Great video! Love the channel. I’ve never been totally clear how to handle a new bird observed while backtracking. My best guess: include the bird, remove the backtracked distance, and keep the time equal to the total out-and-back travel time (not just the out). If that’s correct, that last part always requires me to make a mental note of the total time before I start reversing the backtracked distance on the app, which also reverses the time. If that’s not correct and only the out time should be given, that makes it seem like I observed the bird with less effort than I actually spent. I'm definitely still birding on the way back.
started birding and using ebird a few years ago. I would use the out and back distance but try not to double count. last year I started just using one way distance and count. one advantage is I get back to the car faster. good info never thought about actual instructions for ebird just did it. 👍
Glad to help! I hope someday enough people are submitting breeding codes all the time that it becomes like a continuous breeding bird atlas. Thanks for using eBird and for watching!
Thank you for the interesting video! I’ve used eBird for several years but I learned a few helpful tips from you regarding Breeding Codes and subspecies.
That's a great point about the interpretation of "Recently Fledged." Maybe there should be more specific language on that. The backtracking thing, I tend to do it the way you mentioned. Stopping the track at the furthest poing of a trail and stopping it, then adjusting the time at the end is the best way in my experience. I've had trouble editing the track lately. It seemed to be easier, but maybe I'm missing something. Oh! And thanks for the tip about normalizing the bird audio. I don't upload audio often, unless it's to verify a species that may come up as rare.
I came into birding about 12 years ago from a photographers POV, I was encouraged to use Ebird during my first year and I thought it was an amazing program. I used it occasionally for personal research and more rarely for posting. The first problem I saw was the amount of people using it went from complete novices to want-to-be Ornithologists. The program was not designed for that but over the years it was tweaked and changed to where thousands of novices quit posting due to the demands and complexity and want-to-be Ornithologists became more obnoxious about those still trying to play by the rules and not being as committed as they were. This last month I quit posting, I still go out and enjoy seeing the birds and photographing what I see but trying to bird just to keep Ebird happy took a lot of fun out of it. If Ebird does not want to lose most of its users it needs a complete redesign. It needs to be set up for novice level birders, intermediate level birders and want-to-be Ornithologists. The vast majority of people who like birds and like to think of themselves as birders are novices and have no desire to commit tp something too complex. The other end of the spectrum are people who are truly passionate about birds and want to have some input into the science. There is nothing wrong with any level of birding, Ebird is just a tool and can be used or not and people can still get out there and doing their birding and talk to others about what they see. The most shocking piece of information I learned over my years of birding was that actual Ornithologist who are doing actual real science and research rarely use any of the information from Ebird other than locations of sightings. Any research or papers based on data from Ebird is discounted and not deemed worth much without further controlled investigations in the field science. Just keep in mind that birding can be fun, we all do it slightly differently and Ebird and other programs like it are only tools, you do not have to use these programs to enjoy yourself.
Thanks for sharing! Love the sentiment that if it isn't fun, don't do it. I went through a phase of being a bit too obsessed with my eBird lists but in the last two years often go birding without a list running and find it much more relaxing and therapeutic.
Great video, I learned a few things! I've certainly made some of these mistakes (including asking about the language issue on the Facebook forum.) I do the backtracking correctly, more or less, but sometimes I'm not sure the distance reported by eBird is accurate to begin with. Also, sometimes I backtrack more than once or travel on complicated sets of trails, so it's a pretty rough estimate in that case. I think when staking out a rare bird and only reporting that species, I would use "incomplete" rather than "incidental", since birding is still my primary purpose. I mostly use my phone for audio, these days usually using Merlin. In Audacity, I apply normalization and HPF (maybe too much, I usually go to 250Hz), but it often sounds pretty harsh afterwards. At some point I might get better recording hardware.
I stopped a birding session, went to the grocery store, drove home, and two hours later noticed I had the blue “GPS recording” arrow on my phone. Had to use the edit slider to remove 20 miles of my “track”.
I had a somewhat rare kittiwake sighting that never got confirmed. I accidentally left eBird running all the way home, nearly sixty miles! Eventually I got it sorted out and the checklist is now public.
If I'm birding and know that I'm gonna be backtracking for the rest of my list without adding any distance from side-trails or other minor areas, I will just stop the list at the furthest point and then tap the clock to adjust my time at the end. I think it would solve a lot of confusion if the distance tracking feature could estimate backtrack by the amount of overlap, and adjust the distance for you. I had been eBirding for years before I learned that you shouldn't include backtracking, so making this more apparent to newer eBirders would be helpful too
That seems like the best/easiest way to do it. I wish eBird was clearer on why they would want the track to keep running, but hopefully it is so they can build a feature like you suggested!
