What is eBird?

Do you want to monitor or inventory your land for birds to help justify an easement, write a grant, or engage a potential landowner? Or, are you looking for volunteers who can monitor your land?

eBird is an ideal tool for recording bird observations, and a link to hundreds of thousands of citizen-scientist birdwatchers who use it every day. eBird is amassing one of the largest and fastest-growing biodiversity data resources in the world through user-submitted checklists that document the presence or abundance of species on your land. In May 2015 alone, participants recorded more than 9.5 million bird observations across the world! eBird volunteers may already be monitoring birds on your land if it’s publicly accessible. Below we explain how to discover and access this information for your area.


What does eBird offer land trusts?

Photo credit: Karen Purcell
Photo credit: Karen Purcell
  • A free, web-based tool for recording bird observations
  • A permanent repository for your bird inventory data or monitoring efforts
  • A wide range of visualizations, including seasonal occurrence charts, to track the migration timing and abundance of birds on your land
  • A connection to citizen-science birdwatchers who provide information about your land and may become supporters or donors to your land trust
  • Species presence lists for your land for grant proposals or to justify easements or land purchases
  • Data to help select new land for protection or acquisition

Private Lands in eBird

Private landowners who have a conservation easement with a land trust may be interested in entering information about birds into eBird, but they may want to know whether that information will be shared publicly. eBird is a public database, accessible to all. If the land is private and visitors are not welcome, the site name in eBird should include “Restricted Access,” which will indicate to others that the site can only be visited with permission. In contrast, if the land is listed as a public site (“Hotspot”), data can be aggregated.

If you are a private landowner and have questions or concerns, or would like to make sure your property is appropriately listed and named, please contact eBird staff at ebird@cornell.edu.

Learn more about eBird’s data privacy policy.


eBird Mobile App

Photo: eBird

eBird Mobile makes it easy to record the birds you find and seamlessly link observations with eBird–a global online database of bird records used by hundreds of thousands of birders around the world. This free resource helps you keep track of your birding activity, while making your data openly available for scientific research, education, and conservation


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