birding-aus

eBird - entering legacy state-level lists.

To: "" <>
Subject: eBird - entering legacy state-level lists.
From: mat & cathy <>
Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2015 23:04:19 +0000
Hi all,


Chris is correct that eBird prefers to get complete counts for short
periods at well-defined locations (e.g. the Atlas 20 minute 2 ha count is a
great example of this).  eBird does allow flexibility in entering lists,
with the ability to enter them for a point, area, or traveling, a certain
distance.  Incidental/Historical can also be used when no effort
information is known.  The broadest list an observer can make is for a 24
hour period, for an entire State (this is extremely broad!).


eBird allows observers to keep track of their life/year/state/country
lists.  For old trips, you may not have detailed notes, but would still
like to get them into your lists.  The preferred work-around in this case
is to enter a HISTORICAL list, at STATE LEVEL, and to use the date
01/01/1900.  This flags the list as “list building”, and we can all move on
to entering more useful (for twitching, for trip-research, and for science)
lists moving forward.


If you need to use this 01/01/1900 historical list, you need to be careful
not to enter a list for an entire country, as it will be pinned to a single
State.  For example, if you pin your 650 species Australian life list to
Canberra (capital city), you will lead the ACT All Time leaderboard by 382
species.  So entering an old list for each State will create fewer
ripples...


Cheers

Mat


PS - A quick clarification on personal vs hotspot locations for Peter"


Personal locations are “owned” by the observer (who can move them and
rename them).  The data in these sites are still completely public, and
show up on maps. (I tend to use these locations for random highway raptor
sightings).


Hotspot locations are shared-sites, which are “owned” by eBird (so only
eBird can move or rename them).  Anyone can enter checklists at these
locations, and their data contributes to the “Hotspot Summaries”.  These
summaries are useful for planning birding trips.

*                                 __________   *
Mat & Cathy Gilfedder
Wildlife photography
pbase.com/gilfedder

Check out bird-finding app BirdsEye
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/id324168850


On 4 June 2015 at 21:07, Adam Bruins <> wrote:

> thanks Chris
>
> That makes sense so I will slowly import the lists into the server to aid
> the database but for now I will take Alastair's advice and create a general
> list that won't affect the statistics.
>
> Respectfully,
>
>
>
>   On Thursday, 4 June 2015, 16:49, Chris Sanderson <
> > wrote:
>
>
> Hi Adam,
>
> I think that this isn't really the purpose of using eBird. Remember that
> all the data in eBird is available for researchers to use to be able to say
> things about trends in bird populations. It's great that is has added
> benefits for birders to keep track of lists, but if we start putting a
> whole bunch of records without location or date attached then that is data
> of limited or no value clogging up their database and making work for the
> moderators.
>
> Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong, but that's my take on it. I've cc'd
> Mat Gilfedder who is involved in the Australian part of the project, so you
> may get a more authoritative answer from him.
>
> Personally I'd go the slow route and transfer your notebooks. So much
> valuable data there that could help birds!
>
> Cheers,
> Chris
>
> On Thu, Jun 4, 2015 at 2:54 PM, Adam Bruins <>
> wrote:
>
> Hey everyone
> Are there any savvy ebird users out there that could help me out? My son
> and I have would like to upload our life list to ebird but can't seem to
> find a way to do it without entering the exact date and other details. All
> we have is a all time list and about twenty little notebooks that would
> take years to sort through and upload. Any shortcuts please!
> Respectfully,
> Adam Bruins
>
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