The "Balkanization" of rarity reporting (1 Viewer)

[Mysticete]

This is something I have increasingly mulled over in recent years, and I am curious on what other people's thoughts are.

When I started birding, a person could reliably keep track of all local birding news by following just one or two sources, depending on your interests. For instance, in San Diego, which is where I "matured" as a birder after initially getting interested in the hobby in Michigan, I could reliably hear about pretty much any local rarity, sometimes in real time, by following SDBirds, which covered the county. If I wanted state level, there was Calbirds also, and I believe I was also on InlandBirds which covered the outside of the area but relevant Salton Sea.

Nowadays, it feels like truly keeping up to date on bird news requires having to search through so much more material, the exact number varying based on region. Not only are the old message groups around, but you have multiple facebook groups (regional and statewide), twitter alerts, reporting services, ebird, and phone/text lines you have to monitor. Someone who finds a rare bird will probably at best report it to just one or two sites, or maybe just via ebird.

And these sites are just so much harder to sort through, as they attract a random sample of folks, so that you might have to scroll through post after post of feeder pictures to hear about someone's actual birding trip or mention of a rarities, or have to figure out if that bird that came over ebird is actually a valid or just misidentified. And then there are all sorts of esoteric rules that sometimes crop up, which can interfere with your own posting.

I know twitching can be frustrating, and that frustration is part of why I don't do it as often as I really should. After all, you might need to invest a lot of time and sometimes money into going after a bird you might miss anyway. But increasingly I find just the research part even frustrating. It just feels like there are too many potential sources to keep track of, and too much noise to filter through.

 

[leonardo_simon]

Interesting....... in UK we have two main public sources rare bird alert and bird guides which both have apps that appear to trawl all the different potential sites with bird news on them (i.e. the local county sites, twitter, each other). Perhaps something like that in USA?

 

[Mono]

I have found that around me. There used to be a single forum on the local birding club where people would post what they had seen. Then a few people started their own site specific blogs, then a few people started just posting their sightings on Twitter. And now instead of one source there at least five that one has to look at to get a feel of what's around.

 

[Farnboro John]

Its the difference between push and pull communications. RBA push news to birders in return for subscription. If you don't want to pay subscription you are dependent on pull communications where at the least you have to go find your information streams - which, in the informal world of social media, may dry up at any time for any reason - and, indeed, may not alert you positively so that you have to keep checking them.

You get what you pay for, more or less.

John

 

[Mysticete]

NARBA is a national service that at least was subscription only, which reported on ABA area rare birds. but that is at basically the level of all of Canada and the US. Given the size of the US, it's not very useful if you want to find local rare birds at the state level.

 

[Farnboro John]

NARBA is a national service that at least was subscription only, which reported on ABA area rare birds. but that is at basically the level of all of Canada and the US. Given the size of the US, it's not very useful if you want to find local rare birds at the state level.

Yes, I do get that. You have states the size of our country.

John

 

[jurek]

I found the same. There are local news groups on Whatsapp, Facebook etc, they are hard to find from an outsider and short-lived.

Unfortunately it is similar with personal contacts: you write a local birder on Whatsapp and it turns he doesn't check his Whatsapp but only Messenger or vice versa.

Some years ago I was very active on social media, and then realized that actually all useful contacts, friendships etc. came from outside social media. Then I left social media world for years. Recently I returned but increasingly find that not much has changed. Social media are like a soup from which all pieces of meat were completely removed.

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

Here in PA, there are various text alerts by region (6 or 7 different ones). Since I don't have a cell, they're useless to me.

But there is a PA Rare birds facebook page. Unfortunately, there are also a crap load of other local pages that basically amount to "look at my pretty picture of a cardinal."

 

[kb57]

I found the same. There are local news groups on Whatsapp, Facebook etc, they are hard to find from an outsider and short-lived.

Unfortunately it is similar with personal contacts: you write a local birder on Whatsapp and it turns he doesn't check his Whatsapp but only Messenger or vice versa.

Some years ago I was very active on social media, and then realized that actually all useful contacts, friendships etc. came from outside social media. Then I left social media world for years. Recently I returned but increasingly find that not much has changed. Social media are like a soup from which all pieces of meat were completely removed.

Jurek, there's something very Polish about that analogy...I get an image of Barszcz czerwony without the krokatiem...

