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How does a hotspot work on Ebird? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Bewick
- Start date
Mark Lew1s
My real name is Mark Lewis
It’s a place that will be well visited over time. If you want a site to become a hotspot, you can ask.
Bewick
Connoisseur of WTL
Thanks, thought it was automatic, its strange though as certain areas have only been visited once and yet are already considered hotspots, one area in specific has only four species marked down for that area.
Mark Lew1s
My real name is Mark Lewis
Someone must have asked….!
jmepler
It's just a flesh wound.
If you have a good public birding location that you would like to be considered for a "hotspot", you can suggest it.
How to suggest an eBird hotspot
How to suggest an eBird hotspot
MiddleRiver
Well-known member
If you search for sightings - say you want to see a Cardinal in your region- the map will include ‘official’ EBird hotspots as well as ‘personal’ ones. But if you search directly for hotspots, as if planning a trip to an area, the personal spots do not show.
If an area is deemed worthy of hotspot designation, there are local reviewers than can do that. Criteria would include not just birds, but often things such as unrestricted access, etc.
If an area is deemed worthy of hotspot designation, there are local reviewers than can do that. Criteria would include not just birds, but often things such as unrestricted access, etc.
jmepler
It's just a flesh wound.
Out local reviewers will also create a hotspot for rare birds that people are likely to chase. For example, this hotspot was used for 671 checklist of people that chased the Black-backed Oriole in Pennsylvania. Without a hotspot there for people to use, it would have just been a jumble of personal locations. The one hotspot provides a more useful picture of the birds habits, if it sticks around for any length of time.
Well given the incorrect data model ebird uses then yes I suppose so. How much more informative if you had the "exact" location of the bird (meaning where people actually saw it rather than the general area, the hotspot) during its stay...
jmepler
It's just a flesh wound.
Well, given that the bird fed at the same feeder almost exclusively, I would say it would make no difference whatsoever.
qwerty5
Controversial opinion generator
eBird typically only chooses locations that are public and likely to have birders visiting them (like parks). Hotspots are created when a local reviewer approves them, and it has nothing to do with the number of visits or birds. Hope this helps.
temmie
Well-known member
In this particular case it made no difference...
There is always the situation that the GPS shows where the observer was, not the location of the bird.
opisska
rabid twitcher
What a great idea to merge all observations of a bird that "people are likely to chase" into one point, so that they can't easily find out, where the bird actually is!
You make a number of incorrect assumptions. First, eBird doesn't "merge all observations." Individual birders can use whatever location they prefer and nothing is moved without the birder's consent--but if there is no reason not to use the hotspot, it obviously makes sense to use it. Second, if the bird is moving around, a hotspot typically wouldn't be created to begin with. It would usually be created only for a bird seen repeatedly at one location. Third, past experience shows that if you don't have a hotspot, you get a bunch of mostly inaccurate locations from people who aren't familiar with the area, can't find the exact location on the map, or don't take the time to place the location precisely. So your alternative actually creates more confusion about where the bird is being seen, not less.
qwerty5
Controversial opinion generator
If the eBird app is used, then each checklist has a track with the precise location where the individual birded. Creating an exact location for each individual bird would be extremely time-consuming, and would totally eliminate the possibility of public participation. Hotspots are extremely helpful for not muddling up species maps with a million different locations.
Mysticete
Well-known member
Are we talking about GPS coordinates? Because I think the majority of birders and ebird users, at least in US and Canada, don't understand GPS or have easy access to getting exact coordinates for whatever reason. Ebird would almost certainly lose a large chunk of their userbase if they went that route.
Tracks are only visible to the birder themselves or people they give access to
Nope. Observado, iNaturalist (for photos) do this. What do you think the track is composed of if not individual points? When you press the button on the ebird app, why can't it record the location (it does record the location but it's unrelated to key presses).
"Hotspots" are a sort-of useful abstraction for "a place which is good to see birds" (although actual polygons or lines/tracks would be better). They're really bad for showing the locations of individual birds unless the bird doesn't move and the hotspot refers to a tiny area.
I should note that many ebird users record the locations of birds of interest within the checklist. They have to regularly do this by hand using other software. Here's an example (thanks, Jose):
opisska
rabid twitcher
I am completely lost here. Don't people who use eBird simply click the birds seen in the app as they go? On a smartphone, which nowadays is guaranteed to have a GPS in it? What stops eBird from retaining and showing this data, bird by bird? There would be zero additional effort from observers needed for that, just a change in the software.
How does having exact positions of birds "muddle the map"? If anything, hotspots do that, because with hotspots, there is no way to tell in which areas the birds are common and in which they are rare, because the icon for "one observation 50 years ago" and "20 observations per day" is the same - one hotspot. And if users really prefer to see birds bunched up in hotspots on the map, there is aboslutely nothing preventing eBird from having an option for this while displaying the map - the software behind the map could easily lump observations into hotspots on request.
After having dipped on what now must be dozens, if not hundreds, of birds , solely due to the hotspot system of eBird, I am becoming quite irritated when people start defending it with made up arguments.
How does having exact positions of birds "muddle the map"? If anything, hotspots do that, because with hotspots, there is no way to tell in which areas the birds are common and in which they are rare, because the icon for "one observation 50 years ago" and "20 observations per day" is the same - one hotspot. And if users really prefer to see birds bunched up in hotspots on the map, there is aboslutely nothing preventing eBird from having an option for this while displaying the map - the software behind the map could easily lump observations into hotspots on request.
After having dipped on what now must be dozens, if not hundreds, of birds , solely due to the hotspot system of eBird, I am becoming quite irritated when people start defending it with made up arguments.
I can see how rounding the sightings up into hotspots can make the data more meaningful in terms of subsequent analysis. Birds seen at hotspot X as opposed to birds seen at GPS location x.xxxxx y.yyyyy.
And you are right, it has limitations in terms of using it to go and see birds. If the sighting was on a checklist over several hours and covering 10 miles, it could be 10 miles in any direction!
Just as bad, potentially, if you use the species data to plan for a visit, then see something never recorded there before, it could be completely off your radar.
But, having the sightings down to GPS level could be detrimental in terms of hunting, collecting, egg collecting, disturbance etc.
I'm happy to use it as it is, and be aware of these limitations