@@dhitchcox In practice I'm not sure how easy it would be decide at what point a track is far enough away to consider it "new" distance. In an area with dense trails you might want that threshold to be 50 meters. In a field or on a boat you might want the threshold to be much larger. Without knowing the viewing conditions I think it would be difficult to know what distance it should consider overlap to be backtrack.
Thanks for the video, Doug! Having been a birder for nearly 50 years, I will admit that I am not comfortable adding potentially incorrect subspecies, so I don't. Clearly, there are experts with expert-level equipment who can discern subspecies differences through finely detailed photographs or with elite, costly binocs, something many of us do not have access to. In addition, I have attempted only one audio recording because I caught it via Merlin, and it's not a simple process to export a Merlin recording and clean it up. As for the codes, the eBird app in Android doesn't pop them from the front end of the app, and you have to dig deeper into the entry to find them. Lastly, especially with multiple sightings of the same species, it's not clear how to differentiate the breeding behavior from a red-headed woodpecker you saw a half hour ago and the one you're seeing now that's just perching. Sometimes, it's not clear what the bird is doing, especially from a distance. Again, it seems that no specificity is better than incorrect specificity.
Very interesting! I had no idea about the distance tracking. I always stop my checklist as to not backtrack, but it's good to know eBird wants you to continue tracking then adjust distance. Also I didn't know you could slide the distance back on those forgotten checklists haha. Awesome video like always Doug!
Same, i always stop my checklist before backtracking, also to save battery! I also though I was the only one who could see my GPS track so I didn't think it was a problem. Good to know, I'll have to change my process lol
I appreciate the descriptions you add to your lists. I've been traveling and birding the past couple weeks around New England (spent a lot of time in Maine; my second time here and I'm still in love with it. Sadly dipped on the Anhinga but hopefully will catch that kingbird tomorrow!) and it has at times been difficult to find birds that are common at a hotspot, but I as a visitor don't know where to look for them in a large preserve. I always try to write comments on any species of note, as well as for any very common birds if I happen to see them doing something interesting or if I just get a really good look. I have really enjoyed your presence on TH-cam, great presentation and great information!
Thanks for the audio editing tips. I figured normalization was encouraged, but wasn't sure about applying a HPF. I'm working on a parabolic mic and intend on recording/uploading some birdsongs soon. And jeez, didn't know about not factoring in backtracking. I wish I could permanently disable the gps feature (or at least edit my track post-submission). All of mine are inaccurate.
I attended one of Macaulay's audio recording workshops and their recommendation (from my notes) was: "HighPass (Type = Bessel) (Master Gain = 0) only up to 150Hz. Bessel with Order 2 is consistent with decades of archiving."
In the eBird Community Discussion Group I've seen the subject of nestlings come up many, many times. The general consensus is nestlings are supposed to be counted, however, they are not supposed to be aged as "juvenile". Is this correct? If so, why are they not considered "juvenile" and why is there not a category for nestlings? TIA
Correct, and the distinction is that eBird is referring to juvenile plumage rather than age, which is slightly different. Juvenile plumage is the first set of non-downy feathers an individual grows, but those may be held for months and even thousands of miles from a nesting site (think of 'juvenile' shorebirds coming south right now). If you wanted to report that there were nestlings, using the "NY Nest with Young" is the best way to capture that, and I guess you could write in the notes how many were in the nest.
I'm a hobby photographer who uses ebird. I do try to report when I see something abnormal, but often the report never shows. Possibly because I put an "X" on species such as Robins, Starlings, Seagulls and similar. I'm really not a "birder" in the classic sense as I really don't care if there were 10 or `15 Robins. I find that individual ebirders and time of day make those numbers mostly academic and not reliable. I also see some of the most dedicated ebirders are a bit like fishermen. I will see a report that reports 1 pelican. Yeah, pelicans are solitary creatures. This is done so that they see the most birds in that area that anyone has seen. I like ebird but I find it almost useless in real terms as 5 people watching the same lake will report wildly different totals and varieties of ducks for example. Thanks for the video, I've been guilty of the back and forth always and possibly the fledgling.
