Category Archives: Research

Where Are The Warblers Now 2016 Edition

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Just back from a riverboat cruise on the Amazon River with Wildside Nature Tours. What a trip it was! A post and report will be forthcoming…soon I hope. In the meantime, I am behind on warbler migration. The last few years I have linked the Eastern Wood Warblers with their corresponding realtime updated maps in eBird. See link below.

You will note that I have 2 additional columns: Lower48 Rank and Lower48 Miller Scale. The Lower48 Rank is a sequential ranking of the total number of positive checklists submitted to eBird for a specific species in the Lower 48 contiguous States of the U.S. The lower the rank, the more commonly reported that species is in eBird. The most commonly reported species in eBird in the Lower 48 States is Mourning Dove. So it gets a rank of 1. Yellow-rumped Warbler is the most commonly reported warbler in eBird. It has a Lower 48 Rank of 27. It is the 27th most commonly reported species in eBird in the Lower 48 States. Kirkland’s Warbler is the warbler with the least total checklists in my list with a Lower 48 Rank of 623.

The Miller Scale is a little different measure. Even though the sorting will be the same as with the sequential ranking, this number is patterned after the old statistic used to measure the power of an earthquake. It was called Richter Scale. So if you compare an earthquake with a magnitude of 1.0 versus an earthquake with a magnitude of 2.0, the second earthquake (2.0) would be 10x as strong as the first earthquake (1.0). So I set the Mourning Dove as a 1.0. I measure every other species as compared to Mourning Dove so that I have a little different way to measure how often a species is reported in eBird. So Northern Parula has a Miller Scale of 2.1 and a Cerulean Warbler has a Miller Scale of 3.1. They have a difference of 1.0. This means that there are 10x more checklists in eBird for Northern Parula than for Cerulean Warbler. I hope you get the idea.

Please note that this is not the same as abundance. A checklist with 1,000 Red-winged Blackbirds is the same as a checklist with 1 Red-winged Blackbird. They both represent 1 checklist. I use this measure simply because it is readily available in eBird and can easily be used on a large scale (as in millions of checklists for the U.S.). The data used for these numbers was retrieved in June of 2015. It uses all months for all years from 1900 through 2014.

So without further adieu, here is the link to Where Are The Warblers Now, 2016 Edition.

 

eBird Ranked List of North American Birds

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A couple weeks ago I posted the Top 100 Most Reported Species in eBird in North America.  It was data from all years 1900-2012 as of 2/22/2013.  I actually summed up the total of all positive checklists for every species in North America reported to eBird (restricted to only species listed on the American Birding Association’s Checklist of Birds of the ABA Area). Today I am making a file available that lists all 932 ABA species reported to eBird during that time period.  This is a CSV file (comma separated values) so you can download it and put it into most spreadsheets.  Even if you do not have a spreadsheet, you can still view the file as a text file.

North American Species Ranked By Positive Checklists 1900-2012

More about this to come. I gotta to pack to head to Florida.  See you all at Space Coast!

Top 100 Most Reported Species in eBird in North America

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Have you ever wondered what birds were most commonly reported to eBird?  I have collected data from eBird for the years 1900-2012 (all months/weeks) as of 2/2/2013. Data has been rolled up by State/Province for the Lower 48 States, all of Canada, and Alaska (but not Hawaii).

Yes. I know 2015 is almost here and this is data through 2012. But I’ve done all this in my “spare” time. I will update it when I get a chance. For now, I find this stuff still very fascinating.  Oh, one other thing.  This is still 2012 taxonomy, too.

The number of positive checklists (those checklists submitted indicating a positive sighting–either 1 or more birds) has been summed for each species out of nearly 6 million checklists.  Want to know the species with the most positive checklists?  The birds that are most commonly reported in all of North America?  Here you go! Continue reading →

Biggest Week in American Birding Warbler Cheat Sheet

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This data is taken from eBird, a Citizen Science project to collect birders’ checklist data from around the world for use by researchers and scientists.  Data in this chart was accessed on 3/18/2014 from ebird.org.  The data is for all of the month of May [only] and is for all years (1900-2013).  The cheat sheet is for Northwest Ohio including the counties of Erie, Ottawa, and Lucas.  Even though this chart covers the whole month of May, it can still be used as a guideline for Biggest Week this year which occurs from May 6-15, 2014.  Check out the main festival site here: http://www.biggestweekinamericanbirding.com/.

