outh and Central America, Europe, and Africa, tallying a fantastic 4267 species – more than 80% of the way to his goal, and just a handful of species away from the all-time record. Noah is using eBird to keep track of his sightings and to help strategize during his quest, as well as to connect with many other birders as he travels. You can see his daily blog accounts on Birding Without Borders. He has been kind enough to write up a summary of his travels for us each month – you can find his notes from August here!
The Birding Aboard project is comprised of a global oceangoing observer network—people whose love of boating is complemented with an interest in birds. Volunteers across the world keep track of the birds that they see, reporting offshore sightings (at least two miles from shore), and often documenting these observations with photos. This includes people cruising along the eastern seaboard of North America; boaters cruising through the high arctic; and sailors circumnavigating the world. Featured here is an press release overview of the Birding Aboard project, including some of the highlights that people have seen from every corner of the world’s oceans. It’ll make you want to get on a boat and head for a blue horizon. Click here to read more.
This month’s eBirder of the month challenge, sponsored by Carl Zeiss Sports Optics, is going to keep your eyes trained skyward. In September, birds are in the throes of migration on a global scale. In North America, almost every group of migrant birds is in full-blown movement over the coming month. This means that in addition to great birding, there is also the chance to witness visible migration events happening right overhead. By keeping an eye cast upwards and noting the birds that pass overhead, we can gain a more complete understanding of which birds are using a habitat, and which are just passing through. The eBirder of the month will be drawn from eBirders who submit at least 30 complete checklists containing one or more Flyover codes during September. That is an average of one checklist a day—a good reason to get outside during one of the most migrant-filled months of the year! Winners will be notified by the 10th of the following month.
For more than 12 years, eBird has been available as a place for birders, researchers, and conservationists to submit, explore, and download data on birds. During this period, eBirders submitted more than 263 million observations. These sightings span every country in the world, and to date they have been used in over 100 peer-reviewed publications. In the last year, more than 1.7 million people have visited the website to explore these data. eBird is a free resource open to anybody who wishes to use it. We are asking those who have the means to support eBird to help, and we’ve made it even easier with our new monthly giving program, through which you can become an eBird Partner. This program provides participants with access to new eBird developments as an eBird Beta Tester, and it also includes a Cornell Lab membership—providing you with access to Living Bird, our award-winning, members-only magazine. Most importantly, you’ll know you are making a difference. We believe in this program, which is why we each of us is also an eBird Partner; we hope you’ll join us.
We are excited to announce an opportunity to work with the Macaulay Library and eBird teams as an Interactive Web Designer. This position is open to applicants via the Cornell website here: Web Designer Position. Team eBird will soon be joining forces with the Macaulay Library to offer tools to submit and archive photos, sounds, and video. As a part of this work, there is also a Web Developer Position still open with eBird. If you would like to join the Cornell Lab team and design new tools to explore and submit rich media – please read on for the full description!