Thank you for the tips. Very helpful. I took the course but missed that if I stop the track I should adjust the time. I always stop the track right before I turn back. Is the time issue because eBird wants to know that these birds were still there at 10 am say on a random Tuesday and they wouldn’t know that if my checklist just had me birding from 6 am to 8 am because I stopped the track at 8am? Thanks!
Hi Doug, I'm a casual birder but do submit to eBird to help bird conservation. I don't use the app. Forgive this novice question. If I bird from point A to Point B, but then bird back directly from Point B to Point A, what will count as the total distance? Asking because I will reach an end point, but then turn back and walk the same trial directly again while submitting new observations of new bird species I missed when walking the first time. Often, a new species will appear that I had missed on my first walk. Thank you. BTY: I believe that eBird is steering more towards some competitive contest on who can submit the most species and rarities.
eBird would want you to only submit the distance from Point A to Point B as the distance traveled on your list (even if you go from A to B to A to B to A etc etc), but include the total time you spent going both ways. Great to keep adding birds seen during that complete time too. I do agree that eBird is pushing a bit of the 'gamification' by encouraging a bit of competition, especially with the new "Community Targets" they've added. I wish more effort was going into education and filters, but in the meantime it'll give me topics to cover in more videos!
The more I eBird the more I learn I'm doing wrong. So all my "complete" checklists where something flew by so fast I didn't see it or was an unidentifiable silhouette that likewise left before I could ID it should have made those lists actually incomplete? Do I just enter all those as "bird sp.?" And on my out-and-backs I always turn off the track at the far end and then don't add any obviously new birds I see on my way back. Is that wrong? I at least finally stopped counting birds I just heard that were obviously different individuals (e.g. opposite sides of trail) and now my lists have a lot more Xs. I'm making what I feel is a serious effort to do this correctly so I'm only guessing there are a lot of bad data out there from less engaged users. ☹
No, just because you were unable to identify a bird does not make it an incomplete checklist. However if you were able to identify a bird and didn't include it on your checklist then it is incomplete. If you stop your track at the far end of an out-and-back and then deliberately don't add any more birds to the list, then you were essentially only birding on the "out" portion. Stopping the track at the end of the out portion and using the time/distance for just the out portion would be correct. If you did bird on the way back (adding new species, trying not to double-count the same individuals... somehow) then the total distance would be only the one-way distance while the time would be the entire time out and back. An estimate of the number of individuals is more valuable in the checklist than an X.
I've noticed pretty often that people will submit checklists with breeding codes, but not submit through the atlas portal. If you don't use the portal, your observation doesn't count toward the atlas! Yeah, I always took issue with the overuse of subspecies. Most of the time, they're just assuming based on likelihood and not on an actual identification.
@@marknofsinger91 If your state is currently within an atlas period, I believe it should have a specific portal in ebird. My state has the "New York Breeding Bird Atlas" portal.
@@marknofsinger91 My state, which is currently in an atlas period, has the "New York Breeding Bird Atlas" portal. I believe all states currently atlasing have them as well.
I also had no idea about the backtracking thing. I'm a bit confused why the app doesn't automatically remove backtracking from distance counts, if it's so important. You have the GPS data so why make users do it? Similarly, why aren't audio recordings normalised automatically, or by default? I can't think of any reason not to.
I think they don't estimate backtracking automatically because the buffer/threshold distance to say it is a backtrack versus "new" distance might vary quite a bit based on habitat. Two trails close by in dense woods might be "new" if the even if the track isn't very far away from earlier but if you are in a big field or on a boat you might want a much larger buffer to consider it "new" distance.
When I see a bird that I’ve never seen before, and I add it as “incidental@- I’m doing something else, it always marks it as “incomplete.” Is it still being entered into the e-bird database?
Yes, incomplete checklists are still added into the eBird database. The observation "counts" the same way. An incomplete list says "I saw this bird here". A complete checklist says "I saw this bird here AND any birds not on the list I did not see".
I never knew that out and back and overlapping trails should not include the length of the whole walk, just one direction.
Seems like a very prevalent 'problem' in eBird that they could communicate better. Thanks for watching!
Great video! Love the channel.
I’ve never been totally clear how to handle a new bird observed while backtracking. My best guess: include the bird, remove the backtracked distance, and keep the time equal to the total out-and-back travel time (not just the out).
If that’s correct, that last part always requires me to make a mental note of the total time before I start reversing the backtracked distance on the app, which also reverses the time.