The first column is taxonomical sequence.  The second column is a difficulty rank based on the highest number of individual birds per checklist for a specific species for May in the Biggest Week area.  The lower the difficulty number, the easier the bird is to see (more birds per checklist).  Likewise, the higher the difficulty number, the harder that species is to see.  The third column is the week in May in which that species peaks–reaches its maximum value for birds per checklist. Column 4 is the species common name.  Column 5 is the actual maximum value of birds per checklist that a species achieves in May in the 3-county area.  Column 6 is like column 3 but is specific to actual day (as opposed to week of the month).  The last column is the average number of checklists submitted during May in the 3-county area to see 1 (one) individual bird.  This is calculated by taking the reciprocal of the peak value of abundance (birds per checklist).  For example, Ovenbird reaches a peak of 0.480 birds per checklist.  So 1 divided by 0.480 equals 2.0833 [checklists to see 1 bird].  But since a fraction remains I add 1 to it to get to 3 checklists to see 1 bird.  Got it?  Good.

Tax Difficulty Week Species

Highest # birds/chklst

Peak Abundance Day

Avg # Chklsts to see 1

1

20

2

 Ovenbird

0.480

13-May

3

2

30

1

 Worm-eating Warbler

0.098

5-May

11

3

35

2

 Louisiana Waterthrush

0.057

13-May

18

4

23

2

 Northern Waterthrush

0.373

13-May

3

5

25

1

 Blue-winged Warbler

0.189

1-May

6

6

26

2

 Golden-winged Warbler

0.156

10-May

7

7

15

2

 Black-and-white Warbler

0.785

13-May

2

8

19

3

 Prothonotary Warbler

0.500

21-May

2

9

17

3

 Tennessee Warbler

0.643

19-May

2

10

31

1

 Orange-crowned Warbler

0.083

1-May

12

11

9

1

 Nashville Warbler

1.251

2-May

1

12

32

4

 Connecticut Warbler

0.075

22-May

14

13

22

3

 Mourning Warbler

0.395

19-May

3

14

33

1

 Kentucky Warbler

0.067

2-May

15

15

6

3

 Common Yellowthroat

1.787

19-May

1

16

24

1

 Hooded Warbler

0.203

4-May

5

17

4

4

 American Redstart

3.538

23-May

1

18

36

2

 Kirtland’s Warbler

0.041

14-May

25

19

21

2

 Cape May Warbler

0.469

12-May

3

20

27

1

 Cerulean Warbler

0.125

4-May

8

21

18

3

 Northern Parula

0.614

15-May

2

22

5

3

 Magnolia Warbler

3.096

19-May

1

23

11

2

 Bay-breasted Warbler

1.002

14-May

1

24

16

2

 Blackburnian Warbler

0.723

13-May

2

25

2

3

 Yellow Warbler

4.654

20-May

1

26

8

3

 Chestnut-sided Warbler

1.450

19-May

1

27

10

4

 Blackpoll Warbler

1.239

23-May

1

28

14

3

 Black-throated Blue Warbler

0.940

18-May

2

29

3

1

 Palm Warbler

4.177

1-May

1

30

28

1

 Pine Warbler

0.110

1-May

10

31

1

1

 Yellow-rumped Warbler

15.177

1-May

1

32

37

2

 Yellow-throated Warbler

0.020

10-May

50

33

34

1

 Prairie Warbler

0.059

2-May

17

34

7

1

 Black-throated Green Warbler

1.563

1-May

1

35

12

4

 Canada Warbler

0.970

22-May

1

36

13

4

 Wilson’s Warbler

0.970

22-May

1

37

29

4

 Yellow-breasted Chat

0.105

31-May

10

 

North American Birding Macro Trends – November

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Macro trends?  What??!!?  Haha.  I will get to that in a moment.  It’s been a month since I last posted here.  Sorry.  In that month I drove from Colorado to Virginia for the Eastern Shore Birding Festival.  I had a great time in Cape Charles, VA.  I drove home to Ohio and worked for a week and then headed back south to North Carolina’s Outer Banks for the Wings Over Water Festival.  It was a terrific week packed full of fun events and lots of birding.  I worked last week and my schedule finally caught up with me.  I was down a couple days with a cold.  Ok.  I still have a cold but I’m functional…sort of.  When I finish this week I will drive to Massachusetts for Athol Bird and Nature Club meeting and some New England winter birds.