Although we have services like Birdguides and RBA in UK, I know some people on here have stated they get most of their local info from closed WhatsApp and Facebook groups. No doubt most of this information filters through to the national subscription services, it's hard to tell as an outsider who isn't plugged into this informal network. So I think the Balkanisation referred to by the OP is also operating to an extent in the UK, perhaps not with respect to rarities which people travel to twitch, more at the local scarcity level.

 

[jurek]

I could talk about a cake from which all the raisins were picked off, too.

Anyway, while there are few things of importance and lots of BS in real life, in social media the proportion is much more towards BS, and most of things of importance fly over it completely.

In my region probably all true rares made it to the national news, although there is a delay of half a day, and many follow up records are only on WhatsApp. I will leave WhatsApp in a month anyway, due to their privacy policy, I wonder how it will be then.

 

[Mike Crawley]

It is said that RBA subscribe to Birdguides and vice versa (perfectly sensible)
I also understand that RBA subscribe to many local WhatsApp groups, as well as their relentless trawling through twatter and faecesbook bird news.
I belong to three WhatsApp groups (Cheshire, North West and North Wales) although it’s been (as we all know) fairly frustrating reading about birds I can’t travel to see !

 

[Mysticete]

And today I found word that the statewide listserve was closing, due to less people using and a "plethora of other options", such as ebird, facebook groups, and personal networks. NONE of which IMHO actually fill the same role as a list-serve.

Ebird will let you know a bird is present, but often not provide any actual details on where something is being seen or any other useful information like site closures/trail conditions etc. It's just presence and absence data.

Facebook groups? Hope you like subscribing to every single minor group across a region, because stuff shared in one won't be posted in another. And hope you like scrolling through those 100 posts about cardinals or bald eagles by nonbirders for your few kernels of information. Let's not even get too the whole privacy concerns or add bombardment, the latter of which has only gotten worst.

Personal Networks? Great...information then becomes a popularity contest. Haven't birded with someone for 10 years? well, tough @$@%, you are out of the loop so good luck on getting any information that isn't months old.

 

[Farnboro John]

Interesting that birding complies with normal physical laws - entropy tends to increase....

John

 

[Sangahyando]

And today I found word that the statewide listserve was closing, due to less people using and a "plethora of other options", such as ebird, facebook groups, and personal networks. NONE of which IMHO actually fill the same role as a list-serve.

Ebird will let you know a bird is present, but often not provide any actual details on where something is being seen or any other useful information like site closures/trail conditions etc. It's just presence and absence data.

Facebook groups? Hope you like subscribing to every single minor group across a region, because stuff shared in one won't be posted in another. And hope you like scrolling through those 100 posts about cardinals or bald eagles by nonbirders for your few kernels of information. Let's not even get too the whole privacy concerns or add bombardment, the latter of which has only gotten worst.

Personal Networks? Great...information then becomes a popularity contest. Haven't birded with someone for 10 years? well, tough @$@%, you are out of the loop so good luck on getting any information that isn't months old.

Curious; I would imagine that with a service like ebird, you could enter your home state in the settings and then choose which districts/counties you wish to receive automatic updates from (including cross-state, if necessary) and on which level of rarity (i.e. to filter out the Canada Geese and House Sparrows). At least, this is possible on the ornitho platform here in Europe to some extent.
Otherwise, I agree on your assessment regarding social and personal networks.

 

[Farnboro John]

Curious; I would imagine that with a service like ebird, you could enter your home state in the settings and then choose which districts/counties you wish to receive automatic updates from (including cross-state, if necessary) and on which level of rarity (i.e. to filter out the Canada Geese and House Sparrows). At least, this is possible on the ornitho platform here in Europe to some extent.
Otherwise, I agree on your assessment regarding social and personal networks.

As somebody who not only doesn't want to do the admin but also doesn't put records in to recorders, I don't put stuff into e-bird where I gather it can be moderated by yet another layer of self-appointed judge, jury and executioner. I don't think I'm alone in that! So its not a basis for rarity news, because its always going to be incomplete.

I do however furnish news to RBA when appropriate (which can mean after a few hours gap on a good rare as well as on finding something of local or national interest). How does e-bird cope with multiple submissions of the same bird in its statistics?

John

 

[opisska]

Jurek, do you live in Poland or not? Because if you do, there is a free SMS service that will get you alerts for every rarity, quite reliably. It's really the country when this kind of complaining makes the least sense All megas are immediately on clanga.com or Birding Poland facebook as well.

