Citizen Science: Birding

Assignment #1: Meet eBird!

1. Visit eBird.org
2. Register yourself! Click on Create an Account
a. Enter your name
b. An email address (can be your parents email address)
c. A user name (can be your name or nickname)
d. Choose a password (one you will remember!)
e. Click on Create Account
3. Now that you are registered, you are ready to explore the site and report the birds
we saw during our first session!
4. Reporting the birds we saw:
a. On the eBird homepage, click on Submit Observations
b. Type in the location we birded (this is from your birding journal) then click
Continue
c. Date and Effort page
i. Enter the date you birded
ii. Select the observation type. We will be walking trails to get to
different locations, so for our purposes select Traveling.
iii. Select the start time (from your birding journal)
iv. Duration this is how long we were birding (from your birding journal)
v. Party size this is how many people were with you (from your birding
journal)
vi. Add any comments such as weather notes
d. What Did You See or Hear? Page
i. This is where you enter all the birds we saw and heard including how
many we saw. For example: If we saw 6 Mallards, you will find Mallard
on the list, click on the box next to it and type in 6.
ii. The birds are together in groups of similar birds. All the waterfowl
are together, all the finches are together, all the woodpeckers are
together, etc. You might have to scroll down a bit to find all the birds
on our list.
iii. Once you have entered everything, look on the right hand side of the
page for the question: Are you submitting a complete checklist of
the birds you were able to identify? Click YES.
iv. Next click Submit
e. All done! You have successfully submitted a checklist for our site! You can
create more checklists when you bird anywhere by following the same steps!
Be a citizen scientist birder!
5. Explore Data
a. Click on Explore Data at the top of the page
b. Click on Explore a Location
c. Click on Browse Hotspot Map this will take you a busy map of the world!
Lets narrow it down!
d. At the top of the page change the date to Year round, Current Year
e. Location: type in our birding location (either Coon Rapids Dam Regional Park
or Como Park Zoo & Conservatory)
f. This will zoom in to the area where we were birding. Zoom out until you see a
blue marker. Click on this. Then click on View Details.
g. Answer the following questions in your bird journal:
i. How many species were seen by birders?
ii. How many checklists are there?
iii. What is the most common bird seen at the site?
1. Did we see that bird on the day we birded?
iv. Change a few settings Explore data from a particular month and
year. Click on High Counts. Is there one bird that is always seen in
large numbers no matter the month or year? Which bird is it?
6. You are ready for the next session of birding! See you next time!