What Doug said.
For my part, because we are waiting on a fix from eBird Central, I have not
been putting much time or thought into how to optimally deal with all these
issues in my own regions and filters, and have not been too worried about us
trying to collectively address current inconsistencies with treatments of
Mandarin Duck, Mute Swan, etc. Perhaps I'm just being lazy, but I think it’s
been wise to focus my reviewing time & efforts elsewhere where they make more
of a meaningful difference, while trusting that things on the exotics front
will get sorted out soon. If I recall correctly(??), eBird Central was planning
to send out their proposal for a new system sometime this year with a call for
reviewer input, at which point they’d hopefully welcome feedback like Russ’s
here.
I think my druthers would be to have the new system, after reviewer feedback is
incorporated, installed, at which point there would be an informative outreach
campaign to eBird users conducted —coordinated on both the global (eBird
Central) and local (us reviewers) levels — that would urge people to report
birds that might potentially be becoming established, like the mandarins and
munias and white-eyes, even if these are not going to be appearing in people's
listing totals. But I’ve personally never seen the point in having domestic
Mallards and domestic geese and domestic hybrids even as part of eBird, since
presumably they are not really different than barnyard chickens or zoo animals
and are never going to become established populations.
J
On Feb 7, 2021, at 11:17 AM, Russ Namitz <namitzr@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I may be oversimplifying things, but it seems like options for reviewers to
put into their filters would be easy. This is a bit USA egocentric, but the
following example would work for many species that we currently DON'T HAVE
the option for in eBird (e.g. Mute Swan, Mandarin Duck, Swinhoe's White-eye
and Tricolored Munia, etc.)
1) Muscovy Duck
2) Muscovy Duck (Established Feral)
3) Muscovy Duck (Domestic type)
One would cover wild birds in their home range or vagrants.
Two would cover "countable" populations within the US (and elsewhere).
Three would cover escapees and non-countable populations (Mandarin Ducks in
the US, Mute Swans in Oregon, etc.).
Russ
From: orebird-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <orebird-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf
of W. Douglas Robinson <w.douglas.robinson@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, February 7, 2021 11:01 AM
To: <orebird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> <orebird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [orebird] Re: Introduced/Exotic species
eBird Central is currently working on a “fix” where the record can be
evaluated for accuracy of identification and validated if it is correct.
Then, records of certain exotics would appear in the public output,
encouraging observers to collect data on such things so we can learn
something useful scientifically.
But, they would not appear in lists so that people who care about countable
and not countable can still compare their lists absent the exotics, if that
is important to them.
Needless to say, the fix is a complicated one because definitions of what is
exotic and what is not varies geographically.
Doug
On Feb 7, 2021, at 8:30 AM, Tim Shelmerdine <tim.spanish.guide@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Hello, all.
I beg your pardon if this issue has already been addressed by this group,
but I have a question. I was reading the eBird Best Practice information in
the attempt to find out how to deal with two observations of Swan Goose in
Lincoln County. The best practices state: "Introduced species - you may
report domestic or exotic species if they are known to have established,
self-sustaining populations in that area."
The eBird FAQs state: You may report any unrestrained bird you observe in
the wild. However, please indicate suspected domestic or escaped birds
whenever possible. Note that domestic, exotic, and escaped birds may be
marked "Rare" and/or unconfirmed by our reviewers so these birds do not get
confused for wild, naturally occurring species in our public database. For
more information, see our eBird Rules and Best Practices.
So I marked these observations unconfirmed. When Jen, Hendrik and I
discussed this, I discovered that we had different approaches.
So I am asking the group if we have a standard for dealing with introduced
species. Are we all on the same page as a group? I again apologize if this
has been resolved earlier.
Thank you,
Tim
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