eBird : impossible upload (1 Viewer)

[Gduff]

As a French user of the VisioNature database (Naturalist mobile application), I would like to upload my data to eBird in order to display more statistics, and worldwide data.
Unfortunately, I cannot figure out how to upload my data.

I've followed every instruction detailed on their page Sign in
I've read all the help regarding this topic (Comment téléverser des tableaux de données dans eBird).
Nothing works, I constantly have error messages.

The strange thing is that even their own sample file doesn't work!!! It says that it lacks column 6 (location name) and 9 (date) ; see attached file

I've reached them by email, but got no answer...

Can anyone help?

Thanks a lot

 

[THE_FERN]

As a French user of the VisioNature database (Naturalist mobile application), I would like to upload my data to eBird in order to display more statistics, and worldwide data.
Unfortunately, I cannot figure out how to upload my data.

I've followed every instruction detailed on their page Sign in
I've read all the help regarding this topic (Comment téléverser des tableaux de données dans eBird).
Nothing works, I constantly have error messages.

The strange thing is that even their own sample file doesn't work!!! It says that it lacks column 6 (location name) and 9 (date) ; see attached file

I've reached them by email, but got no answer...

Can anyone help?

Thanks a lot

None of this surprises me. Sorry I don't have a ready solution, but if you're technically minded there are various GitHub repos for converting to ebird format in r, python etc. (I just searched for "GitHub ebird").

[Edit: I should have said I too am experimenting with ebird spreadsheet uploads. I'll be happy to share in the unlikely event I'm successful...]

 

[THE_FERN]

Here's a file which did work: I had to change the extension to "txt" as Birdforum doesn't allow CSV [why ?]. This is the "record" format, i.e. this:

Upload Spreadsheet Data to eBird

I've not included the header fields as they say not to do this.

It was unable to match the location even though that location is one I picked from my entries for other checklists. I was prompted to change it and could pick the [identical] entry from "my locations".

I haven't experimented with the other layout (="checklist"), but I note that the record format is different to the one you get when you download a checklist.

I think ebird could up their game here considerably. For example, because Windows/XL has traditionally done a bad job of understanding and creating CSVs, they could provide much more information about encodings etc. I actually used LibreOffice Calc to create this file, and chose the default [DOS encoding].

 

[awiner]

As a French user of the VisioNature database (Naturalist mobile application), I would like to upload my data to eBird in order to display more statistics, and worldwide data.
Unfortunately, I cannot figure out how to upload my data.

I've followed every instruction detailed on their page Sign in
I've read all the help regarding this topic (Comment téléverser des tableaux de données dans eBird).
Nothing works, I constantly have error messages.

The strange thing is that even their own sample file doesn't work!!! It says that it lacks column 6 (location name) and 9 (date) ; see attached file

I've reached them by email, but got no answer...

Can anyone help?

Thanks a lot

That's the error page, but could you attach the sample file that gave you that error, and whether you chose "Grille" or "Étendu"? (I presume the latter.)

 

[Gduff]

That's the error page, but could you attach the sample file that gave you that error, and whether you chose "Grille" or "Étendu"? (I presume the latter.)

You can find the sample file here: https://support.ebird.org/helpdesk/attachments/48046496224
I chose "Etendu"

 

[awiner]

You can find the sample file here: https://support.ebird.org/helpdesk/attachments/48046496224
I chose "Etendu"

Their instructions are a bit unclear, but:

1. "You must delete the header row before uploading your data"
2. You don't upload an .xls file, you upload a .csv file - in OpenOffice or Excel or Numbers, etc. export the spreadsheet to a .csv file

So, no, that sample spreadsheet will not upload as-is. (I think their sample file is a bad idea as given - they should have given you a .csv file in exactly the right format, which would be less confusing.)

 

[THE_FERN]

Their instructions are a bit unclear, but:

1. "You must delete the header row before uploading your data"
2. You don't upload an .xls file, you upload a .csv file - in OpenOffice or Excel or Numbers, etc. export the spreadsheet to a .csv file

So, no, that sample spreadsheet will not upload as-is. (I think their sample file is a bad idea as given - they should have given you a .csv file in exactly the right format, which would be less confusing.)

[I.e. see the example I posted. Probably worth paying attention to the way the dates are entered there as dates often cause problems...]

 

[Gduff]

Their instructions are a bit unclear, but:

1. "You must delete the header row before uploading your data"
2. You don't upload an .xls file, you upload a .csv file - in OpenOffice or Excel or Numbers, etc. export the spreadsheet to a .csv file

So, no, that sample spreadsheet will not upload as-is. (I think their sample file is a bad idea as given - they should have given you a .csv file in exactly the right format, which would be less confusing.)

I figured out to make it work, with the help of THE_FERN's file.
Actually, in Excel, saving as csv does NOT write each line with data separated by ","
I had to manually rewrite each line.

Date format was ok, but latitude/longitude coordinates weren't right, because they were written as 47,2... instead of 47.2...

At last it worked !

Thank you

 

[THE_FERN]

I figured out to make it work, with the help of THE_FERN's file.
Actually, in Excel, saving as csv does NOT write each line with data separated by ","
I had to manually rewrite each line.

Date format was ok, but latitude/longitude coordinates weren't right, because they were written as 47,2... instead of 47.2...

At last it worked !

Thank you

Excel and ms more generally are famous for not producing "proper" CSVs. And encoding may be an issue too.

If you're doing more of this and have had problems using XL, suggest trying libre office calc instead. This is sufficiently like XL that you shouldn't have problems

[Edit: your longitude/latitude problems sounds like European/Anglophone differences. Dates and decimals have to follow the us norms. I find this unnatural...]

 

[THE_FERN]

Just adding something to this thread based on recent experience:

Dates and times in spreadsheet uploads: If using ebird recordset format, you should repeat the date / time in cols 8 & 9 like this for 16th Nov. 2021: "11/16/2021 06:04 AM"—including the quotes [at least this worked for me]. That means one of those columns is strictly redundant...

...For some reason ebird checks the names of the species against your regional setting names. So since I'm in UK it was unable to recognise "african gray hornbill" [="african grey hornbill"].

Also note that there's a 12 km [mile?] limit to the length of GPS traces you can upload from the phone app. Afaik, this is not documented anywhere—a reviewer told me this. [This is silly... even long trips like mine above have value: you just know the location of the birds with less precision].

The spreadsheet system in particular is super-clunky. But unfortunately, ebird is super-unresponsive.