If that’s not correct and only the out time should be given, that makes it seem like I observed the bird with less effort than I actually spent. I'm definitely still birding on the way back.
started birding and using ebird a few years ago. I would use the out and back distance but try not to double count. last year I started just using one way distance and count. one advantage is I get back to the car faster. good info never thought about actual instructions for ebird just did it. 👍
This was a really great video and a helpful reminder for me about using ebird correctly!
Thank you!
Thank you for mentioning the eBird course on allaboutbirds. I didn't know about that so I will taking that course.
Excellent! It is a good course, leaves a bit to be desired, but very good for covering the basics.
Ive been trying to learn when to use breeding codes as a newer Ebird user this helps alot. And appreciate you sharing your knowledge
Glad to help! I hope someday enough people are submitting breeding codes all the time that it becomes like a continuous breeding bird atlas. Thanks for using eBird and for watching!
Thank you for the interesting video! I’ve used eBird for several years but I learned a few helpful tips from you regarding Breeding Codes and subspecies.
Thanks for watching!
That's a great point about the interpretation of "Recently Fledged." Maybe there should be more specific language on that. The backtracking thing, I tend to do it the way you mentioned. Stopping the track at the furthest poing of a trail and stopping it, then adjusting the time at the end is the best way in my experience. I've had trouble editing the track lately. It seemed to be easier, but maybe I'm missing something.
Oh! And thanks for the tip about normalizing the bird audio. I don't upload audio often, unless it's to verify a species that may come up as rare.
I came into birding about 12 years ago from a photographers POV, I was encouraged to use Ebird during my first year and I thought it was an amazing program. I used it occasionally for personal research and more rarely for posting. The first problem I saw was the amount of people using it went from complete novices to want-to-be Ornithologists. The program was not designed for that but over the years it was tweaked and changed to where thousands of novices quit posting due to the demands and complexity and want-to-be Ornithologists became more obnoxious about those still trying to play by the rules and not being as committed as they were. This last month I quit posting, I still go out and enjoy seeing the birds and photographing what I see but trying to bird just to keep Ebird happy took a lot of fun out of it. If Ebird does not want to lose most of its users it needs a complete redesign. It needs to be set up for novice level birders, intermediate level birders and want-to-be Ornithologists. The vast majority of people who like birds and like to think of themselves as birders are novices and have no desire to commit tp something too complex. The other end of the spectrum are people who are truly passionate about birds and want to have some input into the science. There is nothing wrong with any level of birding, Ebird is just a tool and can be used or not and people can still get out there and doing their birding and talk to others about what they see. The most shocking piece of information I learned over my years of birding was that actual Ornithologist who are doing actual real science and research rarely use any of the information from Ebird other than locations of sightings. Any research or papers based on data from Ebird is discounted and not deemed worth much without further controlled investigations in the field science. Just keep in mind that birding can be fun, we all do it slightly differently and Ebird and other programs like it are only tools, you do not have to use these programs to enjoy yourself.
Thanks for sharing! Love the sentiment that if it isn't fun, don't do it. I went through a phase of being a bit too obsessed with my eBird lists but in the last two years often go birding without a list running and find it much more relaxing and therapeutic.
Great video, I learned a few things! I've certainly made some of these mistakes (including asking about the language issue on the Facebook forum.)
I do the backtracking correctly, more or less, but sometimes I'm not sure the distance reported by eBird is accurate to begin with. Also, sometimes I backtrack more than once or travel on complicated sets of trails, so it's a pretty rough estimate in that case.
I think when staking out a rare bird and only reporting that species, I would use "incomplete" rather than "incidental", since birding is still my primary purpose.
I mostly use my phone for audio, these days usually using Merlin. In Audacity, I apply normalization and HPF (maybe too much, I usually go to 250Hz), but it often sounds pretty harsh afterwards. At some point I might get better recording hardware.
I stopped a birding session, went to the grocery store, drove home, and two hours later noticed I had the blue “GPS recording” arrow on my phone. Had to use the edit slider to remove 20 miles of my “track”.
I had a somewhat rare kittiwake sighting that never got confirmed. I accidentally left eBird running all the way home, nearly sixty miles! Eventually I got it sorted out and the checklist is now public.
If I'm birding and know that I'm gonna be backtracking for the rest of my list without adding any distance from side-trails or other minor areas, I will just stop the list at the furthest point and then tap the clock to adjust my time at the end. I think it would solve a lot of confusion if the distance tracking feature could estimate backtrack by the amount of overlap, and adjust the distance for you. I had been eBirding for years before I learned that you shouldn't include backtracking, so making this more apparent to newer eBirders would be helpful too
That seems like the best/easiest way to do it. I wish eBird was clearer on why they would want the track to keep running, but hopefully it is so they can build a feature like you suggested!
