Coming soon to your eBird account: the first phase of the new Exotics
policy is being implemented later this week. The term Exotics, in eBird,
refers to birds that aren't native to a geographic area, but show up (for
example) due to an expanding range, strong weather events, or got here
assisted by humans (ship stowaways, escaped cage birds).
Look for shaded asterisks * (light, medium, and dark, respectively) to
appear beside species that are naturalized (e.g., House Sparrow),
provisional (e.g., Mute Swans), and escapee (e.g., Mandarin Duck). Click on
the asterisk anywhere you see it in eBird for a reminder as to what it
means.
You're used to seeing shaded purple boxes on your eBird species maps; these
will start showing orange boxes for the parts of the bird's range where
it's considered an "exotic" species. For example, House Finch is a western
US species that has expanded eastward, but was also introduced in the east
and is expanding westward; those parts of the map (including KY) will be
orange where the House Finch isn't native. If you don't want to see this,
you can toggle off this feature.
Finally, checklists, county pages, and illustrated checklists will relegate
exotic species to the bottom of the page in separate bins for each of the
three exotics categories, as well as hybrids.
There will be more to follow later this year. If you have any questions, be
sure to check the eBird Help section first, and play around with eBird and
see what changes are happening. eBird will be communicating changes on
their website too - take the time to read these pieces. Your eBird review
team can help too, but please review the Help pages and eBird
communications first, as most of your questions should be answered there.
Enjoy!
--
*James A. Wheat*
*Taylorsville KY*
