New Study Documents Trends Using eBird Data

Photo: Eastern Meadowlark, Sheri Douse/Audubon Photography Awards

It’s difficult to be optimistic about the future of North American birds in the face of a relentless avalanche of news about national policy changes that can challenge conservation efforts:

• Massive cuts in staffing for national parks, refuges, and forests 

• A proposed budget with unprecedented spending cuts to agencies in charge of managing public lands and to other environmental and conservation programs

• Endangered Species Act proposed rule changes that mean only an intentional take of an endangered bird (rather than an incidental or indirect harm through habitat loss) would be illegal, a change already in place for the Migratory Bird Treaty Act through guidance

• Promotion of fossil fuel energy production and withdrawal of funds for clean energy projects, potentially exacerbating climate change

Recent studies also provide challenging news. The State of the Birds 2025 confirms that North American birds continue to decline, and a new trend in decline in duck populations dims a bright spot in earlier reports. And a May 2025 article in Science (Johnston et al., Vol. 388, Issue 6747, pp. 532-537) reports that declines in North American bird populations are greatest where species are most abundant.

On the hopeful side of the ledger, it’s clear that we have more, and more focused, information on bird populations that can direct conservation efforts. Recall that a little over 2.5 years ago we highlighted the Bird Migration Explorer, a joint project of multiple organizations that mapped migration patterns of more than 450 species using data from eBird at the Cornell Lab, BirdLife International, and National Audubon, making clear the need for healthy habitat across continents. And the latest report on North American birds documents changes in abundance of 495 species breeding in North and Central America and the Caribbean based on 14 years of eBird data. In other words, Cornell’s large citizen science initiative continues to produce results.

Although the study’s conclusions are grim in many respects, the writers offer some positive conclusions. The detailed range information provided by eBird can (i) detect localized declines that may not be evident from broader studies; (ii) help identify causes of declines, and (iii) inform management, which is typically implemented in local landscapes. In addition, although 75% of species were declining, with significant declines for 65%, 97% of species showed separate areas of significantly increasing and decreasing populations, possibly highlighting areas for focused conservation efforts. 

Of course, we all have a lot of work to do to respond to political challenges, climate change, and habitat loss from land use changes. As the study makes clear, many of those challenges must be addressed at the local level. So, let’s all continue to talk to our elected representatives at the national, state and local levels, protect and enhance healthy habitat for wildlife, and participate in citizen science.

eBird or Birda, or Both?

Photo: James Breeden/Audubon

Deidra Bryant

Most American birdwatchers are familiar with eBird and Merlin, products developed and managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and launched in 2002 and 2021, respectively. But have you heard of Birda? It was developed in 2013 by a couple as a social media website and mobile application for sharing wildlife sightings in southern Africa, transitioned into a birdwatching community in 2018, and was launched as Birda in Europe and the US in 2022. It’s worth a look, even for dedicated eBird and Merlin users.

How does Birda work? Think of Facebook and Instagram, but for birders. Once you have downloaded the application you can create a profile, which requires only your name (or an alias), your location, and a species region. Then you are ready to use Birda to record and share your sightings with a selected group of friends or more globally. If you want to take a hike or walk and spot birds and record as you go, you tap the + symbol at the bottom of your screen and select “Birding Session.” If you simply want to record a one-off sighting, select “Add Sighting.” In that way, Birda is much like eBird.

In Birda’s “Birding Session” feature, simply tap “log bird,” and it will ask you what you saw. It will keep doing that until you choose to end your session. Once you are finished with your walk, you can post your experience on the app for friends and followers to see. You also can adjust privacy settings by tapping the “Profile” icon at the bottom of the screen. Birda uses a timer and GPS, so your post will display the date and time your session took place from start to finish along with bird species seen and number of sightings. You’ll be able to tag people, post notes, add photos, and even create titles for your session.

The “Add Sighting” option will ask you where you were, what you saw, and when you saw it. If you’re not sure what you saw, you can upload a picture and the Birda community will help you with identification if you choose to allow others to see your sighting. You also can help others ID birds they aren’t sure about on the “Unidentified” section of the “Feed” page. eBird users might turn to Merlin or iNaturalist for help with identification.

In Birda you can follow people overseas and see what birds they saw and where, and leave comments. You also can follow and see what your neighbors saw in your local area. That way you can try your luck spotting that same bird near you. You can create life lists and use the mapping location feature to see what birds have been recorded lately in an area. Birda also includes links to other information sources, displaying information on the natural history of the birds if you tap on the bird’s image. A species guide also is available in the “Discover” section seen at the bottom of the screen on the app.