@@dhitchcox In practice I'm not sure how easy it would be decide at what point a track is far enough away to consider it "new" distance. In an area with dense trails you might want that threshold to be 50 meters. In a field or on a boat you might want the threshold to be much larger. Without knowing the viewing conditions I think it would be difficult to know what distance it should consider overlap to be backtrack.
Thanks for the video, Doug! Having been a birder for nearly 50 years, I will admit that I am not comfortable adding potentially incorrect subspecies, so I don't. Clearly, there are experts with expert-level equipment who can discern subspecies differences through finely detailed photographs or with elite, costly binocs, something many of us do not have access to.
In addition, I have attempted only one audio recording because I caught it via Merlin, and it's not a simple process to export a Merlin recording and clean it up. As for the codes, the eBird app in Android doesn't pop them from the front end of the app, and you have to dig deeper into the entry to find them.
Lastly, especially with multiple sightings of the same species, it's not clear how to differentiate the breeding behavior from a red-headed woodpecker you saw a half hour ago and the one you're seeing now that's just perching. Sometimes, it's not clear what the bird is doing, especially from a distance. Again, it seems that no specificity is better than incorrect specificity.
Very interesting! I had no idea about the distance tracking. I always stop my checklist as to not backtrack, but it's good to know eBird wants you to continue tracking then adjust distance. Also I didn't know you could slide the distance back on those forgotten checklists haha. Awesome video like always Doug!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching
I wish the app was able to detect backtracking and automatically adjust your distance.
Same, i always stop my checklist before backtracking, also to save battery! I also though I was the only one who could see my GPS track so I didn't think it was a problem. Good to know, I'll have to change my process lol
I appreciate the descriptions you add to your lists. I've been traveling and birding the past couple weeks around New England (spent a lot of time in Maine; my second time here and I'm still in love with it. Sadly dipped on the Anhinga but hopefully will catch that kingbird tomorrow!) and it has at times been difficult to find birds that are common at a hotspot, but I as a visitor don't know where to look for them in a large preserve. I always try to write comments on any species of note, as well as for any very common birds if I happen to see them doing something interesting or if I just get a really good look. I have really enjoyed your presence on TH-cam, great presentation and great information!
Thanks for the audio editing tips. I figured normalization was encouraged, but wasn't sure about applying a HPF. I'm working on a parabolic mic and intend on recording/uploading some birdsongs soon.
And jeez, didn't know about not factoring in backtracking. I wish I could permanently disable the gps feature (or at least edit my track post-submission). All of mine are inaccurate.
I attended one of Macaulay's audio recording workshops and their recommendation (from my notes) was: "HighPass (Type = Bessel) (Master Gain = 0) only up to 150Hz. Bessel with Order 2 is consistent with decades of archiving."
Thank you very much for your tips, this will help me becoming a better Ebirder.
Glad to hear that!
In the eBird Community Discussion Group I've seen the subject of nestlings come up many, many times. The general consensus is nestlings are supposed to be counted, however, they are not supposed to be aged as "juvenile". Is this correct? If so, why are they not considered "juvenile" and why is there not a category for nestlings? TIA
Correct, and the distinction is that eBird is referring to juvenile plumage rather than age, which is slightly different. Juvenile plumage is the first set of non-downy feathers an individual grows, but those may be held for months and even thousands of miles from a nesting site (think of 'juvenile' shorebirds coming south right now). If you wanted to report that there were nestlings, using the "NY Nest with Young" is the best way to capture that, and I guess you could write in the notes how many were in the nest.
I'm a hobby photographer who uses ebird. I do try to report when I see something abnormal, but often the report never shows. Possibly because I put an "X" on species such as Robins, Starlings, Seagulls and similar. I'm really not a "birder" in the classic sense as I really don't care if there were 10 or `15 Robins. I find that individual ebirders and time of day make those numbers mostly academic and not reliable. I also see some of the most dedicated ebirders are a bit like fishermen. I will see a report that reports 1 pelican. Yeah, pelicans are solitary creatures. This is done so that they see the most birds in that area that anyone has seen. I like ebird but I find it almost useless in real terms as 5 people watching the same lake will report wildly different totals and varieties of ducks for example. Thanks for the video, I've been guilty of the back and forth always and possibly the fledgling.
