How does a hotspot work on Ebird? (1 Viewer)

[Mysticete]

Chiming in, I never record my ebird list in the field. I prefer to write in a physical list than transcribe later. It's usually done back at my apartment, usually with lunch or breakfast. If I am traveling, it might be back in my hotel room at the end of the day (or even at the end of my trip). I think quite a few people do something similar.

 

[opisska]

That's actually quite interesting because every person I bird with who puts their observations on eBird logs realtime on the app. As far as i know, you are a similar age group to me, so it's not a generational thing Maybe it's regional though?

 

[vergan]

Nope: nothing stops there being similar system to the one they use when you submit a list. Before you submit, it does a database search for all species seen within (I think) a 20 km radius of the point and flags any species on your list which isn't in that set. So you could have the same functionality attached to a button called "what species are near me" [We know that it's doing a database search because it'll flag species even if it's a non-hotspot and a place you've never been to before.]

What do you mean? Within the app you can check a location (by name, county, zip, pointing in a map, using your current location...) , then decide range distance in km (from 1 to 30), then days (from 1 to 30 days ago) , and it will return the species observed, the targets (those reported under your parameters not in your local list) etc...
When you do that in a hotspot, it will report all species ever observed, those likely to be observed, and those actually observed according to the parameters pre-set.

 

[KeesJ]

That's actually quite interesting because every person I bird with who puts their observations on eBird logs realtime on the app

To me it depends. Sitting in a hide I do it in the app. Walking or bicycle around I do it when back at home.

 

[vergan]

That's actually quite interesting because every person I bird with who puts their observations on eBird logs realtime on the app. As far as i know, you are a similar age group to me, so it's not a generational thing Maybe it's regional though?

I do a sligth different thing. Only record "on real time" birds I know to be scarce enough. Common ones I will report at the end, unless there are too many to keep numbers buffered on my head. I won't record i.e. starlings, robins, sparrows... one by one. At least not in this life.
Edit: I mean, I have the app running while birding, but I load data after stopping that particular spot.

 

[THE_FERN]

What do you mean? Within the app you can check a location (by name, county, zip, pointing in a map, using your current location...) , then decide range distance in km (from 1 to 30), then days (from 1 to 30 days ago) , and it will return the species observed, the targets (those reported under your parameters not in your local list) etc...
When you do that in a hotspot, it will report all species ever observed, those likely to be observed, and those actually observed according to the parameters pre-set.

Well if they've implemented this it's good. The point here is, though, that there's no reason to link observations to either hotspots or to checklists/sessions/trips or anything else. They're logically separate.

Having points to represent "hotspots" isn't a great idea—no good reason for that when you could have polygons etc, and throwing away the location where birds were actually recorded is, well, a bit criminal. (Yes, yes, yes it's the place where someone entered the data, not necessarily the place where the bird is blah, blah... but when is that not true? (and I did say that a long time ago))

 

[vergan]

Well if they've implemented this it's good. The point here is, though, that there's no reason to link observations to either hotspots or to checklists/sessions/trips or anything else. They're logically separate.

Having points to represent "hotspots" isn't a great idea—no good reason for that when you could have polygons etc, and throwing away the location where birds were actually recorded is, well, a bit criminal. (Yes, yes, yes it's the place where someone entered the data, not necessarily the place where the bird is blah, blah... but when is that not true? (and I did say that a long time ago))

I don't get the point. If your desire is to upload bird observations at individual level, linked to the gps coordinates, nothing prevents to do so.
It is up to the user to use hotspots or not.

 

[THE_FERN]

I don't get the point. If your desire is to upload bird observations at individual level, linked to the gps coordinates, nothing prevents to do so.
It is up to the user to use hotspots or not.

to do this you'd have to make every observation an incidental. That's a bit painful since I add info about the weather, other taxa etc. So there'd be a lot of repetition. Adding coordinates to sightings in the notes can be done but again its a hassle. Ebird should automatically capture (and make available) the location a bird was "registered" during a checklist trip.

 

[vergan]

to do this you'd have to make every observation an incidental. That's a bit painful since I add info about the weather, other taxa etc. So there'd be a lot of repetition. Adding coordinates to sightings in the notes can be done but again its a hassle. Ebird should automatically capture (and make available) the location a bird was "registered" during a checklist trip.

Well, because these kind of individual observations have to be of class inccidental, as the single individual observations as you describe them should not have to have either distance, or time associated. Having that would make these observation a "list" (of length one...).
Anyway, I agree that having an app to automatically record the coordinates of any single input onto a list would improve somehow the quality of data, and it is a feature sometimes I have miss.

 

[pbjosh]

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.

There are non-publicly-accessible hotspots all over the world in eBird. Perhaps this is a US or UK thing, but it's not a world wide thing. It would be great if there were access information in the hot spots!

