Aussie Backyard Bird Count data noisy

[Andrew Taylor <>]

Browsing Aussie Backyard Bird Count list for inner Sydney at
http://aussiebirdcount.org.au/sightings/ you find a significant fraction
of lists contain obvious mis-identifications.

Most like Barn Swallow, Forty-spotted Pardalote, Black Currawong,
Black-tailed Native-hen & Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo are easy to
understand. And perhaps the reporter of Abbott's Booby from
Newtown was making a political point.  Others IDs are just mysterious
like Black Grasswren.

In one way its good news that a wider demographic has been attracted,
although there is clearly challenges ahead to educate observers &
improve the observations and make the data useful.
 
The mis-ID could be useful, to estimate observer accuracy, someone
reporting (say) Black Currawong shouldn't be relied to have correctly
ID'ed Little Wattlebird & White-faced Honyeater they've also reported.

Andrew