I think that E-bird is still too cumbersome for use by anyone who
already maintains their own birding records on computer.
Entering data online one bird at a time onto E-bird, instead of
uploading a list, is a lot of extra work.

I have e-mailed e-bird about allowing upload of birding data in a
standard format, and they told me in December 2005 that they are
much closer to implementing such a capability.

I asked about the lack of useful data about rarities in our area.
They admitted two things:
1.  Most serious MD birders do not use E-bird.  They said the
same is not true in other parts of the country.

2.  Some good sightings (I asked about Northern Lapwing and
Hammond's Flycatcher) get hung up in review by volunteers, and
are slow to be posted and viewable.

The new formats for viewing data are much improved.  I think the
E-bird system has the potential to be very useful in the future,
if they keep improving it.  Review of data will always be a
bottleneck if it is done just by volunteers.

Bill Ellis
Eldersburg, Carroll Co., MD
billellis at ellislist
dot com


-----Original Message-----
From: John Sherwood
Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2006 7:03 PM
Subject: [MDOSPREY] E-Bird

Quick question. How many people use it and what do people think?