Online Breeding Bird Atlas Ready to Go

What are the advantages of conducting a Breeding Bird Atlas online? Ask Steve Kelling, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s director of Information Technologies, and he’ll tell you there are a hundred reasons or more. Now online, the second Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas is about to make use of those advantages.

From requesting atlas blocks online to entering data and exploring results, atlas volunteers will be making historic strides at bird.atlasing.org/PA. The Internet application, created by the Lab of Ornithology’s Information Technologies group, is expected to streamline management of the atlas, reduce personnel costs, speed up data entry, provide instant results, and facilitate combining state data with those from other regions.

Now when volunteers return from the field, they can enter their own data online. “You can see the results of your efforts right away,” Kelling says. “You can view statewide summaries or select a species and hit ‘go’—the map will show every block where the species has been reported up to the minute, color-coded so that breeding status can be determined. We wouldn’t be able to do that without this application.”

To demonstrate, Kelling turns to his computer and uses the mouse to select “Black-throated Blue Warbler” from the drop-down menu . A sprinkling of green, gray, and black dots shows all the atlas blocks where the warblers were determined to be “possibly,” “probably,” or “confirmed” breeding during the first year of the atlas project. In the past, bird watchers, conservationists, and land planners would have had to wait for years before such maps were published as books. “Now you get the results instantly—and they’re free,” says programmer Jeff Gerbracht.

Another tremendous advantage is that the data are automatically archived in a standardized format that will make it easier for scientists to access and combine information from different atlases and organizations. By entering their data online, atlas volunteers ensure that their data will be preserved and widely used. “As researchers bring all the data together,” Kelling says, “they’ll be able to go beyond geopolitical borders and examine the issues that are so crucial for actual bird conservation across regional habitats and even larger scales.” It’s a vision that might not be too far in the future, when other states work with the Lab to adopt similar applications for their own atlases.

For permission to reprint all or part of this article, please contact Miyoko Chu, editor, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd., Ithaca, NY, 14850. Phone: (607) 254-2451. email: mcc37@cornell.edu