[Tweeters] Reporting - was "new yard bird"

[via Tweeters]

>From eBird: https://support.ebird.org/en/support/solutions/articles/48000838845 


 

Birds at feeders

Whether your feeder is nectar-filled and aswarm with frantically feeding hummingbirds or a thistle tube liberally coated with finches, it can be hard to know how many birds are truly there. We recommend reporting the highest number of individuals seen at one time during the observation period, as well as any clearly different individuals. Although there may actually be more individuals, it’s the most reliable method for these situations. Obviously if you see 6 female Northern Cardinals and 3 males, and later see 6 males together, then you have at least 12 different cardinals at your feeder, and your checklist should reflect this.

 

 

Gary T. Smith

Boise, ID (formerly Seattle)

 

From: Tweeters <tweeters-bounces at mailman11.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Dennis Paulson via Tweeters
Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2025 9:18 AM
To: Greg <gjpluth at gmail.com>
Cc: Louise <louiserutter1000 at gmail.com>; TWEETERS tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Reporting - was "new yard bird"

 

Hello tweeters,

 

I hope there are no projects in which people are really encouraged to “count every bird,” as in the course of a birding day (or hour), you may see the very same bird again and again (a wren in your yard, an eagle on a tree you pass coming and going, a harrier flying over the same field three hours apart), and that would be very misleading.

 

On the other hand, it does put the onus on us to think about the birds we are seeing. If we know we have only one wren, then we are sure that it is the same bird. If we drive past the tree two or three times, we have no reason to believe it isn’t the same eagle. So we would count “one” each time. I guess they are just saying that it is our responsibility to keep track of the birds we see as well as we can. And I would go for one harrier, not two, even though I saw them at different times. Unless of course they were in different plumages, another important factor to keep track of when counting birds.

 

There are so many cases in which these hard decisions have to be made. You drop by a particular shoreline and there are about 100 Dunlins feeding there. You come back three hours later, and there are about 25. Did a predator take 75 of them? Did 75 fly away and leave their flock mates? Or it a different flock, and you should tally 125? My thought would always be to be conservative and assume the other 75 were somewhere else.

 

I think it is always best to give minimum numbers, not maximum numbers. We’re not doing the ornithological record or bird conservation any service by overcounting, nor by overestimating.

 

Dennis Paulson

Seattle





On Jan 27, 2025, at 11:05 PM, Greg via Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu <mailto:tweeters at u.washington.edu> > wrote:

 

Hi Louise and Jim -

Since I am not privy to the complete conversation with Cornell, my feeling is that it might be best to question them again for clarification on the specifics mentioned here regarding counting every observation even if very likely it’s a repeat. Obviously we all are trying to gather a true picture with our counting.

I have seen a Bewick’s Wren occasionally near my feeders every day for several weeks now. I’ve never seen two simultaneously during this time. If I stood at my kitchen window for a long periods, I’m sure I would see it on multiple occasions in the course of a day. It would certainly be misleading and bad science to count it on every occasion. 

I believe it is important to paint a true picture of numbers of birds especially when submitting to eBird. I rely on the information in eBird when birding excursions take me to unfamiliar places. I hope we’re all on the same page in this regard.

 

Greg Pluth 

University Place

 

 

Sent from my iPhone





On Jan 27, 2025, at 9:01 PM, Louise via Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu <mailto:tweeters at u.washington.edu> > wrote:



Many thanks for all these details, Jim.

 

My criteria for keeping my own personal yard list are definitely my own. I want to know which birds are using the habitat I provide, not every bird that might pass through the general area. 

 

When I'm listing for ebird or whatever, I do make note of every bird I see/hear, however distant. It's interesting, though, that Cornell encourage us to count every bird, even when it's highly likely to be a repeat. My tendency in those circumstances has been to count the minimum number of birds rather than the maximum, because I have indeed been worried about over-counting. Certainly on the CBCs I've been on, I've been encouraged to count that way to avoid over-counting. 

 

Does anyone know of there are specific criteria for CBCs that differ from those of Cornell?

 

Louise Rutter

Kirkland

 

On Sun, Jan 26, 2025 at 12:24 PM via Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu <mailto:tweeters at u.washington.edu> > wrote:

Louise,

  Back when I was first starting to use eBird I asked this specific question
about my checklists.  Specifically - "when do you report (count) a bird?"
and gave the example of my backyard feeder and the fact that I could
see birds coming and going ... but suspected - highly - that some/many
of them were 'repeats' and had been there as short a time ago as only a
few minutes.

  The answer I got was "if you don't know for certain it is the same bird -
count it".  So even if you have a group of say 10 finches that are coming
and going from your yard/feeder - the advice is to count them "every time
you see them that you, personally, can't say it is the same bird".
  This advice is not just about birds in our backyards.  And Cornell
doesn't consider it "over counting" (probably because you will also
miss many birds that might visit your backyard when you do something
as seemingly insignificant as just getting another cup of coffee).
  There are similar considerations for 2 or more people all seeing and
reporting the -same- bird ... perhaps even birding together.

  So here is my take/interpretation of this advice.  As long as everyone is
using pretty much the same methods - it doesn't matter ... because 
what the science is about is the changes - over time and even over
relatively long periods of time.  Such as from one season to the next or
one year to the next or one decade to the next.
  We all know about events such as "irruptions" and "long term trends"
etc.  

  ===> If we have lots of data (reports) then it all averages out in ways
            that wouldn't be true for just a few reports (total number of
            checklist).  

  But there -are- lots of checklists being done in all kinds of situations.
So report what you can ID and let the citizen science work out what it
means.  Even reports such as "Gull, species" are valuable/useful -
especially when compared to no reports at all?
                                                                                       - Jim in Skagit

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