eBird codes

["McGinness, Heather (L&W, Black Mountain)" <>]

Thanks again Martin, that’s helpful.

 

Regards,

Heather

 

 

Dr Heather McGinness

Senior Research Scientist

Land and Water  |  CSIRO |  02 62 46 4136 

 

From: Martin Butterfield <>
Sent: Friday, 22 May 2020 3:54 PM
To: McGinness, Heather (L&W, Black Mountain) <>
Cc:
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] eBird codes

 

EBird is an organisation that seems to go into stovepipes quite a lot so what is in one part of the dataset isn't necessarily reflected elsewhere.  

 

I got the metadata as part of a download from eBird which does include the categories as well as the raw codes for individual breeding events.  As I interpret what is going on the categories are set automatically as defaults so the ordinary observer doesn't need to know about them..  

 

Moderators do need to know about them in case they find an event which would generate (eg) a confirmed breeding event which the moderator believes is only a probable event  They leave the event as described but change the category to suit their interpretation.

 

Analysts may wish to analyse at the category level.  For example they may only wish to use the Confirmed codes so are told in the metadata which category to use.  I have attached a copy of the metadata file for you.

 

Martin Butterfield

http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/

https://mallacootaweatherwildlife.blogspot.com/

 

 

On Fri, 22 May 2020 at 15:33, McGinness, Heather (L&W, Black Mountain) <> wrote:

Fantastic – thanks Martin and Ryu for replying so quickly. 

 

It’s interesting, the document you linked to isn’t accessible to me, it just takes me straight to the general help page.

 

But the coding information on the help page doesn’t mention these codes at all. Is it possible they’re not being used anymore?

 

https://support.ebird.org/en/support/solutions/articles/48000837520-ebird-breeding-and-behavior-codes

 

Regards,

Heather

 

Dr Heather McGinness

Senior Research Scientist

Land and Water  |  CSIRO |  02 62 46 4136 

 

From: Martin Butterfield <>
Sent: Friday, 22 May 2020 3:18 PM
To: McGinness, Heather (L&W, Black Mountain) <>
Cc:
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] eBird codes

 

I think the following, from the metadata for the eBird Basic Data set answers your question.  In summary they are codes which griup the wide range of eBird breeding codes together into probability of breeding at the site.

 

BREEDING BIRD ATLAS CATEGORY – Four categories used to describe a species' breeding

status based on the 'BREEDING BIRD ATLAS CODE' reported on the eBird checklist: C1 –

Observed; C2 – Possible; C3 – Probable; C4 – Confirmed. In most cases, these are the

default values corresponding with the breeding bird atlas code reported by the

observer. But in some cases reviewers of atlas data may reinterpret a breeding category,

and that reinterpretation is reported here. For instance, a tern species might be seen

carrying food (typically C4 – Confirmed), but since terns feed young away from the

nesting area it would be reinterpreted as a lower breeding category. For more

information on reinterpretation of breeding codes, see this document:

https://help.ebird.org/customer/en/portal/articles/2791069-breeding-codereinterpretation.

Martin Butterfield

http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/

https://mallacootaweatherwildlife.blogspot.com/

 

 

On Fri, 22 May 2020 at 14:38, McGinness, Heather (L&W, Black Mountain) <> wrote:

Hi all,

 

Does anyone know what the eBird codes ‘C1’ ‘C2’ ‘C3’ or ‘C4’ mean, under ‘reproductive condition’? 

 

They are not listed as standard codes on the eBird websites that I can see.

 

Is the number appended to the ‘C’ some sort of qualifier for observations of courtship or copulation?

 

They have turned up in a database of royal spoonbill records downloaded from the Atlas of Living Australia, in all states and territories, from multiple observers.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Heather

 

Dr Heather McGinness

Senior Research Scientist

Land and Water  |  CSIRO 

m("csiro.au","Heather.McGinness");" target="_blank">  |  02 62 46 4136  |  0428 124 689

GPO Box 1700 Canberra ACT 2601

 

https://research.csiro.au/ewkrwaterbirds/

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