Beyond the Notebooks

Save your sightings in eBird for the historical record—and for a dynamic new look at bird populations

By Chris Wood

Stuart Wilson, Jr., recorded Evening Grosbeaks in large numbers that would be unusual in New York today. Data such as these become most useful when entered into eBird, which archives them electronically and show trends through maps, tables, and graphs.

Photo by Larry McQueen

The notebooks arrived at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in two cardboard boxes—thousands of filed note cards, hundreds of pages of bird records in three-ring binders, organized by date and species. Stuart Wilson, Jr., a meticulous record-keeper, had collected this mine of information in Deposit, New York, during the 1950s and 1960s. Forty years later, a relative had found the notebooks and sent them to the Lab.

Huddled over the boxes of data, Lab director John "Fitz" Fitzpatrick, Conservation Science director Ken Rosenberg, Project FeederWatch leader David Bonter, and I began looking through the notebooks. By chance, we opened to records for Evening Grosbeak—pages and pages and pages of observations, all from Deposit. The numbers of individuals were amazing, with flocks of several hundred birds found in the late 1950s and early 1960s. These days, a flock of 30 is enough to raise eyebrows. Among the records were early dates, late dates, high counts, and the other minutiae that so many bird watchers gather as part of their daily observations.

As we pored over the data, Fitz let out a sigh, "Imagine what we could do if these data were collected today. Imagine if we could extract it."

Today, birders can archive their sightings online as they go, sending their data to eBird (www.ebird.org), a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon. By doing so, they make their observations available to scientists and others immediately and ensure that these valuable sightings become part of a long-term record. These data can be used to look for changes in bird populations decades or even centuries from now.

With eBird, you can also enter the data from old notebooks. By doing so, you and thousands of others will be sending us the equivalent of boxes and boxes of notebooks—but in a format that we can instantly use to generate maps and graphs to tell the larger story of what those data mean.

You may have heard before that your observations are important, that they matter, that each observation represents one piece of a puzzle that contains billions of pieces. But how can they be used? Where? And why? Let's take a look—based on information that's already in eBird.

Changes Through Time

At a most basic level, your observations allow us to understand bird distribution. Open a field guide. Look at a range map—and prepare to be misled. Any traditional range map leads to the perception that bird distributions are stable with fixed boundaries. In reality bird distributions and populations are dynamic.

Evening Grosbeaks are declining in the Northeast after a peak in the 1960s and 1970s. Carolina Wrens expand northward until a severe winter pushes their range south. Cooper's Hawks are increasing dramatically in many towns and cities in the Midwest and East. But the most dramatic example of changing populations in the last decade is shown by the Eurasian Collared-Dove (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Eurasian Collared Dove Expansion
Data from eBird show the rapid range expansion of Eurasian Collared-Doves. The species was introduced to the Bahamas in the 1970s. Darkest shades represent the areas with the highest reported frequencies. Eurasian Collared-Dove photo by Nicole Bouglouan

The Eurasian Collared-Dove was introduced to the Bahamas in the 1970s. The species wasn't even illustrated in most North American field guides 20 years ago. Now, it is one of the most common birds in parts of Florida and the Great Plains. By submitting your observations to eBird, you help document the changing patterns of distribution of North American birds.

Birds on the Move

The data from eBird also allow us to look at migration patterns and make comparisons between different years. During most years, Blackpoll Warblers peak in Florida from mid-April through the first week of May. During 2006, Blackpoll Warblers peaked about a week later and their migration was much more protracted. Some Blackpoll Warblers were still being seen in Florida during the last week of May (Figure 2a).

Figure 2a. Blackpoll Warbler Frequency—Florida

Blackpoll Warbler reports from Florida show a later peak and more potracted migration in 2006 than in the past three years.

If Blackpoll Warblers lingered in Florida for a week, we would expect the bulk to arrive "late" in the north. The data from eBird show that this is exactly what happened in New York. Although the first Blackpoll Warblers were detected "on time" during the first week of May, the biggest push was nearly a week later than it was from 2003 to 2005 (Figure 2b). Understanding the dynamics of migration and how these are influenced by weather, climate, and landscape changes are critical to conserving birds. By submitting your observations to eBird, you help document changes in migration.

Figure 2b. Blackpoll Warbler Frequency—New York

Reports from New York show Blackpoll Warblers arrived late in 2006, as predicted from the sightings in Florida.

By recording your observations in eBird you make your observations available to any researcher, conservationist, biologist, student—literally anyone who is interested in birds. What else will they ask? The questions are as limitless as their creativity and ingenuity. One thing is certain—your participation is necessary. You and thousands like you help provide the answers.

Chris Wood is a project co-leader of eBird.

Send Your Bird Counts to eBird! Estimating bird population sizes is a high priority for Partners in Flight and other conservation organizations. Knowledge of population size helps set numerical conservation targets and habitat objectives, and is important to Congress and other political groups in allocating conservation resources. www.ebird.org

Western Sandpipers Photo by Chris Wood/CLO

For permission to reprint all or part of this article, please contact Laura Erickson, editor, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd., Ithaca, NY, 14850. Phone: (607) 254-1114. email: lle24@cornell.edu