too busy with Life. I understand that completely. But how can we encourage more interest by well-qualified people to become eBird reviewers? We do want the data to be as accurate as it can be, knowing it can never be 100% correct. After all, a beginning birder could say they saw a flock of 30 American Robins, and miss the fact that five of them were Cedar Waxwings. Heck, ANYONE could make that "mistake". 

I also will admit I'm not always the best describer of my bird sightings, especially if I add photos. Why say "red macular" if the photo clearly shows that? But I could do better than just saying "Continuing" or "Photos". Describing the bird you see is a good practice to get in the habit of--and STAY in the habit. 

Those who know me, know that I do try and alert people via CoBird about a rare bird that I'm currently staring at, because I want to share the joy, NOT keep it a secret so that I can "win". It thrills me when people re-find a bird that I reported. 

Happy Holidays, and may you all see a Bohemian Waxwing,

Susan Rosine

Brighton, Adams County 

On Sat, Dec 24, 2022, 10:56 AM Doug Ward <dougward@frontier.com> wrote:

Amen Joey, thank you for this post.  While I cannot speak for the creators of the amazing citizen science project that is eBird, I do not believe they intended the platform become a social media outlet which in some respects is the direction it has taken.  This is a tremendous resource of data, potentially a cornerstone of many bird conservation policies and actions, but it is just that, a database which is only as good as it's data.  If I could wave a wand and eliminate the "Top 100s", the various "Alerts", and even inject a delay of weeks or months to when data posts to the public interface, I believe many of the unintended competitive consequences we've seen recently in birder behavior could be reduced and we can all get back to simply birding.

 

Full disclosure, I've been an eBird reviewer up in Wyoming for over 10 years and I can tell you first hand, the paucity of descriptive information provided by many users is striking.  The most important roll a reviewer can take is making sure the data housed on eBird's servers is of as high a quality as possible at that time.  This means setting the filters that catch unusual sightings tight enough to reflect current understanding of populations, but loose enough to allow free flow of data when appropriate – this is a never ending evolutionary task.  And when a sighting gets flagged, rest assured it is in the system and will be reviewed at some point, but with review queues sometimes in the thousands it will take time.  If a sufficient description is provided, then the record will show up in the public data.  Remember your personal records will never change, and you can always access them via My eBird if you would like to look back and reflect.

 

So grab the binoculars, turn off the eBird app, and go find some of those Bohemian Waxwings that have showed up this year on your own, the rewards are far greater than simply chasing….then enter them into eBird in a week or two.  If you'd like to get word out about your Bohemians beyond your friends, I hear this "COBirds" thing is a great communication tool.

 

Far more important than my two bits here is wishing you all a Happy Holiday, Merry Christmas, and a prosperous New Year filled with lots of good birds.

 

Cheers,

Doug Ward

Denver (currently in snowy Idaho)

 

PS –Bohemians are weirdly nearly absent up here in North Idaho this year (usually in flocks of hundreds), so they must have followed the cold air your direction, so good luck when you head out!!

 

From: cobirds@googlegroups.com <cobirds@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Joey Kellner
Sent: Saturday, December 24, 2022 6:00 AM
To: Colorado Birds <cobirds@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [cobirds] Birding, eBird and eBird review(ers)

 

Time out everyone.  First of all, Happy Holidays to everyone!

We must have a LOT of newer birders in Colorado.  I say this because "back in the day", we went birding for the fun of it and we called each other with our good bird sightings.  Sharing "our" good bird with others was enough "confirmation", we did not need a "reviewer" to validate our birding abilities. 

Personally, when I find a bird that flags as rare, I document it such that an eBird reviewer (tomorrow, next year or next decade) will not need to contact me.  I attach photographs, sound recordings and/or write a detailed description OF THE BIRD (not that is flying, or that it is perched on a twig, but exactly what it looked like and how it might have differed from "the picture in the book").  The description should be detailed enough that it stands the "test of time".   A future researcher maybe 100 or 200 years from now (that has no idea what your birding skill-set was like) can also review your evidence and determine you saw what you said you saw.  Describe the bird and then eliminate similarly appearing species.  THEN, and here's the MOST important part, DON'T LOOK BACK!   Move forward, get out for the joy and fun of birding, not because you NEED reassurance that you are a good birder or to see your name in "lights", but because birding is FUN! 

As for the number of eBird reviewers, these are volunteers and finding people that have the historical background of Colorado (and county) birds, bird identification skills, a thick skin and WANT to do review is difficult.  In the past we've had reviewers that literally accepted just about EVERY bird (contrary to the evidence supplied)!   I (and likely eBird) would want reviewers that can scrutinize a record, make sure a more common species was not misidentified and ensure the data is as good as possible and that sometimes means not confirming some sightings.  Reviewers get burned out, some volunteering literally hundreds of hours a year doing eBird record and filter reviews.  Please don't get mad at the people reviewing your records, it helps no one.  They get just as frustrated at us birders.  Birders that that don't read the eBird rules and submit then 30-mile-long checklists, or create a checklist that follows a trail through three habitats in the course of 5 hours, or attach a photo to the wrong species.  It has GOT to be exhausting to be an eBird reviewer!  How many times have you said, "Thank you" to an eBird reviewer?  Then think how many times you've complained about them?  They are doing the best they can, trust me, I know many of them.  Better to just document the heck out of your rare bird, let the birding community know and move on to more birding fun!

Happy Holidays and I hope everyone can get out and see great birds in the new year!

Joey.

Joey Kellner

Littleton, Colorado

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