Has eBird made people selfish with sightings?

[Alberta Hayes <>]

I use eBird when travelling, and generally not when I’m at home in Canberra. The reason being that most of my birding is done incidentally and not as part of a full checklist, which is dissuaded in Canberra, and not in other regions. For example, I’m in Japan at the moment travelling with a non-birding partner, and will post if I see anything that isn’t extremely common, but this is not something that I would do in Canberra as it wouldn’t get approved anyway.  

Like other people have said, eBird is not always instantaneous, and the checklists have to be reviewed before they are published. This explains a fair bit of the lag between sighting and publishing. 

Alberta. 

On Fri, 6 Sep 2019 at 10:09 am, Ryu Callaway <> wrote:

As a semi-competitive ebird user, I personally find sharing a rare sighting one of the most rewarding aspects, especially when others successfully find the bird and thank you for it.

There are many reasons though why a record may not make it up promptly. I don't use mobile data and often may go birding before work other activities, and do not get the opportunity to post until much later in the day when I get home or connect to wifi. 

I think the other problem is that ebirders tend to have a different perception on what is considered rare and worth reporting. There are probably many species which many chatline subscribers would appreciate hearing about, which ebirders may dismiss as unnoteworthy. 

There will be exceptions, but overall I think you still get a lot more sharing of sightings from those who post to ebird than those who don't. 

Ryu