Websites to record bird sightings (1 Viewer)

I am curious to know if there are some plans to integrate the several different platforms to record bird sightings in the world. I know of ornitho, which is now used in Italy,my country, the original Switzerland, Germany and France (as far as I know). Then I read online about Birdtrack in the Uk and Eire, Ebird in north America, but I know there are several different platforms in other countries. Not to mention that some places have regional / local websites which are still used. In my country there are several regional sites, some of which are being integrated with Ornitho.

I also would like to know if the way the sightings are recorded is consistent in the three main platforms. In Italy the idea should be you record every bird you see, which seems to be good if you want to have data you can compare from year to year to build trends for every species. From things I read online it seems to me birdtrack is used at least by some, more to record / share sightings of rarities...

giankun said:

I am curious to know if there are some plans to integrate the several different platforms to record bird sightings in the world. I know of ornitho, which is now used in Italy,my country, the original Switzerland, Germany and France (as far as I know). Then I read online about Birdtrack in the Uk and Eire, Ebird in north America, but I know there are several different platforms in other countries. Not to mention that some places have regional / local websites which are still used. In my country there are several regional sites, some of which are being integrated with Ornitho.

I also would like to know if the way the sightings are recorded is consistent in the three main platforms. In Italy the idea should be you record every bird you see, which seems to be good if you want to have data you can compare from year to year to build trends for every species. From things I read online it seems to me birdtrack is used at least by some, more to record / share sightings of rarities...

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Ornitho also exists for Austria (very new site) and Catalonia in Spain.

P.S. Don't forget Luxembourg is included on the German site. The Luxembourgers may get upset if you forget them.

Ornitho in Switzerland (which I use) is also being used to compile the results for the new breeding bird atlas. I really like it and the information goes directly to the relevant conservation bodies. However, for those people who are unregistered, it's not a particularly good way of accessing bird information as there are only limited search functions. Once you've registered there is a huge amount of info available. Certain sensitive species are, of course, not listed.

ebird isn't used much in Switzerland which, at the moment, is probably a good thing as sensitive species and rare breeders are listed and mapped.

I won't give any species examples here. It's probably enough to say that ebird does not follow guidelines on filtering sightings as laid down by the responsible body in Switzerland vogelwarte.ch

The ebird organisers may fix their filter settings to exclude such species in the future but for now I don't and won't use it. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see. It seems to work ok in America though.

By the way, I'm not in the know here in Switzerland so the location of sensitive breeders is also not known to me. Apart from those species I've found myself.
I'm also not, in any way, anti-twitcher and indeed twitch birds from time to time. It is just that some sensitive species deserve the fullest secrecy.

All the best,
Tom.

giankun--I agree it would be better if all these were combined, yet I'm not optimistic that will be achieved in the near future. Linguistic differences are one obstacle, esp. when you consider the difficulties of designing a site also for use by Chinese, Russian, Arabic, etc. speakers.

giankun said:

Ebird in north America

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Actually, eBird is global in scope, and the predominant listing site for the entire Western Hemisphere. The broad scope of its success in the Western Hemisphere proves that a listing site can operate well across national boundaries. But the diversity of languages and cultures is greater in the eastern hemisphere than the west, so creating a unified global system is going to be more challenging.

Brosnabirder said:

ebird isn't used much in Switzerland which, at the moment, is probably a good thing as sensitive species and rare breeders are listed and mapped.

I won't give any species examples here. It's probably enough to say that ebird does not follow guidelines on filtering sightings as laid down by the responsible body in Switzerland vogelwarte.ch

The ebird organisers may fix their filter settings to exclude such species in the future but for now I don't and won't use it. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see. It seems to work ok in America though.

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eBird as presently designed places the responsibility for concealing the precise location of sensitive species on the user. There are many ways to do this in eBird, as eBird staff have detailed here: http://help.ebird.org/customer/portal/articles/1006789-guidelines-for-reporting-sensitive-species eBird staff have also indicated they plan to implement mandatory location "fuzziness" for certain species in certain locations at some point down the road. Moreover, some local eBird reviewers may invalidate certain overly specific sightings on a case by case basis. But no amount of tinkering with website implementation can avoid the fact that the responsibility of concealing locations of sensitive species must ultimately reside with the birder--because even if a reporting website prevents display of precise locations, that will not prevent the locations from being reported elsewhere on the internet.

If you have concerns about particular eBird reports or species in your area, I suggest you contact eBird staff via email via the address on their website or post your concern on their website here: http://help.ebird.org/customer/portal/topics/465145-community-questions/questions I can assure you that eBird staff take this issue very seriously. But I'd urge patience since eBird expanded to the eastern hemisphere only recently, and it takes time to acquire qualified volunteer experts, with sufficient local knowledge, to monitor eBird reports.

