ABA Blog

The State of the Birds 2013: Report on Private Lands in the U.S.

When land does well for its owner, and the owner does well by his land; when both end up better by reason of their partnership, we have conservation.
—Aldo Leopold, The Farmer as a Conservationist

Yesterday afternoon the 2013 U.S. State of the Birds Report was released, the nation’s first review of bird distribution and conservation opportunities on private lands. This collaborative effort of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative included partners from across the country and highlights the enormous contributions private landowners make to bird and habitat conservation. In the report you can read about endangered species whose populations are supported almost entirely by private lands, such as the Golden-cheeked Warbler of central Texas. You’ll also learn about innovative win-win solutions for working lands, like the conservation easement on 14,000 acres of shortgrass prairie on the Wineiger-Davis Ranch in Colorado, which both helps sustain the family’s livelihood and also supports Mountain Plover populations.

Private landowners, including two million ranchers and farmers and about 10 million woodland owners, own and manage 1.43 billion acres, roughly 60% of the land area of the United States. Private lands are used by virtually all of the terrestrial and coastal birds of the U.S., 251 of which are federally threatened, endangered or of conservation concern. Many privately owned working lands that produce food, timber, and other resources for society also provide valuable habitat for birds.

 

Percentage of primary habitats on private, public, and tribal lands in the lower 48 states, Alaska, Hawai`i, Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. Wetlands are not depicted because of insufficient data.

The scientific data show a very high dependence on private lands among grassland, wetland, and eastern forest birds, as well as the tremendous potential for bird conservation. Half of the more than 200 bird species analyzed in this report have 50% or more of their distributions on private lands in the U.S.

 

• Privately-owned wetlands support more than 75% of the breeding and wintering distributions of waterfowl such as American Black Duck, Blue-winged Teal, Northern Pintail, and Wood Duck.
• Coastal areas constitute only 9% of the total land area of the U.S. (excluding Alaska and Caribbean and Pacific Islands), but 25% of all bird species in North America use coastal habitats for some part of their annual cycle.
• Hawai`i accounts for approximately 0.2% of the area of the U.S., yet it contains 33% of all
  federally endangered bird species.
• Seven breeding obligate grassland bird species, including Eastern Meadowlark and Dickcissel, have more than 90% of their distribution on private lands.

 

With 97% of their distribution on private lands, Eastern Meadowlarks depend on the grassland habitat provided by pastures and farm fields. Six other obligate grassland breeding bird species also have distributions greater than 90% on private lands. Eastern Meadowlark by Joshua Clark, www.momentsinature.com.

 

Success Stories

The report highlights success stories of the real and meaningful conservation impacts that the actions of voluntary private landowners can have on birds and their habitats.

• Through the Farm Bill’s Working Lands for Wildlife Program, more than 700 ranchers in eleven western states are enhancing 2.5 million acres of aridlands habitat for the benefit of sage-grouse.
• The Machias River Project in Maine protected 60,000 acres via purchase and easements, completing a mega block of contiguous habitat for 28 bird species of conservation concern, including Canada Warbler.
• Nearly 250 private landowners in Nebraska and Colorado have protected more than 1,000 nests of the imperiled Mountain Plover as part of the Prairie Partners Mountain Plover Nest Conservation Program.
• In Illinois, regional spring counts of Henslow’s Sparrows are 25 times higher than 30 years ago, prior to the creation of the Farm Bill’s Conservation Reserve Program.
• Following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2012, landowners in 8 southeastern states voluntarily enrolled more than 470,000 acres in Farm Bill conservation programs as part of the Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative, providing habitat for wading birds, shorebirds, and waterfowl.

The report’s take-home message is this: both birds and people rely on private lands, and that reliance is only going to increase as populations grow and our demand for things like food, timber, and energy increase. In order to support these growing needs, we must develop and support the continued use of creative strategies, programs, and partnerships for working landscapes that support not only the people whose livelihoods rely on them, but also the conservation of bird populations.

You can download the complete State of the Birds 2013: Report on Private Lands at http://stateofthebirds.org. You can also view more detailed information about specific habitats, as well as landowner efforts to support bird conservation. Finally, you can view detailed species distribution maps, supported by eBird data.

Long Live the Evening Grosbeak!

This month concludes the very impressive reign of the Evening Grosbeak as the 2012 ABA Bird of the Year. Could we have chosen a better year to highlight this amazing bird?! We are getting reports from folks seeing Evening Grosbeaks in places they've not been seen in thirty years. One might imagine that Jeffrey & Liz Gordon have been secretly raising thousands of Evening Grosbeaks behind the ABA office in Colorado Springs and they've been generously distributing them about the country during their travels - just like that jolly elf that comes around this time of year spreading joy. But the reality surrounding this mysterious bird irruption is all the more amazing!

eBird sightings from Aug-Dec 2011 (above) eBird sightings from Aug-Dec 5th 2012 (below)

In this month's issue of Birding, UC-Davis Ph.D. candidate Aaron Haiman shares his personal experiences studying Evening Grosbeaks. He presents a lesson on sympatric and allopatric speciation that I found very enlightening. Then leads into a discussion of his work identifying the three to five variants or types of Evening Grosbeaks in North America by flight call and their related geographies. It's a fascinating read and we hope you'll want to comment about it here. Aaron's research continues and we as capable birders and citizen scientists can help! Report your Evening Grosbeak sightings to eBird. Take photos. Record their calls if you can. Then contact Aaron directly by email or via his blog.

So, while the Evening Grosbeak's reign may end with the year, we are still in the midst of an amazing EVGR movement worth watching and celebrating.

Female Evening Grosbeak by Ryan O'Donnell of Logan, Utah

BirdsEye BirdLog- have it yet?

< Side Note:  I'm still working on some stuff to refine recording bird vocalizations on my iPhone and will update that in my next ABA Blog installment.>

After a quiet "soft launch" period, BirdsEye recently announced a new app for iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPodTouch) & Android that lets users input checklists to eBird directly from their smart device.  While not an eBird or Cornell product, this is the only mobile app using the official eBird data entry API (Application Program Interface).  Team eBird worked closely with the developer to ensure ease of use and maintain top data quality.  eBird endorses this software and a portion of the proceeds support eBird so that's cool, too.  Jump over to eBird's detailed comments about this app here...  Entering checklists from the field has some profound implications- team eBird has also authored some suggested best practices for BirdLog data entry.  The short article is well worth the read if you are going to use the app.

I've been using the app for a little over a week now and I think it is great.  Here's what stands out as really nice so far for me:

• When I'm ready to start a checklist it will pull up hotspots and my personal birding locations based on my device's locating abilities (GPS, cell phone towers, and/or wireless network location.)  You can also create a new location if needed.

• Instead of the entire ABA list, checklists are based on current eBird location & time filters (though of course you can add a rarity that wouldn't be expected in the area.  If so you get a confirmation request similar to the process on the regular web page.)
• Instead of long scrolls up and down to add birds, you can search by name or, even faster, by banding code.
• Each time you enter a bird or birds, it will add to whatever you already have.  For example, if I enter 3 RBGU then I'll have three Ring-billed Gulls for the checklist.  If I later see three more, I enter 2 RBGU and my checklist will then show a total of five Ring-billed Gulls.  So it is a sophisticated tally counter in that regard (see below.)

• If you aren't a banding code fan, you can also just start typing in the common name and your choices will quickly narrow.  Then you touch the species you want and the new tally will be added (see below.)

• If your number is mis-entered (perhaps you change your mind on an ID or whatever,) you can also subtract birds by entering negative numbers.
• If you begin a checklist when you start birding at a particular site, when you are done it will calculate the time spent birding for you with a single push of a button.
• Overall it is a lot easier to navigate & enter data through this app on my iPhone than it is to use the eBird site on the small screen!

 

 The app will undoubtedly get better in future updates, and I'd especially like to see:

• Checklist sharing from the app.
• Ability to edit submitted checklists (you can edit in-progress lists but once submitted, changes have to be through the eBird site.)
• Age/Sex/Breeding Code section of comments (currently only the general comments box appears.)
• For GPS-enabled devices it would be nice if the app could keep track of distance traveled to compliment the automatic timing option.
• Perhaps a mobile version of the "My eBird" and "Explore Data" stuff- things like personal lists, bar charts, etc.

The developers are very interested in birder feedback, so if you get this app and have ideas for making it better be sure to send along your comments here:  support@getbirdseye.com.  BirdsEye has also put out a nice little demo video to showcase the app- check it out (this shows an earlier version of the software but you'll get the general idea):

 

What is happening to Evening Grosbeaks?

Evening Grosbeak feeding on box elder seeds.

In the summer of 1981, when my husband and I moved into our house in Duluth, Minnesota, Evening Grosbeaks instantly became woven into the fabric of my daily life. They were the first birds I heard calling in the trees as we lugged boxes and furniture into the house, and the first birds to visit our bird feeders—even before the first chickadees showed up. Day after day throughout the following decade, Evening Grosbeak calls provided a lively and cheerful background soundtrack for our lives, indoors and out.

Their numbers dropped in summer, rose in winter, and were huge during spring and fall migrations, but season after season, year after year throughout the 80s, Evening Grosbeaks were virtually always present in my yard. I had better luck with them than many people because my box elder trees attracted flocks flying overhead, but just about anyone in Duluth with platform feeders offering sunflower seeds had Evening Grosbeaks at least sometimes.

By the early 90s, grosbeak numbers seemed to be declining. I grew concerned, even mentioning my apprehensiveness in my first book in 1993. I thought it was part of a disturbing pattern in Duluth—during this same period, my neighborhood lost a lot of nesting birds, and the huge waves of migrating warblers and thrushes in my backyard dwindled. Friends of mine who lived in Duluth for several decades before I did also noticed the disappearance of many local nesting species—birds which have not returned. Duluth's Christmas Bird Count data was tricky to analyze because the count circle changed in 1979, so the pre-1979 count historical dataset is separate from that post-1979, and the graphs of the datasets are on different scales. Pre-1979, the highest average Duluth count was 20 EVGR per party hour.

The highest average number of EVGR per party hour post-1979 was slightly less than 6.5—a third less than in the earlier period. So the following graph is on a different scale than the previous one. The smaller per-party average is almost certainly an artifact of the increasing numbers of CBC parties during the 70s and 80s. Evening Grosbeak flocks can be localized within a city, but when fewer parties participated, they would naturally have headed to the best feeders, so the number of grosbeaks counted wouldn't increase nearly as significantly as the number of parties did.

Evening Grosbeaks were counted on every single Duluth CBC from 1979 until 2002, when not one was found. There were a handful in subsequent years, but 2011/12 has now been the third year in a row that they weren’t found at all on Duluth’s Christmas Bird Count.

The pattern of Christmas Bird Count data for all of Minnesota shows a very steep climb in Evening Grosbeak numbers peaking in the mid-60s. (Notice that the higest years, statewide, averaged about 5.25 EVGR per party hour.)

Why the rise in the middle, and why the drop? Did the population really increase in the 60s, or was the increase an artifact of the increasing numbers of birders and count circles in the northern third of the state during the 60s? It's impossible to know. I've talked to people in their 80s and 90s who grew up in Duluth and remember lots of grosbeaks throughout their childhoods. That's anecdotal, though it may be significant in light of the absence of better data. But the rise and fall could also be due to the decades-long but irregular cycles of spruce budworm populations, a major component of the diet fed to nestlings. All we know for certain is that the decrease since the 80s is real, and has been found throughout both the United States (first graph) and Canada (second graph).

These Christmas Bird Count graphs show an intriguing biennial rhythm, probably due to the cyclical nature of the seeds grosbeaks feed on. Evening Grosbeaks were not known in the Eastern states until the late 1800s; their sudden appearance there may have been due to ornamental tree plantings (box elder wasn't native to the East), the increase in popularity of bird feeding, or unknown factors.

Data from the Breeding Bird Survey extends back only as far as 1966. The same biennial rhythm is evident, and the sad decline is quite clear, both in Minnesota (first graph) and throughout Canada (second graph):

We don't know if the huge drop in numbers was part of an extremely long cycle (perhaps related to spruce budworm outbreaks), if it was a simple matter of returning to a "normal" level after an unexplained but brief population surge, or if this really has been a catastrophic loss. Several factors may have contributed to the drop:

• Evening Grosbeaks feed their nestlings insects, including (possibly preferentially in some places) spruce budworm. Controlling spruce budworm has been an important forestry goal for many decades, with heavy use of pesticides over enormous swaths of northern forest. One of the pesticides currently used is Bacillus thuringiensis, which isn't known to harm birds, but regardless of the pesticide used, the loss of larval insects during the nesting season may well be implicated. 
• Adult and young Evening Grosbeaks feed heavily on maple and, especially, box elder seeds. In recent decades, forest management in huge swaths of northern forests has focused on fast-growing softwood trees for paper and wood products rather than on slower-growing hardwoods such as maple and box elder. This may have reduced another important food source.
• Exploitation of "tar sands" has also been implicated in the loss of huge swaths of Canadian forest habitat.
• Large numbers of Evening Grosbeaks are killed by cars during winter, when they are drawn to roads to pick up road salt and grit. In a single incident reported in 1981, over 2,000 Evening Grosbeaks were killed along a 16-km stretch of a British Columbia road, with many more dead birds seen off the road that weren't counted (Smith, W. G. 1981. Observations on a large highway kill of Evening Grosbeaks in British Columbia. Syesis 14:163.)
• Evening Grosbeaks are killed in much larger than average numbers at windows. Klem in 1989 listed them as the tenth-most frequently reported species killed by collision with building windows. 

What can we do individually and collectively to protect Evening Grosbeaks?

• Those of us who are lucky enough to get them in our backyards should do everything we can to make our windows bird-safe. The American Bird Conservancy now sells a tape that, applied to the outside of windows, makes them more visible to birds. This tape is predicted to last for about four years. (ABC Bird Tape.)
• Driving at the slowest speed that is safe, courteous, and convenient allows us to react more quickly when wildlife is present, and gives birds a better chance of avoiding our car. This at least helps minimize our contribution to the huge numbers of birds killed on highways. (It also saves natural resources!)
• Reducing our use of paper, purchasing recycled paper whenever possible, and recycling rather than discarding paper reduces our personal complicity with the forestry practices most harmful to Evening Grosbeaks. 
• Conserving energy reduces our personal complicity with fossil-fuel extraction that destroys habitat.
• Encouraging and supporting research about Evening Grosbeaks, including filling gaps in life history information, will shed more light on what the species' needs are and what may have caused its decline. Knowing whether the drop in numbers is part of a natural cycle, a simple population blip, or a grave conservation issue will be a critical first step if action is to be taken under state or federal endangered species regulations. Membership and contributions to state and regional birding and ornithological societies and to research and conservation organizations (such as the American Bird Conservancy, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and Audubon) can help make a difference.
• If you've kept records of numbers and locations over the years, going back through your notes on Evening Grosbeaks and posting the information on eBird will provide valuable data. If you have older birding friends who kept a detailed field notebook during earlier decades, ask them to allow you to post their data on eBird.

By the late 90s, Evening Grosbeaks completely disappeared from my Duluth yard. On a handful of occasions since then, I've had one or, at most, two birds visit for a few minutes and move on, and never more than a single visit per year. Then, this past August, for the first time since the mid-90s, an actual flock of grosbeaks, 16 birds including adult pairs feeding fledglings, showed up and were present every day for six weeks. Much of the time they fed on seeds or loafed in my box elders, but part of the time they visited my feeders and bird bath. I woke to their calls every morning and could hear their comfortable chattering throughout each day. They vanished in mid-September, and I haven't had one in my yard since. But hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul; even as I do my best to follow my own conservation advice, I'll keep hope alive that this splendid bird's disappearance is just a temporary blip.

 

The Evolution of a Birder

I've been thinking a lot lately about birders--specifically, the various kinds of birders we are, have been, and will become. When I think back across my life as a birder, I can see how own my skill level has progressed, but perhaps more interestingly how my mentality has changed as it relates to the bird identification process. What drove me in the early days isn't what drives me now, and I wonder what will drive me moving forward? What does it mean to be an "expert birder"? How can I get there? There are many talented birders out there, but there are certain qualities that I've seen shared among the birders I look up to--the ones that consistently blow my mind when I'm birding with them in the field. 

We all start out birding as beginners. For whatever reason we're drawn to birds. The initial spark that grabs us can come from a variety of sources, but once we have it we're captivated, and our lives are never the same. But being captivated by birds and learning to identify them with skill are two different things; the former can happen in an instant, but the latter takes a remarkable amount of time. The great thing about being a beginning birder is that everything is new. There are amazing discoveries and new species to be had around every corner. The Sibley Guide is a wondrous thing; a book of possibilities. We thumb across the pages, dreaming of seeing our favorite birds, indeed learning what our favorite birds are! It's an amazing time to be a birder. The funny thing is, we often don't appreciate the newness of it all. Instead we're like impatient children, eager to hang out with the older kids, to get older ourselves, to become experts.

Arctic Loon, San Simeon, CA, 13 Jan 2012. A bird I dreamed about seeing as a young birder, but would I have recognized one back then?

Over the years we learn the ins and outs of basic birding. Some learn faster than others. We learn the common birds in our neighborhoods, and then we move onto bigger challenges. Perhaps it's fall warblers, shorebirds, or raptor identification. For the sickest ones among us, it could be gulls. We pursue our specific interests and learn more about how to look at birds, transcending into the realm of the intermediate-level birder (for lack of a better name). New questions perplex us. How old is that bird? What subspecies is it? What is a subspecies anyway? We learn how real-world birds differ from those we see depicted in field guides, and how lighting, molt, wear, weather, and other climactic conditions affect the way a bird looks on any given day.

Now don't take this the wrong way but...these "college years" of birding can be a dangerous time for many of us (not all though). We think we know a lot, but in reality we know a little, and often our egos get the best of us. We foolishly challenge conventional wisdom, having misplaced confidence in our abilities, finding one too many rarities or birds that fall outside their expected windows of occurrence. We suffer from single-observer sighting syndrome. Armed with our new found knowledge and budding identification skills, we too often shoot from the hip, pushing the limits of our skills, and testing the patience of our mentors. Unconstrained by reality (historic precedent) and freed from the gripping fear of making mistakes as beginners, we're sometimes a little too loose with our identifications. It's a delicate time for us, and some of us don't learn from our mistakes, and pay the price by loosing credibility among our peers. Others do learn though, and become excellent birders. The best avoid this phase altogether, being keenly aware of themselves, their skills, and their reputations from the beginning.

The next phase of our birding life is "middle age", a higher level of intermediate birder. Most of us forgo the capriciousness of youth for a more measured and thoughtful approach. Instead of shooting from the hip we become more methodical in our identification process. We transform our mentality from thinking we know everything to realizing we know nothing. We are humbled again, just like at the beginning, but this time the questions we ask are different. The possibilities are endless. Identification becomes just one of the things that fascinates us about birds. It is at this level where many of us remain for the rest of our lives, happily birding ever after. But it is here where the truly expert birders begin to diverge.

So what makes an "expert birder"? Well, lots of things! Truly expert birders combine the passion of the "college years" with the clear-headed approach of "middle age". They mix blazing hot field skills with an incredible knowledge of bird distribution and seasonality. They use probability of occurrence to help quickly limit their likely identification choices, and then use their field skills to quickly sort through the possibilities to make seemingly instantaneous identifications. They have an intimate knowledge of the common birds, and are prepared to recognize a rare bird as "different" the moment it occurs. Unsatisfied with the status quo, expert birders question conventional wisdom, but this time break new ground, pushing the boundaries of the identification process forward, doing so by asking questions, long hours in the field, and careful study.

Expert birders learn to look at birds differently--they look longer and more closely than most birders. They form an initial impression, but they then divorce themselves from it to look at it anew, always double-checking. Their mindset changes from being about making the call first, to being about getting it right in the end. Expert birders are often the ones that forgo an emotional response to a rarity in favor of a rational examination of the situation. Instead of saying 'got it', and quickly ticking off a rarity on their lists, they identify the bird for themselves, sometimes coming to a different (and often unpopular!) conclusion.

Perhaps most importantly though, the truly expert birders know when to say "I don't know". This is a difficult thing to do, as it goes against everything we've trained ourselves to accomplish over the years. We're driven to put a name on every bird, but many birds defy identification for various reasons. Whether Kaufman or Sibley, Crossley, O'Brien, or Howell, I've heard all them say "I don't know" when asked to identify birds under certain circumstances. Instead of simply giving an answer, they are more interested in providing the right answer. And sometimes the answer is unknowable. They know more than all of us about birds, yet they are smart enough to know when they don't know, and they are big enough to admit it.

These birders, and many others like them, are my mentors. They are the kind of birder I aspire to be.

So what does "expert birder" mean to you?

After the Birding Interview

I was recently interviewed for a profile in the current issue of Birding, and now I'm an ABA blogger! This is all a great honor, but also very humbling and scary, because I know better birders than I who have yet to receive the same recognition. (You can read a PDF of the Birding article here.) Fortunately for anyone concerned that my head is going to swell up, I couldn’t bask in the pleasure of appearing in Birding for long. The very day my copy arrived in the mail, a reader sent me a very angry email about my “profoundly disappointing answer” to Noah Strycker’s question, “Out of your 101 ways to help birds, which one would make the most difference?”

In an issue as complex as bird conservation, it’s simply impossible to choose a single thing that is absolutely the most important, especially when I didn't have space for a lengthy, detailed explanation. That’s why I wrote an entire book, 101 Ways to Help Birds, on the subject. In my Birding answer, I focused on saving natural resources (water, energy, paper and other wood products), making our windows safer, keeping cats indoors, driving a bit less and more slowly, buying a Duck Stamp, and, if we drink coffee, switching to bird-friendly coffee. I explained what shade-grown coffee is, but am embarrassed that I forgot to specify that the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center is the only entity that not only ensures that coffee they certify is organic and shade grown, but that 100 percent of the coffee sold with their “Bird Friendly” certification is grown on plantations that the Smithsonian surveys to ensure appropriate species diversity.

These are issues I discuss a lot when giving talks to diverse audiences. But I left out another very important way to help birds, one that is specifically pertinent to Birding’s readership. In my book, one of my 101 Ways to Help Birds is, “Report bird sightings to the local birder hotline, state ornithological society, and eBird.” I explained why this is essential for bird conservation. When used by enough birders, eBird in particular can provide essential information about declining populations that can be used in raising awareness of a species’ plight and informing conservation action plans.

My book was published in 2006, before eBird made huge advances which have made it extremely user-friendly, and before it reached a critical mass of participants, making eBird and eBird-based applications extremely useful for getting birders timely information about rare bird sightings. Now BirdsEye, for example, can alert birders about the exact whereabouts of exciting birds using eBird data. When I was at the Space Coast Birding and Nature Festival in 2010, BirdsEye took me to the exact spot in the Viera Wetlands where a Masked Duck was swimming. And a simple Google tool posts eBird records of birds we need for particular locations right on our homepage.