Thank you for the tips. Very helpful. I took the course but missed that if I stop the track I should adjust the time. I always stop the track right before I turn back. Is the time issue because eBird wants to know that these birds were still there at 10 am say on a random Tuesday and they wouldn’t know that if my checklist just had me birding from 6 am to 8 am because I stopped the track at 8am? Thanks!
Any chance for a more in depth video on breeding codes/atlasing?
For sure! I have a couple slide decks from trainings during Maine's bird atlas that would be fun to turn into a video here. Great idea.
@@dhitchcox amazing! We just started ours in PA, would happily share them here! Thanks!
Yay new video🎉
Thanks for watching! Been very busy at work so hard to work on these personal projects but hopefully more to come soon.
Hi Doug, I'm a casual birder but do submit to eBird to help bird conservation. I don't use the app. Forgive this novice question. If I bird from point A to Point B, but then bird back directly from Point B to Point A, what will count as the total distance? Asking because I will reach an end point, but then turn back and walk the same trial directly again while submitting new observations of new bird species I missed when walking the first time. Often, a new species will appear that I had missed on my first walk. Thank you. BTY: I believe that eBird is steering more towards some competitive contest on who can submit the most species and rarities.
eBird would want you to only submit the distance from Point A to Point B as the distance traveled on your list (even if you go from A to B to A to B to A etc etc), but include the total time you spent going both ways. Great to keep adding birds seen during that complete time too.
I do agree that eBird is pushing a bit of the 'gamification' by encouraging a bit of competition, especially with the new "Community Targets" they've added. I wish more effort was going into education and filters, but in the meantime it'll give me topics to cover in more videos!
The more I eBird the more I learn I'm doing wrong. So all my "complete" checklists where something flew by so fast I didn't see it or was an unidentifiable silhouette that likewise left before I could ID it should have made those lists actually incomplete? Do I just enter all those as "bird sp.?"
And on my out-and-backs I always turn off the track at the far end and then don't add any obviously new birds I see on my way back. Is that wrong?
I at least finally stopped counting birds I just heard that were obviously different individuals (e.g. opposite sides of trail) and now my lists have a lot more Xs. I'm making what I feel is a serious effort to do this correctly so I'm only guessing there are a lot of bad data out there from less engaged users. ☹
No, just because you were unable to identify a bird does not make it an incomplete checklist. However if you were able to identify a bird and didn't include it on your checklist then it is incomplete.
If you stop your track at the far end of an out-and-back and then deliberately don't add any more birds to the list, then you were essentially only birding on the "out" portion. Stopping the track at the end of the out portion and using the time/distance for just the out portion would be correct. If you did bird on the way back (adding new species, trying not to double-count the same individuals... somehow) then the total distance would be only the one-way distance while the time would be the entire time out and back.
An estimate of the number of individuals is more valuable in the checklist than an X.
I've noticed pretty often that people will submit checklists with breeding codes, but not submit through the atlas portal. If you don't use the portal, your observation doesn't count toward the atlas!
Yeah, I always took issue with the overuse of subspecies. Most of the time, they're just assuming based on likelihood and not on an actual identification.
There's an atlas portal?
What is the “atlas portal”?
@@marknofsinger91 If your state is currently within an atlas period, I believe it should have a specific portal in ebird. My state has the "New York Breeding Bird Atlas" portal.
@@marknofsinger91 My state, which is currently in an atlas period, has the "New York Breeding Bird Atlas" portal. I believe all states currently atlasing have them as well.
@@frednorman1 They are offshoots of eBird that aggregate and organize breeding observations people submit.
I also had no idea about the backtracking thing. I'm a bit confused why the app doesn't automatically remove backtracking from distance counts, if it's so important. You have the GPS data so why make users do it?
Similarly, why aren't audio recordings normalised automatically, or by default? I can't think of any reason not to.
I think they don't estimate backtracking automatically because the buffer/threshold distance to say it is a backtrack versus "new" distance might vary quite a bit based on habitat. Two trails close by in dense woods might be "new" if the even if the track isn't very far away from earlier but if you are in a big field or on a boat you might want a much larger buffer to consider it "new" distance.
When I see a bird that I’ve never seen before, and I add it as “incidental@- I’m doing something else, it always marks it as “incomplete.” Is it still being entered into the e-bird database?
Yes, incomplete checklists are still added into the eBird database. The observation "counts" the same way. An incomplete list says "I saw this bird here". A complete checklist says "I saw this bird here AND any birds not on the list I did not see".
Yup! and great explanation by @tflight173
Great video
Thanks!