Which repository do you use? (1 Viewer)

Hi,
I am new to the forum. So maybe I introduce myself first: I am a nature enthusiast from Belgium. As many, I started with birds, but now I am more into different groups of insects. Nonetheless, if I am abroad I like to pick up some new bird species. As my wife is originally from Shenyang, Liaoning and visits to my family in law happen on a regular basis (every 1-2 years), every few months I try to monitor the internet to see if I can find information about birding places in Liaoning and neighboring provinces. From my first visit in 2009 I saw the potential of the Dalian peninsula (Laotieshan) being a migrating hub, and was wondering why I could find so little reports from this location, while Beidahe is so popular. This time however I bumped into the thread of DONGBEI in Dalian and it confirmed my suspections. I hope I can pass by in the comming years, maybe even invite some birdfriends from my home town.

Now, slowly coming to my question, are you guys using any online repository to share your observations, besides this forum? In some comments I read inquiries for information on the locations of some sightings. If you use a repository with mapping functions this information can be shared easily to the whole community.

I know many North-Americans and some Brits use Ebird all over the world, but I can’t find any information yet about the region I am interested in. On my first trip in 2009 I shared my observations at http://birdtalker.net (data from Dongling park, Shenyang and Qianshan, Ansan). There is some more info there, but it seems somewhat out of use now (for Liaoning) and it doesn’t have any mapping function.

Personally, I like to use observado.org, some of the reasons are that I can use it for not only bird sightings and I don’t have to (but could if needed for practical reasons) use an ‘area’ approach. I can just pinpoint the exact location. That’s handy in case you are not in a nature reserve and you want to report one species/bird that flew over (let’s say you are driving on the highway). Moreover, there are free Apps available for phones with GPS that record the coordinates (offline or online) in the field, so you don’t have the hassle to find the locations if you are in unfamiliar terrain (Ebird I believe has similar functions, but not sure if it is free). Birdtalker doesn’t have these capabilities at all. But since it seems to be the ‘official’ depository for China I will still use it (additionally) in the future if I have checklists for a certain area.

Other websites you can share data with that I know of are iNaturalist and ISpot. They look more slick than observado.org, but I feel observado is more functional (but that’s just maybe my bias because Observado was the first one I used and it is a Dutch-Belgian initiative). Observado also contains much more data at the moment. Almost 5 million (including a lot of Ebird sightings via the Avian knowledge Network). You can find all my Chinese observations here. There is also a subsite for China on http://china.observado.org/. Which is great to easily browse only Chinese sightings (19000 for now). To be honest, I sometimes experience glitches with this subsite, but there is a forum where you can report these and help improve the site.

Bart

Bart,

I've been waiting a bit to see if you got any replies on this. I'm afraid the answer may be that what people use is quite diverse, or that many aren't using these formal means at all. I was interested to look at the observado for China which I hadn't seen before.

I have a related question, which may be of interest to you - I was thinking of posting a separate thread, but thought it's related: when people want to follow sightings posted by local folks (Chinese) which of the China based websites do you find most useful? I'm aware of several, but would like to hear if there are any which people find to have more entries or be easier to navigate.

Bart, I hope you find some other things of interest here, even if your question didn't get the answer you hoped for. Welcome!

Gretchen

I really hope that Ebird becomes a de-facto standard for bird observations, but given the originators interest in other groups also realize that alternatives may have advantages. Ebird only went world wide a year ago if I remember correctly, so lack of observations in your area might be caused by that.

Niels

Gretchen,

Thank you for your response. Since you are aware of several Chinese based websites, maybe you can start by listinging the ones you think are interesting.
Last time I forgot the link to my observations in China, you can find them here

Bart

Hi Bart,

I have limited time and slow internet, so exploring isn't something I can do a lot of. These are the 3 sites I am aware of (and can lay hands on right now).

WWFChina - found here - I've probably used this most because I like their sort by province feature which is really what I want. It is a mostly Chinese site, though some birds are given English (latin? I forget) names. I use this to see recent photos of birds in the area.

China Ornithological Society board - found here. I think this has been recommended by someone from this board before Bart mentioned it. It has an English option and seems generally more bilingual. These are actual trip reports, but I don't think I found many for my area.

Database of Birds of China - found here. I used this a lot initially for the images of birds because it sorts nicely by species; however, it's not really a reporting system (I believe, but I haven't explored it recently). It is somewhat bilingual.

I guess there are regional ones too - such as I've seen a nice one for Shanghai - some people here are surely posting to that. I just haven't found one for my area (province or city) yet....

Well, this is I imagine just scratching the surface - hoping others may add...

PS Niels, I like the idea of ebird - though I haven't used it. Obviously to get local birders involved it would have to be bilingual at least. I looked in my area (a well visited area!) and found only a half dozen trips (though some with a couple of lists) represented. Very poor considering the number of English speakers that visit here! If people are reporting, it must be somewhere else. However, I'm considering putting my sightings on ebird (humble though they are) because it would be nice to see it take off here.