Have I forgotten about Panama in January?  No.  I have not.  In fact, there are still several openings available.  You should consider coming along with me (and Wildside Nature Tours) to the Tropics during January!  More information can be found here: Panama Canal Zone and Pipeline Road Birding with Greg Miller, January 18-25, 2014.

North America Macro Trends - Nov 1-7 - eBird - 1900-2012 as of 2013-02-22

North America Macro Trends – Nov 1-7 – eBird – 1900-2012 as of 2013-02-22

Continue reading →

2014 Panama Target Birds 31-40

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Greetings from Nebraska!  I’m en route to Brighton, CO for the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory’s BBQ with the Birds on October 5, 2013.  I just had a great weekend at Pt. Pelee with the Ontario Field Ornithologists.  More on that in another blog.

Previously I posted 2014 Target Birds 1-10 & 11-20 & 21-30. Today we will look at 31-40. These represent the most commonly reported birds in Panama in late January in eBird. I am using what eBird refers to as Frequency of Checklists. This is a number that uses the total number of checklists that have a particular species checked divided by the total number of checklists submitted. It is the percent of checklists that have reported this species. eBird data was accessed on 8/26/2013 to retrieve this list. Late January? Yes. This is to coincide with Wildside Nature Tours trip Panama Canal Zone and Pipeline Road Birding with Greg Miller, January 18-25. Ready for those target birds? Here we go:

Most Frequently Reported Birds in Panama for late January #31-40

31. Streaked Flycatcher
32. Red-legged Honeycreeper
33. Cocoa Woodcreeper
34. House Wren
35. Gray-headed Chachalaca
36. Wattled Jacana
37. Western Slaty-Antshrike
38. Blue Dacnis
39. Gartered Trogon
40. Little Blue Heron

2013 Impatient Birders Guide to North America – Species Top 10s

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Do you have a nemesis bird (or two)?  Did you ever wish for a list of species with “Best Bets” for location & timing?  Well.  Here it is–the long-awaited Species breakdown for the Impatient Birder.  The Top 10 Best Bets for over 900 species are listed in 6 PDF documents–they are split into 50-page segments.  These documents are free for download. (but they are fairly large)

Purple Swamphen. STA-5 in South Florida. Big O Birding Festival. March 2013.

Purple Swamphen. STA-5 in South Florida. Big O Birding Festival. March 2013. Photo by Greg Miller

Impatient Birders Guide to North America –  Species Top 10s –  part 1

Impatient Birders Guide to North America – Species Top 10s – part 2

Impatient Birders Guide to North America – Species Top 10s – part 3

Impatient Birders Guide to North America – Species Top 10s – part 4

Impatient Birders Guide to North America – Species Top 10s – part 5

Impatient Birders Guide to North America – Species Top 10s – part 6 Continue reading →

2014 Panama Target Birds 11-20

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I hope you enjoyed the Top 10 Most Frequently Reported Birds in Panama in late January that I posted last week.  Again, I am using eBird data for the entire country of Panama, the last 2 weeks for all years.  There is not a ton of data, but it is way better than nothing!  I am using data I collected July 13, 2013 (last month).  And all of this is preparation for my trip to Panama January 18-25 with Wildside Nature Tours.  You can sign up for the trip and come birding in Central America with me at this link: Panama Canal Zone and Pipeline Road Birding with Greg Miller

As I said before, some of Panama’s most common birds are birds that you will recognize from North America.  Like this one:

Brown Pelican

Brown Pelican in flight – South Texas Coast – Dec 2012. Photo by Greg Miller

Continue reading →

2013 Impatient Birder’s Mini-Almanac to North America!

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Here is part 2 of a series I am working on for rolled up eBird data from all the States and Provinces for North America from 1900 through 2012.  A few days ago I introduced the 2013 Impatient Birder’s Cheat Sheet to North America.  It was a list of species counts by State and Province (with corresponding month & week).  I wanted to have something that gave me an idea of when the best time to go birding was for each State and Province.  Pretty cool stuff.  So cool I decided to share it with everybody…for free.  See my previous post for this brief, but information-filled table in PDF format.

