In North America, online birders can register on eBird, access the data to learn about birds, and contribute personal observations.
Have you heard of eBird? The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society started eBird in 2002. The site is an electronic database of birding observations that records where species of birds are seen, when they are seen there, and how many of each species there were. A vast long-term database holding records of bird sightings throughout North and Central America allows birdwatchers and scientists to see how birds migrate, where they are found at different times of year, whether their populations and distributions are changing etc.
Serious birders can and do contribute to eBird. A birdwatcher who spends time outside looking for birds can keep his or her own record of sighting in a personal account, and can also contribute the data to the larger database. Editors and filters are in place to ensure that only verifiable data gets included in the main database because the intention is that this data be acceptable for scientific study. Birdwatchers with bird sighting records are encouraged to take part! In 2006, more than 4 million bird sightings were recorded in eBird. eBird Canada came online in October 2006 and by March 2007 the site was receiving about 30,000 checklists every month.
Even if you aren’t so serious a birdwatcher that you can contribute data to eBird, you can access the data already entered in the database. Search for your favorite bird and see maps of its distribution and how that changes over months or years. Learn its relative abundance at different times of year, and how many people reported seeing it in a specified area. It’s a great way to learn about North American birds.
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