Notes and Lists

Birdwatching Fundamentals 1 listed a notepad in the basic kit, and Birdwatching Fundamentals 6 suggested noting first-arrival dates. This chapter explains why watchers keep records and the three forms they take: a field notebook, personal lists (life lists and big years), and shared checklists that feed a large public database. The record-keeping habit is what turns an enjoyable walk into something you can learn from, and, if shared, something scientists can use.

The Field Notebook

The articles I read say nothing about how to lay out a notebook, so this section is my own general knowledge (check). A useful entry holds the date, time, place, weather, what you saw or heard and how many, and a note on what you could not identify. Writing down what you saw before opening the guide (Birdwatching Fundamentals 4) and sketching a field mark you cannot name both help later.

The Life List

Wikipedia's Life list article defines it as "a list of all biological species seen by a person", and calls the practice lifelisting. It is most common among birdwatchers and fishermen. The article says each person decides what counts: some count only birds they see, others accept a bird heard. Because no one can verify another person's list, it "relies on the honor system", and adding birds seen only online or in film is generally discouraged.

The Big Year

Wikipedia's Big year article defines it as "a personal challenge or an informal competition" in which birders try to identify as many species as possible "by sight or sound, within a single calendar year". It lists records for the ABA area (the North American area used by the American Birding Association) and for the world.

The article notes that the counting area and accepted records can change, as with the addition of Hawaii and the 1998 revision when state committees accepted three more birds. It also records criticism from environmentalists that big years ignore the ecological impact of travel, and a family who used only bicycles in 2007 and recorded 548 species, which they called a "bird year". Differences worked out by hand: Dwarshuis beat Strycker by 810 (6,852 minus 6,042) and the 2008 couple by 2,511 (6,852 minus 4,341). I have not checked the totals beyond this article (check).

Shared Checklists: eBird

Wikipedia's eBird article calls it an online database of bird observations that gives scientists and amateur naturalists real-time data on bird distribution and abundance. It launched in 2002, started by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society, added New Zealand in 2008 and covered the world from June 2010. Participants record which species they see and how many, and submit them online or by mobile device. The article says statistics count only complete checklists, where the observer reports every species they can identify during the outing.

The article lists uses: studies of migration and India's monsoon, of distribution change linked to climate change, and of migration routes. One study found lists accurate for estimating trends and distribution when an area had 10,000 checklists. The data are free and feed other databases. It also reports biases: urban data skews toward higher-income neighbourhoods, pandemic restrictions made the data more urban, and most submissions fall on weekends.

Not Yet Verified, and Sources

• Sources. Life list, Big year and eBird were read as summaries by the fetch tool, not as full text.
• Not in the articles. Notebook layout and habits, the "one line" advice and the "complete checklist" reading (check).
• Unchecked. All record totals are from one article each and are not confirmed elsewhere. They are records as of the articles' last edits and may have been beaten since.
• Left open. Snetsinger's total before reclassification; eBird's number of users.

Exercises