Completing My eBird Checklist
I consider myself more “birder adjacent” rather than an actual birder. But living in southeast Arizona, birds are one of those things that I do happen to take quite a few pictures of. I’ve had the eBird app on my phone for quite a while now, but never really used it. Then I was reading an article here on substack:
I end up taking pictures of almost every bird I see anyway, so there really no good reason I shouldn’t be filling out these checklists … at the very least later when I’m editing my pictures.
So this afternoon, that’s what I did.
First I went out to Ramsey Canyon and totally struck out when it comes to looking for birds, or any other wildlife for that matter. But then on the drive out I decided to stop down at the Brown Canyon Ranch House. There’s a little pond in the front surrounded by trees.
I was able to get pictures of 10 different types of birds. Nothing really unique or spectacular. But it did give me a chance to practice filling out the checklist and uploading my pictures to the eBird website.
The only thing I didn’t include were some hummingbirds that buzzed me a few times. I could take a guess about what type they were, but honestly I never really got a good look (let alone a picture), so decided to leave them off my list.
Here’s what I did see:
As you can see, taking pictures for birding identification is slightly different than what I might normally process and share. For instance, that Ash-throated Flycatcher shot with a freshly caught bug is an interesting scene. But given the missed focus softness of the image, if I didn’t need it for ID purposes, I probably wouldn’t have even edited it at all.
Your Turn:
Have you ever completed an eBird checklist? Did you include pictures or audio?
Til next time,
Todd
Every photo tells a story, and stories are better with company. If you enjoyed this glimpse of our life in the Sky Islands, pass it along to a fellow explorer.
I put my sightings in eBird nearly every time I go out on a nature walk. But I've never tried including photos or audio -- even though I always have my camera and telephoto lens and take a buttload of images. eBird for me is all about logging what I saw & heard, where, and when. That's valuable for research (by others, not me). Given that I'm a scientist by profession, this is like breathing for me. It's what one does. Sometimes I try not even opening eBird on a walk, and it just feels weird to not log a record of observations. I think the habitual process of eBird logging has made me see and especially listen much more acutely. (Also, thank goodness for the Merlin app!)