 

[Mysticete]

Curious; I would imagine that with a service like ebird, you could enter your home state in the settings and then choose which districts/counties you wish to receive automatic updates from (including cross-state, if necessary) and on which level of rarity (i.e. to filter out the Canada Geese and House Sparrows). At least, this is possible on the ornitho platform here in Europe to some extent.
Otherwise, I agree on your assessment regarding social and personal networks.

I currently subscribe to ABA level rarities (which lets you know any rare bird in the lower 48/Canada, of code 3 or greater), Wisconsin rare bird alert (any rarity in the state), Wisconsin needs alert (anything I haven't logged onto ebird for the state), and my county needs alert, which is everything I haven't logged this year for my home county. So there are plenty of options, but it doesn't quite replace a regular rare bird alert for several reasons.

1. it will give you every single checklist with that species. So if a hundred birders each twitch a rarity, then there will be a hundred separate notices in your ebird.

2. It often doesn't include information on the site which may be useful for encountering the bird, such as which trail or where along the trail a species was seen, contact info for the homeowners if its coming in to a feeder with restricted access, any sort of useful information on access/local construction/other relevant concerns.

3. While less of a problem nowadays, some people don't use ebird at all, which means rare bird news may not go out in a timely manner or may not go out until someone with ebird chases something. There is also I feel more of a reporting lag. Someone may be willing to immediately send out a quick note that something is being seen NOW, versus data entry after a birding trip, which sometimes may occur days later.

I am definitely not knocking ebird. I use ebird religiously and have done so for the last 6 years at least. It's a great tool, especially for scarce and local species or to find new birding spots. It's also a useful tool for trip planning, because the bar charts do a pretty good job of tracking seasonal abundance, at least for frequently birded areas. It's a very useful tool for birders, but it just doesn't replace an actual listserve or RBA.

 

[Mysticete]

As somebody who not only doesn't want to do the admin but also doesn't put records in to recorders, I don't put stuff into e-bird where I gather it can be moderated by yet another layer of self-appointed judge, jury and executioner. I don't think I'm alone in that! So its not a basis for rarity news, because its always going to be incomplete.

I do however furnish news to RBA when appropriate (which can mean after a few hours gap on a good rare as well as on finding something of local or national interest). How does e-bird cope with multiple submissions of the same bird in its statistics?

John

Ebird has filters that control for that factor. I don't know the specifics, but I would guess that they use local regional bird listing to create rarity lists, and I would imagine there is a filter system in place that takes in account individuals seen and days/times seen. I think the data is pretty good as long as you have reliably entered reports.

 

[lgonz1008]

My go-to options are eBird and my local WhatsApp group; there's technically one great Facebook group for my state that's moderated by a local guide who is probably one of the best birders in the state, but don't like using Facebook.

With the other two however, I can get my eBird notifications and ask around the WhatsApp group to the birders who live solely to bird (retired folks or with flexible work hours) where the bird was found and when was it last seen. This method works pretty well and it has gotten me many lifers and state birds like Upland Sandpiper, Heermann's Gull and Bahama Mockingbird. But the fact that I was out of the WhatsApp group until one day I randomly met with one of the moderators who asked me why I wasn't in the group and added me, shows what Mysticete said, no connections and you're pretty much out of luck.

eBird however, does have a different way to get you connections without realizing it, I've already lost count how many people I don't know recognize me in the field or take my word for a sighting as accurate due to how much I travel and report with my checklists. Apparently making detailed checklists and not making crazy reports without giving details on the sightings/photos will make you a credible birder even to those who've never met you.

 

[Streesh]

The Balkanization of birding is such a source of frustration to me. Someone in my state just added a Discord discussion group to the mix. I am going to write to him and ask him why, when there is a statewide listserv, plus a state forum here at Birdforum. But that doesn't solve the problem. About half the 25 or so text alerts are private, by invitation only. That is true of some of the Facebook groups as well. THERE IS NO NEED for so many groups. New Jersey is a small state. And "everyone" agrees when the issue is discussed that there are too many. Yet the proliferation continues. There is an easy way to divide the state into north and south that works geographically, and then we could all get to a very few alerts plus the listserv for discussion. No takers.

And what is the end result? A return to the Old Boys Network where certain sightings are sometimes reserved to a small group, though they do trickle out, and a lack of outlets for people to just chat about birds (though the photographs multiply). And when they do chat on any of the platforms, they get slapped down by others who only want to see a list. So frustrating. There must be an answer.