Birdtrack vs. e-bird (1 Viewer)

bluesinlondon · Sep 24, 2012

I've been using Birdtrack for a few years now, but e-bird seems quite appealing since it offers 'Worldwide' rather than Birdtrack's 'UK only'... Not to mention what looks to be much better usability and features.

I would welcome any thoughts on whether I should switch...

I seem to recall reading somewhere that they'd done a deal with each other so that the data submitted in either gets passed to the other. Is this the case? I really like the 'citizen science' aspect and wouldn't want the BTO to lose out if I switch...

Also, is it possible, in e-bird, to add previous years lists simply, without having to do all the details? I don't really want to re-do every entry from the past five years, but it would be good to be able to see totals...

Thanks in advance.

toby · Sep 24, 2012

When I looked at the two together at the start of the year, e-bird seemed to be way ahead of BirdTrack in terms of usability.

Mtn. Quail · Dec 4, 2012

Ebird is awesome. Very easy and user friendly. I haven't used birdtrack but I suggest giving ebird a try.

Ben

jpoyner · Dec 4, 2012

Bird Track would seem the best option for UK records, as it duals as an excellent record submission tool which is vital, especially for common bird and full species list site data. I have used Bird Track for several years now, they get far more records from me as my previous end of year submission to the recorder usually ended up only being "significant" records of rares, unusual numbers etc.
Hopefully they will have the iPhone App finished soon. If E-bird is also submitting records to the BTO also then great, can this be confirmed?

tperry · Dec 5, 2012

I use Ebird so that I can put on overseas records; it is very easy to use and I like it.

I asked BTO (possibly about a year ago) if they were thinking of devising a programme that would allow them to pick up British Isles records from Ebird; the answer was that they had explored this and had discussions with Audubon/Cornell Lab but it was going to be tricky and funding was a problem. I don't know whether any progress has been made recently.

If you use Ebird they will, on request, send you an email with a brief summary of all your records. I think this takes the form of an excel file and it makes me wonder if that could be adapted to allow direct input into BirdTrack. I may be way off the mark as I have little technical knowledge.

I feel bad that my records don't get on to BirdTrack but I do send them to my county recorder via. a birdwatching society I belong to. I would be prepared to pay a small annual fee to use Ebird/BirdTrack if they were made compatible; at present both are free although you can obviously make a donation.

Tony

robinm · Dec 5, 2012

Speaking with my Kent Archivist hat on I would be most concerned if using Ebird meant a loss of records coming through to the county. BirdTrack is by far the largest source of our records and it would be a shame if we were to lose any.

I can quite understand why an "international" birder would want to use Ebird and also that you do not want to put records in twice.

pppppvvvv · Dec 5, 2012

I log all my sightings onto BTO birdtrack, because the android app makes it easier to do this in realtime.

Then I download all my sightings from Birdtrack once a year, fiddle with a spreadsheet for a couple of hours, then upload the lot onto eBird. This is a pain, but gives me the worldwide sightings database that is often interesting to query.

njlarsen · Dec 5, 2012

tperry said:
If you use Ebird they will, on request, send you an email with a brief summary of all your records. I think this takes the form of an excel file and it makes me wonder if that could be adapted to allow direct input into BirdTrack. I may be way off the mark as I have little technical knowledge.

you can trigger download of your own sightings yourself, no need to go with email. All it takes is looking for the right command in "my ebird"

Niels

tperry · Dec 5, 2012

"I log all my sightings onto BTO birdtrack, because the android app makes it easier to do this in realtime.

Then I download all my sightings from Birdtrack once a year, fiddle with a spreadsheet for a couple of hours, then upload the lot onto eBird. This is a pain, but gives me the worldwide sightings database that is often interesting to query."

I would be happy to do this but fear I do not have the technical skill! but if Peter manages it why can't BTO sort something out with Ebird so others can also achieve this.

I hope BTO still have the necessary programming skills - I found "The Atlas" 2007 - 2011 software a pleasure to use when inputting fieldwork, but the latest "Winter Thrush" survey is, for me at least, not at all straightforward.

Tony

ovenbird43 · Dec 5, 2012

bluesinlondon said:
\
Also, is it possible, in e-bird, to add previous years lists simply, without having to do all the details? I don't really want to re-do every entry from the past five years, but it would be good to be able to see totals...

Thanks in advance.

As far as I know, no.

njlarsen · Dec 6, 2012

Ebird is intended as a system for listing observations. There is built in features that allow for listing, but that is kind of a secondary thing. However, I think I saw discussions about adding that kind of functionality, but I am not too sure what was decided.

Niels

Jim M. · Dec 6, 2012

bluesinlondon said:
Also, is it possible, in e-bird, to add previous years lists simply, without having to do all the details? I don't really want to re-do every entry from the past five years, but it would be good to be able to see totals...

Thanks in advance.

ovenbird43 said:
As far as I know, no.

Yes it is. E.g. you can add lists as incidental observations for an entire country, enter whatever date you want, and then click "hide from public output" on the final entry confirmation page. This is what I do when I have old records that I want to include in my personal lists but that have insufficient info to properly enter in eBird's database. (I make sure to click "hide from public output" because this process usually means some of the data I'm adding is inaccurate, e.g. the dates are wrong for some observations, and I don't want to add bad data to eBird's public database.)

Jim

pppppvvvv · Dec 10, 2012

tperry said:
"I log all my sightings onto BTO birdtrack, because the android app makes it easier to do this in realtime.

Then I download all my sightings from Birdtrack once a year, fiddle with a spreadsheet for a couple of hours, then upload the lot onto eBird. This is a pain, but gives me the worldwide sightings database that is often interesting to query."

I would be happy to do this but fear I do not have the technical skill! but if Peter manages it why can't BTO sort something out with Ebird so others can also achieve this.

I hope BTO still have the necessary programming skills - I found "The Atlas" 2007 - 2011 software a pleasure to use when inputting fieldwork, but the latest "Winter Thrush" survey is, for me at least, not at all straightforward.

Tony

I dare say BTO could tailor the export to be in ebird format, it's just a different order in the columns, and the date needs to be a different format, then saved to csv format.
I suspect there isn't enough demand to spend time on this though.
I have just done my annual dump from BTO to ebird. If it wasn't for the date format, which always throws me, it would be fairly simple to the point I could probably write instructions or a macro.

It might be worth asking ebird, if they could allow an import direct from BTo, but again there probably isn't enough demand.

Birdtrack vs. e-bird (1 Viewer)

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