Even if you are a committed eBird user, it’s worth your time to download and test drive Birda. Its Facebook-like features may attract more casual birders to participation in citizen science. And, although the application was not developed by a venerable institution like Cornell, it has been endorsed as a data publisher by the National Biodiversity Network, which has allowed it to contribute to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, an international network and data infrastructure used to provide anyone and everyone open access to all types of information about life on earth. So, like eBird, the application can help scientists understand more about birds and climate change

So, give it a try! More information about Birda and its founders is available in a 2022 article by Matt Mendenhall in Birdwatching.

Spend Some Time with the Bird Migration Explorer—You Won’t Be Sorry

Photo: American Kestrel, Matt Felperin

Fall migration through northern Virginia is by no means over, but the numbers of birds traveling to, as well as passing over and through, our area is on the decline. Some of us may now stop obsessively checking BirdCast daily to see what we may anticipate passing through overnight. But, that doesn’t mean that we should stop obsessing about migration and the challenges it presents to North American birds. 

The last few years have seen an explosion of data collection and data management tools that are giving us a more detailed view of migration than we have ever had before. The Bird Migration Explorer is an online guide to the journeys of 458 species of birds generated from data consolidated from multiple sources. It is available as a free interactive platform through National Audubon Society, but was developed through a partnership among Audubon and Birds Canada, Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, Bird Genoscape Project, BirdLife International, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Esri, Georgetown University, Movebank, and the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center.

Spend a little time on the site and you can see what information is available and how the information can help focus conservation and advocacy efforts in the North America. 

Look, for example, at the maps for the American Kestrel, a bird facing significant challenges in our area because of vanishing meadows. The base map that underlies the migration and connection maps shows the bird’s summer, winter, and year-round ranges, information that is generally available from field guides, both printed and online. That data for the explorer comes from eBird at the Cornell Lab, BirdLife International, and Audubon. 

American Kestrel, Matt Felperin

But the migration map provides more. Overlaid on that base, using information from the same sources, is a graphical representation of abundance of the species throughout the yearly cycle. While the map shows moderate abundance in some areas of the country, it clearly shows the perilous state of the bird in our area. And what seems almost magical, the map includes the route of tracked birds: the routes are generated from two studies that tracked 10 individual birds, data shared by researchers and stored on Movebank and Motus. There’s also a link to a 2020 article about the species’ decline. 

But there’s even more! Species connection maps show where tagged birds of one species have been re-encountered as they traveled across the hemisphere. Connections are derived from millions of re-encounter observations from tracking, banding, automated radio telemetry, and genetics data. A mouse click on a location displays the locations the species traveled to and the number of individuals that have traveled between the locations. The map shows birds from our area showing up further up the coast into Canada, down to the east coast of Florida, and inland to Georgia. The kestrel map shows connections for 1,943 individual birds, data from four studies stored on Movebank, the USGS Bird Banding Lab, Motus, and the Bird Genoscape Project. 

But how does all this information help direct our conservation efforts? Click over to the conservation challenges maps and look for our area. The data for these maps come from weekly distribution data from Cornell’s eBird. The map provides a visual image of different challenges in the area throughout the year. Conservation challenges such as suburban development, roads, and power lines fluctuate in intensity during the year depending on the relative abundance of birds in the area—showing higher exposure and higher abundance during migration as birds pass through our developing landscape. 

The data indicate that ASNV’s current focus on conservation and advocacy efforts is appropriate—that is, a focus on preserving and maintaining habitat, supporting wildlife corridors and responsibly sited bike paths, creating bird-friendly habitat in developed areas, encouraging developers to use bird-friendly glass in construction, educating the public about turning off lights during migration, and working to limit exposure of birds to predation by free-roaming cats. Those efforts can help our local wildlife as well as vulnerable migrants. 

Another takeaway from the exercise of exploring the Bird Migration Explorer is the importance of citizen science to bird conservation. Identification of the relative abundance of birds throughout the calendar year and throughout the Americas provides the base for the migratory bird initiative. Continuing development of citizen science data, as well as analysis of the available data over time, also can show important trends that can further focus all of our efforts.

On the issue of changing trends over time, you can look forward to an article in next month’s Potomac Flier on the recently-updated State of the Birds Report 2022 (released on October 12, 2022). The report is available at StateoftheBirds.org. Until then, take a look at this month’s “President’s Corner” on how ASNV can use multiple data sources to focus its efforts on behalf of the birds and our local environment.

Enjoy exploring!