[texbirds] Using Ebird Rarity Alert
- From: Berner Family <jcazberner@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 19:31:07 -0700 (PDT)
Obviously since ebird is open to everybody
it increase the chances of finding a rare bird vs a more limited list but also
increases the chance of an error. However It's definitely possible to get value
from ebird alerts without wasting a lot of gas chasing ghosts. You just need to
review the data presented and exercise some judgment.
If you look at any ebird alert it tells
you all of the following immediately
1. species
2. location
3. photo and/or description
4. finder
5 date
You can set up an alert to immediately (or
on a daily basis) be emailed any time a rarity is found in a region of interest
to you--or- you can just check various alert webpages occasionally  if you
don't want a clogged in-box.
Then the judgment part comes in. If I live
right next door to the sighting, I might investigate even if skeptical. If I'm
300 miles away I want more things that MAY be correlated with a correct ID
before I head out
Generally if there is any of the followingâconsider
not going
1) no description, no photo or very
limited description
2) you are not familiar with the observer
-or- this observer is inexperienced or is far from their region or area of
expertise--e.g. very few previous lists from the state or region.
3) you don't see the green
"confirmed" word next to the observation indicating record has not
been yet reviewed. Anyone can enter anything they like but won't likely get
"confirmed" without review by a moderator.
4) quite a bit of time has elapsed since
the sightingâsometimes people delay their entries by several days
There are three main types of alerts
1) ABA rarities
http://ebird.org/ebird/tx/alert/summary?sid=SN10489
A.   For exampe, I see a tundra goose in
california with both a photo and a detailed description although still
"unconfirmed".
This looks like a bird worth chasing if
you were in Cali . Probably excellent chance of being correct
B.   Aztec Thrush is also
"unconfirmed" and has the following description
"Seen in desert scrub. Flew from
ground to top of brush. Showed white patch above tail when flying and intricate
white wing marks when flying and perched."
No specific refindable location is given.
No photo. Not very specific description. I personally am not familiar with the
observer. They have not ebirded in Brewster county much in the past. Probably
low chance of being correct.
2) Rare Bird Alerts. These are limited to
whatever region you are interested in. The problem is they include many minor
rarities (only rare at that time in that county) in addition to the few true
rarities in the state so you need to sort through.
3) Needs Alerts (these are tailored to just bird YOU havenât
seen in the region). Rare birds you have seen are excluded. Common birds
(non-filtered)
you havenât seen are included. Year listers can check âThis year onlyâ..
this is
usually the best option for Texas birders to focus on bids of particular
interest. I don't believe this personalization is a feature of any other rare
bird alert.So using ebird for chases is like anything
else: weigh your costs and benefits
If you have the time, money, you are
really interested in the species and it's nearbyâpossibly have a low
standard--chase it even if 80% chance it's false.
If you will need to spend a lot of money
and take off work and drive 300 miles, maybe just take note the observation and
wait to see if any more information develops. Depending on your interest in the
species you can either ignore it or follow it. It may disappear once the
moderator follows up.
One thing I do to uncover negative reports
after the initial positive report is do the following.
if the observation is at a hotspot---use
the new ebird hotspot explorer and see how many people have visited the hotspot
since the rarity and how many has missed the rarity.
http://ebird.org/ebird/tx/hotspots
So this is not a black-or-white issue.
Ebird is both a useful timely tool and sometimes horribly wrong. Ideally you
can get some good and limit the bad if you use judgment. You may still
occasionally ignore a correct poorly described rare bird or chase a wrongly
IDâd
bird but hopefully you can limit both of these. Good Birding!John Berner
W.Houston
Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at
//www.freelists.org/list/texbirds
Reposting of traffic from TEXBIRDS is prohibited without seeking permission
from the List Owner
Other related posts:
