Comments on: How eBird makes me a better birder

By: Nate

Nate — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:52:41 +0000

@Wren- Glad to hear it! I've found my neighborhood list to be as interesting as any I've done because in the past I was only really compelled to pay attention to the neighborhood in as much as I could find a new yard bird. Those occurrences are few and far between anymore, but being more attentive to the comings and going of my regular birds has been really rewarding in the meantime.

Incidentally, my Grackles and Cowbirds left about a week earlier than the Swifts.

By: Wren

Wren — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 16:50:14 +0000

Nate, you're giving me an incentive to do this. Kathie (Sycamore Canyon) is an ebirder par excellence, and inspired me to set up an account while we were at the New River Festival together.

I haven't used it much because so much of my birding is right here in my backyard, and I didn't see those records as that important to any one else. At the same time I've always wanted to keep yard records so I'd know (for example) when the blackbirds typically arrive and when they leave. Thanks for inspiring me to use eBird for both, and hopefully to be more diligent about recording observations at all.

By: Nate

Nate — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:22:05 +0000

@Jochen- It's a good question, looking at the top 100 eBirders in my state 4 out of the top 10 are women, but only 5 out of the top 20, so take that as you will. I think that is fairly representative of birders as a whole if you think of eBirders as those who are generally pretty serious about birding.

By: Jochen

Jochen — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:59:51 +0000

@ Nate: I asked about the sex ratio as I would guess the collector's ethos is predominantly a male domain. It seems women – in general and with many exceptions of course – tend to go birding for other reasons. At least this is my impression.

By: Nate

Nate — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:27:57 +0000

@John- I do the same thing. It's given the doldrums of summer bird a purpose.

@Corey- Thanks! You just increased my year list by about 30%.

@Jochen- There's certainly a collector's ethos among birders, and as long as we keep it in check I think it's a positive thing. The drive to find something new is important in birding, I see this as an offshoot of that. It's still new even if it's new for the second week of July or something equally mundane.

As an eBird reviewer I've definitely fielded more responses from men than women, but I think it's a function of the regular sex ratio of birding more than any eBird specific thing. There are some big time woman eBirders in NC, at least.

By: Jochen

Jochen — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 10:22:25 +0000

There apparently is a desire amongst birders to have a "perfect" and "complete" statistics for their local patch (includes me). Could this tell us something about our motivation to bird in the first place?
Are there differences between the percentages of male and female birders using eBird?

By: corey

corey — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:44:31 +0000

@Nate: Done.

By: John

John — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:41:34 +0000

It definitely makes local birding more interesting. This summer I've been trying to fill in the one-week gaps on the bar charts for my home and local park.

By: Nate

Nate — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:02:02 +0000

@corey – It's naswick

By: corey

corey — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:59:32 +0000

Nate: Just tell me your eBird handle and I will share them with you directly on eBird.