Best,
Jim

Brosnabirder said:

Ornitho also exists for Austria (very new site) and Catalonia in Spain.

P.S. Don't forget Luxembourg is included on the German site. The Luxembourgers may get upset if you forget them.

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Oh yes, I had forgot about Catalunya and did not know about Austria and Luxembourg. Ornitho.it also covers San Marino and the Vatican city, by the way ;-)

Ornitho in Switzerland (which I use) is also being used to compile the results for the new breeding bird atlas. I really like it and the information goes directly to the relevant conservation bodies. However, for those people who are unregistered, it's not a particularly good way of accessing bird information as there are only limited search functions. Once you've registered there is a huge amount of info available. Certain sensitive species are, of course, not listed.

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Yes I also feel good using Ornitho because it's not just a way to record your sightings, but rather to contribute to useful study projects. The fact some sensitive species are not listed at all in some seasons, well.. I understand cause there may be the wrong kind of photographer (or also wrong kind of birder) using the platform to look for things to see and that may be dangerous, especially to nesting birds. I understand those restrictions less when you speak about casual sightings. I mean, I saw a Peregrine Falcon flying over my local supermarket. I recorded the data and it was saved as "private", meaning it's hidden. Well.. I think data should be hidden only if it's really sensitive, like, if I had recorded that I found a nest! On the other hand it would be very difficult to set up a system like that without requiring onerous human contribution.

I do agree on not making data easily available to people who are not registered. I wouldn't like hunters to know where exactly I spotted that group of fieldfares or so many skylarks in winter...

By the way, I'm not in the know here in Switzerland so the location of sensitive breeders is also not known to me. Apart from those species I've found myself.

I'm also not, in any way, anti-twitcher and indeed twitch birds from time to time. It is just that some sensitive species deserve the fullest secrecy.

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Same here. Not anti twitcher, and I did twitch some times, but I understand twitchers could do damages. Again, I believe in a perfect world, regardless of the spieces there should be some flexibility, but I know, we don't live in a perfect world..

Regards,

Gian

J. Moore said:

giankun--I agree it would be better if all these were combined, yet I'm not optimistic that will be achieved in the near future. Linguistic differences are one obstacle, esp. when you consider the difficulties of designing a site also for use by Chinese, Russian, Arabic, etc. speakers.

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Well, maybe there might be different interfaces inputting data to the same database (maybe indirectly and not in real time). So you could be using a Chinese website, and the data you save there would end up in the same database with someone who used Ebird in China (both with names only in Latin in the DB, of course, but the interfaces would translate it )

Actually, eBird is global in scope, and the predominant listing site for the entire Western Hemisphere. The broad scope of its success in the Western Hemisphere proves that a listing site can operate well across national boundaries. But the diversity of languages and cultures is greater in the eastern hemisphere than the west, so creating a unified global system is going to be more challenging.

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I'd rather keep using ornitho and see your data from Ebird... I think "killing off" some systems who are actually gaining usage would not be easy. And I do understand this. Actually there are some local users who prefer the regional system supported by the local government over ornitho. I think that would be perfectly fine if the data ended up being available from both platforms, on the other hand, as of now it's not so (but I think they are working on it).

the responsibility of concealing locations of sensitive species must ultimately reside with the birder--because even if a reporting website prevents display of precise locations, that will not prevent the locations from being reported elsewhere on the internet.

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very true!

Regards,

Gian

giankun said:

Yes I also feel good using Ornitho because it's not just a way to record your sightings, but rather to contribute to useful study projects.

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That's good to hear. The same is true regarding eBird by the way. Its data has already made its way into conservation and scientific studies.

Jim

Brosnabirder said:

ebird isn't used much in Switzerland which, at the moment, is probably a good thing as sensitive species and rare breeders are listed and mapped.

I won't give any species examples here. It's probably enough to say that ebird does not follow guidelines on filtering sightings as laid down by the responsible body in Switzerland vogelwarte.ch

The ebird organisers may fix their filter settings to exclude such species in the future but for now I don't and won't use it. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see. It seems to work ok in America though.

By the way, I'm not in the know here in Switzerland so the location of sensitive breeders is also not known to me. Apart from those species I've found myself.
I'm also not, in any way, anti-twitcher and indeed twitch birds from time to time. It is just that some sensitive species deserve the fullest secrecy.

All the best,
Tom.

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I agree with Jim that one important problem is that Ebird probably does not have reviewers for the region you are thinking about. I know that for the Caribbean, parts of the area is not covered with reviewers yet.

Niels