The reason for this should be obvious. Without filtering, you'd have an undetermined number of people with bird feeders, that look out their windows and report anything that they can find that looks close to their Golden Guide bird book that they picked up in Walmart. Casual observers often tell me about the Bluebirds that turn out to be Blue Jays in their back yards. All they know is it's a bird and blue. Not everyone that participates in this has any experience what-so-ever in identifying birds. Here in the east it's pretty easy to identify MOST of the birds that are likely to be at your feeders and back yards at this season of the year. But in the south and the southwest where migration is already beginning, the puzzle can be more complex. Someone has to filter out this kind of chaff if the data is going to have any validity. 

Ed Boyd
Westminster, MD

---- Richard Wood <> wrote: 
> Why are citizens allowed to participate if an "expert" is going to review it and question reported sightings?  It's not really "citizen science" then.
>  
>  Richard
>  
> Richard L. Wood, Ph. D.
> Computational Chemist
> Cockeysville, MD 21030
>