birding-aus

EBird

To: 'Carl Clifford' <>, 'Peter Shute' <>
Subject: EBird
From: Roger Giller <>
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2015 06:04:15 +0000
Hi Carl,

First let me say that I have not looked at the App - I am not able to use it
at present because my iPod Touch 4 is not compatible with iOS7 (or 6 for
that matter). However from use of an earlier version of BirdLog (1.6.1) I
have some experience of how it operates.

I assume that this App is for data entry, recording and submission, Does it
also claim to be a field guide or species distribution guide?

The list is not for the hotspot, it is for the region. Which region I guess
may depend on your settings.
>From my reading of the details in the App Store:-

- Full global taxonomy based on The Clements Checklist of Birds of the
World.
"- Checklists customized for your location and time of year, showing most
likely species based on eBird data."

There are 3 tabs above the species entry box, marked All, Likely and
Checked. Have you examined these to see what lists are presented?

 It would be very restrictive to have a species selection list that had only
the 12 species previously reported to eBird from Mataram Ridge Park,
Woongarrah. I would expect that when the App recognises your location it
selects the appropriate checklist. That could be Australia, or SE Australia
or just NSW.

When I take my Morcombe or Pizzey & Knight field guides anywhere they have
lots of birds that could not possibly be present. That applies to the Apps,
or old fashioned paper versions.

In any case having a large list to choose from should not be a problem
because it accepts four letter entry, as does my much earlier BirdLog 1.6.1

Regards
Roger,



-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Clifford 
Sent: Wednesday, 17 June 2015 3:04 PM
To: Peter Shute
Cc: Roger Giller; Sonja Ross; Paul Coddington; 
Subject: EBird

Peter,

When you find some nearby hotspots, you might get some interesting results.
I have just pulled up Mataram Ridge Park, Woongarrah, on the NSW Central
Coast and found an interesting list. Among other interesting species, were
Little Penguin, Cape Barren Goose, Brown Booby, Emu, just about every
species of robin in Aus, and something called Peep Sp. I would happily give
$1000 per species to any one who can verify the presence of any of those
species in Mataram.

I don't think I will bother using this app, if, when I go somewhere and pull
up a list for a nearby hotspot and be presented with a list of birds that
could not possibly be present.

Still needs a bit of work.

Carl Clifford


> On 17 Jun 2015, at 8:57 am, Peter Shute <> wrote:
>
> The eBird app has just been released for iOS. Looks very similar to
BirdLog, but now one can search for hotspots by town names rather than
having to use postcodes. I haven't tried entering any data yet.
>
> Oddly, when I searched for Wandiligong, the only results it returned were
local businesses rather than the town itself. Selecting one of those
resulted in a list of nearby hotspots, so the end result is the same.
>
> Peter Shute
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Roger Giller 
>> Sent: Monday, 8 June 2015 11:00 AM
>> To: Peter Shute; Sonja Ross
>> Cc: Paul Coddington; 
>> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] EBird
>>
>> Peter et al,
>>
>> eBird have brought the Birdlog App "in-house" and modified it to iron out
>> these problems. It will look and feel more like the on-line data entry,
>> and
>> is already being beta tested by reviewers.
>>
>> Roger.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Peter Shute
>> Sent: Sunday, June 07, 2015 8:28 PM
>> To: Sonja Ross
>> Cc: Paul Coddington ; 
>> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Ebird
>>
>> I've just sent them all my complaints. Do they act on suggestions they
>> receive?
>>
>> Peter Shute
>>
>> Sent from my iPad
>>
>>> On 7 Jun 2015, at 7:19 pm, Sonja Ross <> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Peter,
>>>
>>> It is annoying!   Have you tried to contact them about it?
>>>
>>> Sonja
>>>> On 7 Jun 2015, at 6:00 pm, Peter Shute <> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> The only way I've found to select a location not near me in Birdlog is
>> to
>>>> select the Search Hotspots By City option, then enter the postcode of
>>>> that area. Then it lists all the hotspots in that area, which you can
>>>> search by entering a few letters. I don't know what you can do if you
>>>> need to enter data where there's no existing hotspot. Or if you don't
>>>> know the postcode.
>>>>
>>>> Seems like a strange shortcoming of the app.
>>>>
>>>> Peter Shute
>>>>
>>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>>
>>>>> On 6 Jun 2015, at 6:09 pm, Paul Coddington
>>>>> <> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> I usually just use the standard search function on the computer to
>> jump
>>>>> to the species I want in the web interface, using the keyboard
>> shortcuts
>>>>> so it's faster (i.e. command F to search on my Mac), type in a few
>>>>> letters of the name (e.g "whist"), and then command G if it doesn't go
>>>>> to the species I want (Whistling Kite instead of Golden Whistler) and
>> I
>>>>> need to jump to the next one that matches what I typed in. It's a bit
>>>>> slow but not too bad.
>>>>>
>>>>> Using the Birdlog app is really quick for entering data since you just
>>>>> type in a few letters and it autocompletes and then you just pick the
>>>>> species from the matches it presents. But I can't figure out how to
>>>>> select locations that aren't near you when you're using the app, so
>> you'd
>>>>> need to pick a bogus location (e.g. a personal location for your
>> house)
>>>>> and then change the location to the actual place through the web
>>>>> interface once the list is uploaded from BirdLog.
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 6 Jun 2015, at 4:57 pm, Peter Shute <> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I don't mind entering lists for new trips as I do them, but I wish
>>>>>> there was a faster way to enter the backlog. Does anyone have any
>> tips
>>>>>> for doing it quicker?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The main trouble is that my notes list species as I encountered them,
>>>>>> which means trawling up and down the web page to find them to mark
>> them
>>>>>> off. It would help if I knew the species list order off by heart, but
>>>>>> I've only got a rough idea where any species is in the list, so I
>> have
>>>>>> to search for a lot of them. I've tried going through my notes doing
>>>>>> all the pigeons, then the parrots, etc, but that means I've got to go
>>>>>> through them multiple times, so it wastes as much time as it saves.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Peter Shute
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 6 Jun 2015, at 2:53 pm, Paul Coddington
>>>>>>> <> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I did the same as Mona, and agree that it's rather mindless and
>>>>>>> laborious but very satisfying, and a good way to trigger nostalgic
>>>>>>> memories by reviewing all those old trips. I started with Australian
>>>>>>> trips where I saw lifers, and it only took me a couple of months or
>>>>>>> working on it now and then to get the Australian life list sorted,
>>>>>>> then I worked on trips that built my state list, then overseas
>> trips,
>>>>>>> then everything else. Overall it took about a year but now it's all
>>>>>>> done and it's easy to enter new lists.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> eBird is a great resource, and the the more people use it, and the
>>>>>>> more information is added to it, the more useful it becomes.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2015 22:31:37 +1000
>>>>>>>> From: Mona Loofs Samorzewski <>
>>>>>>>> To: Adam Bruins <>
>>>>>>>> Cc: "" <>
>>>>>>>> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Ebird
>>>>>>>> Message-ID:
>>>>>>>> <>
>>>>>>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Hi Adam
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> eBird does specifically cater to this very issue, check out the
>> ?How
>>>>>>>> to Upload Your Lifelist? help topic at
>>>>>>>> http://help.ebird.org/customer/portal/articles/973912
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> If you have the time and the inclination, all those lists in your
>>>>>>>> 20-odd notebooks would add fabulous data to eBird. I?ve spent about
>> a
>>>>>>>> year uploading all of mine - kind of satisfying in a mindless,
>>>>>>>> laborious sort of way.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Good luck with it.
>>>>>>>> Mona
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> On 4 Jun 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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