 

[Mysticete]

to do this you'd have to make every observation an incidental. That's a bit painful since I add info about the weather, other taxa etc. So there'd be a lot of repetition. Adding coordinates to sightings in the notes can be done but again its a hassle. Ebird should automatically capture (and make available) the location a bird was "registered" during a checklist trip.

Do you really need specific coordinates for every bird you observe? In North America at least, for large chunks of the country no one cares about the Cardinals, Canada geese, or Mallards you see.

If this is about tracking down reported rare/scarce birds, than the incidental list should be fine since you would only need to do this a few times a trip if lucky. If this is about data entry or your own list, I don't see how using a hotspot or or such matters.

 

[Mysticete]

There are non-publicly-accessible hotspots all over the world in eBird. Perhaps this is a US or UK thing, but it's not a world wide thing. It would be great if there were access information in the hot spots!

Yep. This is I think a improvement I would like to see, although I could see logistics being difficult for reserves in less-birded regions of the world. For instance, if you click on a hotspot, not only do you get the existing information on location and what birds are being seen, but general info like times of operation, parking, entry fees, etc.

 

[Mysticete]

That's actually quite interesting because every person I bird with who puts their observations on eBird logs realtime on the app. As far as i know, you are a similar age group to me, so it's not a generational thing Maybe it's regional though?

It might be the trajectory of my birding. I started off (prior to ebirding) not really keeping track of individual checklists, just noting new birds seen for the life/state/county/year list when I got home. Then I started doing pen-and-paper checklists, then much later, after ebird was well established, I transitioned to using ebird as well. However I still like to have use the pen and paper, and since so much of my life is online/through computer screens, I prefer to minimize my cell phone use in the field. Although who knows...now that I have been using Merlin regularly via my phone maybe I will start logging checklists in the field.

Locally I know a whole range of folks, some who don't use ebird at all, some who only use it in the field, and some who sometimes use it in the field but then sometimes seem to enter in things a lot later. Could be a whole study there in HOW people use ebird

 

[THE_FERN]

Do you really need specific coordinates for every bird you observe? In North America at least, for large chunks of the country no one cares about the Cardinals, Canada geese, or Mallards you see.

If this is about tracking down reported rare/scarce birds, than the incidental list should be fine since you would only need to do this a few times a trip if lucky. If this is about data entry or your own list, I don't see how using a hotspot or or such matters.

Would be good, yes. But then with a scientific background perhaps I'm unusual.

 

[THE_FERN]

Just to mention. A gap in ebird is descriptions of the "hotspots"—access, timing, weather, whatever. This is where Birdforum's Opus could shine. I'd encourage you to add your favourite sites (with links to ebird as appropriate). Happy to help/advise on geographical matters

 

[qwerty5]

Yep. This is I think a improvement I would like to see, although I could see logistics being difficult for reserves in less-birded regions of the world. For instance, if you click on a hotspot, not only do you get the existing information on location and what birds are being seen, but general info like times of operation, parking, entry fees, etc.

In Ohio someone started a website (birdinghotspots.org) that is designed to provide such info about hotspots. It's since been expanded to several other states. It's pretty hit or miss as far as good info goes, since it depends on locals to add descriptions, or existing descriptions online.

 

[vergan]

Would be good, yes. But then with a scientific background perhaps I'm unusual.

Perhaps you are just wrong?

 

[pbjosh]

Just to mention. A gap in ebird is descriptions of the "hotspots"—access, timing, weather, whatever. This is where Birdforum's Opus could shine. I'd encourage you to add your favourite sites (with links to ebird as appropriate). Happy to help/advise on geographical matters

No offense but the info is usually accessible in some way if it is available, and can be found via google. That’s as fast or faster than checking opus, and who knows if the info in opus would be up to date (or other info found online - this is a common issue of course). I think eBird has an opportunity to actually do this better than anyone else can realistically hope to.

 

[maplekong]

That's actually quite interesting because every person I bird with who puts their observations on eBird logs realtime on the app. As far as i know, you are a similar age group to me, so it's not a generational thing Maybe it's regional though?

I'm thirteen, British with Asian parents and I prefer physically writing stuff down. It just feels nicer. I only use Merlin for sound ID most of the time, because the photos I take are too bad for photo ID.

 

[qwerty5]

No offense but the info is usually accessible in some way if it is available, and can be found via google. That’s as fast or faster than checking opus, and who knows if the info in opus would be up to date (or other info found online - this is a common issue of course). I think eBird has an opportunity to actually do this better than anyone else can realistically hope to.

The biggest problem for anything is getting knowledgeable local birders who provide helpful, accurate, and up to date info. This is something that I think will be hard for anyone to accomplish on a large scale.