 

But beyond the usefulness for birders, the data in eBird allow conservation scientists to keep track of birds in ways that it’s no longer economically feasible for researchers to do on their own. The more birders who use eBird, the better for everyone. Using eBird properly takes some discipline, because precise location data and numbers for each species reported are critical. But the team from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon has worked tirelessly to make data entry increasingly easy. Just for good measure, eBird also keeps track of our lists for us.

Important as eBird is as a conservation tool, I don’t think it’s possible to list it, or any other single thing, as the one “most important” thing we can do for birds. Accurate numbers are necessary but not sufficient for ensuring adequate protection for species of concern. For example, the Greater Sage-Grouse occupies only about 44 percent of its historical range, and data from all kinds of sources show it continues to decline dangerously. But that data haven’t helped get the species listed to get protection under the Endangered Species Act, even as the US Fish and Wildlife Service admits it deserves it. eBird data can help California Condor researchers keep track of individual birds, but a lot more is necessary than that to keep the public from tossing zinc-laden pennies into the Grand Canyon (one source of mortality for condors); reducing the waste stream in the national park, though necropsied condors have tragic amounts of trash in their digestive tracts; or limiting hunters in the condor areas of Arizona and Utah to using non-lead shot and bullets only, despite the fact that lead from hunting is the main cause of mortality for condors. The complexities of bird conservation are exactly why I started my answer to the question, “Boy—that's hard to say.”

 

On another issue altogether, after reading the interview, a few people asked me why I have Joan Baez’s autograph in my Stiles and Skutch Costa Rica field guide. She was performing in Duluth in 2000, a couple of months before my first trip to Costa Rica. In preparation for the trip, I was bringing my field guide everywhere to study up whenever I had a free moment. It turned out that I was invited backstage after the concert to get to meet Baez. I wanted her autograph, but the only paper I had on me was in the field guide.

I also asked Joan Baez what her favorite birds are. She answered the nightingale and the Western Meadowlark for their songs (yes, she’s been to Europe, and yes, she knew the difference between Eastern and Western Meadowlarks), and also the chickadee, because it’s the only bird that will eat out of her hand. She told me about a tree house that she spent a lot of time in feeding her chickadees. A few years later, CBS Sunday Morning did a profile of her, and sure enough—there she was in her tree house, feeding chickadees!

 

Get Your American Kestrel ABA BoY Badge!

We're not going to let the American Kestrel, the first ABA Bird of the Year, pass on without an aggressive and strong finish! Just so you know, we plan to have the American Kestrel carry on its reign as "Bird of the Year" until March. It more than deserves its full twelve months in the spotlight. There is still time for us to rally with some really cool things to do together. Based on your letters and comments, it sounds like you're anxious to participate and to continue celebrating one of our most awesome birds. Thank you! Let's get to it!

Similar to the American Kestrel stickers we are now sporting on our optics and other interesting places, we now have an official American Kestrel ABA Bird of the Year Badge you can place on your individual websites and blogs. Visit the ABA BoY website where you can grab the html code - found in the lower left column. This is one of the most simple and easy ways you can show your support, so we wanted to get it out to you quickly.

This badge and those stickers you're wearing will come to mean much more to you over the next few of months. Its symbol strengthens as our combined efforts add layers of meaning and experience, endearing this little falcon deeper into our hearts and actions. 

While our friendly ABA administration approves the ideas already on the table, please join me in a renewed effort to report every American Kestrel sighting to eBird. Even if you're just driving to work and see a Kestrel on the powerline, please report it. This citizen science data will aid conservation efforts on behalf of this awesome species which is struggling in some parts of North America. It's fun. It's free. It's easy. And it's important!

