Seeking insights for a birdwatching data analysis project (1 Viewer)

[nhatp1119]

Hello everyone,

I'm Nhat, a graduate data science student at Northeastern University (Boston, MA, USA). I'm currently working on a project that utilizes eBird data to enhance the birdwatching experience, particularly for beginners.

Our team has made progress on a dashboard for forecasting bird detection rates, and we're now expanding our analysis to cover all bird species in Massachusetts. We would love to share with you once we have a final product.

Alongside this, we're conducting an analysis to categorize birdwatching areas in Massachusetts based on factors like birding activity and species diversity. The preliminary categories we're exploring are:

• Overbirded: High birding activity but low species diversity.
• Underbirded: Low birding activity but high species diversity.
• (Potentially) Popular: High birding activity and high species diversity.
• (Potentially) Non-popular: Low birding activity and low species diversity.

The aim is to identify areas that are ecologically rich yet possibly overlooked ('underbirded') compared to areas that see a lot of birdwatching activity but might not be as diverse in bird species ('overbirded'). I would love to have your thoughts on two aspects:

1. Relevance of the Issue: Do you think there is some imbalance between overbirded and underbirded areas in birdwatching ? In other words, is this problem of interest to you as birdwatchers/ conservationists?
2. Criteria for Categorization: What factors do you believe are crucial in defining these categories? We're considering aspects like checklist numbers, species diversity, and maybe: sightings of rare species, seasonal variations, and human impact on birdwatching areas.

Your insights will be incredibly helpful in guiding our project and ensuring it reflects the real-world experiences of birdwatchers. I appreciate any perspectives or additional factors you can provide.

Thank you in advance!
Nhat

 

[Farnboro John]

Hello everyone,

I'm Nhat, a graduate data science student at Northeastern University (Boston, MA, USA). I'm currently working on a project that utilizes eBird data to enhance the birdwatching experience, particularly for beginners.

Our team has made progress on a dashboard for forecasting bird detection rates, and we're now expanding our analysis to cover all bird species in Massachusetts. We would love to share with you once we have a final product.

Alongside this, we're conducting an analysis to categorize birdwatching areas in Massachusetts based on factors like birding activity and species diversity. The preliminary categories we're exploring are:

• Overbirded: High birding activity but low species diversity.
• Underbirded: Low birding activity but high species diversity.
• (Potentially) Popular: High birding activity and high species diversity.
• (Potentially) Non-popular: Low birding activity and low species diversity.

The aim is to identify areas that are ecologically rich yet possibly overlooked ('underbirded') compared to areas that see a lot of birdwatching activity but might not be as diverse in bird species ('overbirded'). I would love to have your thoughts on two aspects:

1. Relevance of the Issue: Do you think there is some imbalance between overbirded and underbirded areas in birdwatching ? In other words, is this problem of interest to you as birdwatchers/ conservationists?
2. Criteria for Categorization: What factors do you believe are crucial in defining these categories? We're considering aspects like checklist numbers, species diversity, and maybe: sightings of rare species, seasonal variations, and human impact on birdwatching areas.

Your insights will be incredibly helpful in guiding our project and ensuring it reflects the real-world experiences of birdwatchers. I appreciate any perspectives or additional factors you can provide.

Thank you in advance!
Nhat

The overbirding problem is of interest but a solution is hard to find. It arises when what can be a low diversity area nevertheless contains species that are of interest to a wide cross-section of birders, making those species favoured targets. This can be because of restricted distribution, overall rarity or, on a temporary basis, a locally unusual sighting. This can mean just a lot of people milling about a largish area or a concentrated crowd at a site with restricted viewing all after one or a few co-located birds. It is not possible to influence the mission of the people attending.

Underbirding - anyone going gets a place to themselves, hard to see that as a problem (though very inexperienced birdwatchers may have difficulty getting to grips with the species present). For operators of a site it however can mean funding stream issues.

Your criteria for categorisation will affect different tribes within birding very differently and I wish you luck obtaining useful data. Categorising the actual birders accurately is an essential prerequisite to this matter.

John

 

[THE_FERN]

This sort of analysis is easier when there's a sensible data model underlying the info. Hotspots is not it. You really want info about where (precisely) each thing was. As an example, I believe bird lasser gives this.

 

[jurek]

I already see it is primarily a result of easy transport. That is why urban spots are so popular.

You may run also into confounding problems - that most species-rich habitat are decidous forests, but most popular birding areas are water bodies where one can easily see large birds in the open. And that popular bird spots artificially create a huge list.