Today, I am introducing the follow up report using the same data.  The previous one listed species counts by State and Province.  It is good for planning travel to those areas.  But what if you are an impatient birder like me?  And you have a very limited schedule so you might not be able to take off all those spring dates which happen to be most of the “best” times listed in the previous post.  Sigh.  Such is the time-crunched day and age in which we live.  Enter this new document, the 2013 Impatient Birder’s Mini-Almanac to North America.  This is a list of the top places to go birding by month & week of the year.

2013 Impatient Birders Mini-Almanac to North America Continue reading →

2013 Impatient Birder’s Cheat Sheet to North America!

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It is now ready!  What?  The 2013 Impatient Birder’s Cheat Sheet to North America!  Umm.  What is that?  And why should anyone be excited?  Well, on a cold day in February in Sugarcreek, Ohio, some guy got a hair-brained idea to download eBird data from every State in the Lower 48 States–and every Province in Canada–and Alaska.  Then he tinkered with the data for the next 6 months in his spare time with nearly 6 million checklists.  The result of all this?  Well.  The first information to really come out of this that may be useful to other birders is the 2013 Impatient Birder’s Cheat Sheet to North America.  It is a roll up of all this data at the State and Province level in a handy, little 3-page format.  Use it to plan where you want to go birding!  I will explain.

2013 Impatient Birders Cheat Sheet to North America

Checklists Submitted:

From January of 1900 through December of 2012, birders submitted 159,869 checklists
into the eBird database.

Total Species:

The total number of species recorded in eBird from January 1900 through December
of 2012.  Note that this number is filtered using the ABA Checklist v7.4 (from the American Birding Association http://aba.org).  For Ohio, a total of 402 species have been reported to eBird.

Total Species (>=2%):

The total number of species recorded in eBird from January 1900 through December
of 2012 that have a Frequency of Checklists value greater than or equal to 2%.  The
eBird Frequency of Checklists represents the number of checklists reporting a species divided by the total number of checklists.  Say, for a bobolink, it is the percent of the total number of checklists that reported a bobolink.  For Ohio, the number of species reported that have a percent of checklists value of 2% or more is 230.

Best Week for Total Species:

This column is a month_wk#.  EBird splits each month into 4 weeks.  So an eBird year
is only 48 weeks.  The 1st week represents days 1-7, 2nd week is 8-14, 3rd week is  15-21, and the last week is the 22nd through the end of the month.  So the peak weak
for total number of species recorded in Ohio (from 1900-2012) is April_wk4.  But, of course, you can’t come to Ohio and realistically expect to see over 300 species of birds.  But this does give you and idea of the trend of the number of species reported over time.

Species Count for Best Week:

This is the maximum number of species recorded for any week of the year in Ohio and corresponds with the previous column for month and week.  A total of 302 species have been recorded in the 4th week of April in Ohio.  That is about 75% of all the birds recorded in eBird for Ohio.  Again, one cannot expect to see 300 species of birds if they spend a  week in Ohio during the 4th week of April.  But what can be expected? (this is why there is
more data!)

Best Week for >=2% Species:

Remember the Frequency of Checklists described before?  This is the peak time when the number of species meeting the 2% or more of checklists criteria is recorded. This is May week 1 for Ohio.  This is a much better number for a one week trip to Ohio.  Why 2%?  It is completely arbitrary.  If you are a good birder or you have local information you number could be higher.  If you birding is more limited and you do not get out as much
your numbers may be lower.  According to eBird data, your best bet for a trip to Ohio should be May week 1.

Species Count for >=2% Best Week:

This is roughly the number of species an average birder on a week-long birding trip could see.  Again, your numbers may vary but this at least gives you an idea of what to expect.  The very best part of this is that the same measure is used for all the states and provinces.  Of course, you need to think about the size of the area–birding all of Alaska or
Texas or Ontario would be right out.  The area is just too large to cover in a week.  But, this is the best measure this amateur researcher could come up with in his spare time.  Enjoy!

It is completely free for download in PDF format.  I did the research for myself and figured there may be a few other birders (like maybe 5…or 12 folks, or so) who might be interested as well.  Here it is:

2013 Impatient Birders Cheat Sheet to North America