Please stay tuned for more ways you can celebrate the ABA Bird of the Year!

eBird launches Version 3--It's faster, easier, and free for birders everywhere

In the Fall of 2005 we launched eBird Version 2. Major changes to the site at that time included the addition of the 'My eBird' pages, and a redesigned 'look and feel'. We've come a long way since then! eBird Version 3 incorporates many of your ideas, and we're proud of the improvements we've made over the last few years. Your feedback has enabled us to launch eBird globally, helped us create a better and more streamlined data entry system, helped develop the fun side of birding through tools like the 'eBird Top 100', and helped us build better mapping tools that allow you to access the database in a better and more comprehensive manner. We appreciate all your participation, dedication, and support over the years, and we're happy to announce the official launch of eBird Version 3.

If you haven’t been to eBird (www.ebird.org) in a while, it’s time for another look. Over the past few months we’ve updated eBird so that it’s easier to use and more useful than ever to the birding community. eBird can help you find birds through our “Alerts” or by exploring our newly revised mapping tools and bar charts. Recording and keeping track of your birds is easier than ever with a completely redesigned data entry system and our automated listing pages (My eBird). Most importantly, you’ll become part of a growing community of tens of thousands of birders around the world whose data are now being used in real science and conservation. Best of all – it’s free!

eBird Version 3 includes:

• Global scope—enter and explore observations from anywhere around the world
• Streamlined data entry—getting your data into the system is faster and more customizable than ever
• Improved range maps—explore interactive range maps for any bird in the world
• Alerts system—get customized reports about birds of interest to you in a region
• eBird Top 100—find out how your totals rank among other birders in any region
• Birding + Science connection—by participating, your data become available to the science and conservations communities

The map above shows the records of Rough-legged Hawk submitted to eBird so far in 2011. The red pins indicate observations within the last 30 days. These new interactive maps make it fun to explore the dataset and find out what birds are being seen around you.

We’re proud of the new developments at eBird, and we hope you’ll take the time to take the new tools for a test spin. Even if you don’t enter data, you can still explore the information submitted by other eBirders. Moving forward we’ll continue to develop eBird as the ultimate tool to serve the birding community, while always ensuring that the data we collect for science is of the highest possible quality. Join the flock, become an eBirder!

New eBird Maps!

I hope Brian Sullivan will elaborate on this sometime soon, but eBird has recently rolled out a beta version of their new & improved global range & point maps.  I have been playing around with them some and think it is an amazing resource for birders- I hope it will steer even more people into using eBird.  The feature "...allows you to view global maps for any species or subspecies, refine the data to a specific season or date range, and then drill down to the individual sightings that make up the map." 

Click over to get the full details on what these maps can do for you!!

eBird's Fall Birding Primer

Fall, perhaps more than any other season for birding, is dependent on a myriad of weather and geographic variables to make for a rewarding birding experience.  Birders have known for years that certain weather conditions are especially condusive for exceptional movements of birds, but the specifics of these largely anecdotal tips have only relatively recently begin to be revealed with the onset of widely available dopplar radar and our increasing understanding of migration. 

EBird has recently put together a great primer for understanding how weather, birds, and locations can combine to make for a great day in the field, and to provide birders with the tools to maximize their opportunities to see migrating birds where and when they occur:

Fall migration is an exciting time for birds. With migrants on the move your local birding site can be transformed from the static to the dynamic overnight, with a suite of new species to identify, an abundance of individuals, and a feeling that anything is possible.  We realize some of our best birding days center on being at the right place at the right time.  For many birders this is mere happenstance; perhaps a long-planned weekend trip to Cape May results in a great encounter with bird migration. But these fantastic interactions with bird migration can be reliably predicted with a basic understanding of birds and weather. The savvy fall birder plans carefully both when and where to look for birds. In this article we’ll discuss the basics of fall bird migration as it relates to weather, and put you on the right track to find more birds.

The whole piece is a trove of great information.  And whenyou do get out this fall, don't forget to submit your sightings to eBird to help deepen our insight into what's going on during this amazing and exciting time of the year.