Folks:

I asked Brian Sullivan and Marshall Iliff for clarification on the eBird issue of using X's in the count data. Below are their responses. In essence, feel free to use an X but if you can quantify more exactly, please do!
 
Tyler Bell

California, Maryland


----- Original Message ----
From: Marshall J. Iliff <>
To: Brian Sullivan <>; James Tyler Bell <>
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 10:44:47 AM
Subject: RE: Fw: eBird and x/s

Tyler,

To follow up a little bit on what Brian said, we really would much rather
have an 'x' than a blank, especially if that means that people check the
'reporting all species'. If certain birders are willing to count their
spring warblers, but don't want to estimate the numbers of starlings and
House Sparrows, then that's OK. One of the most important things for us is
to have COMPLETE checklists WITH EFFORT. Casual observations are essentially
the least valuable (we can't estimate birds/hour or birds/mile on Casual
Observations) and checklists that don't report all species don't allow us to
infer that a species not recorded was not present. If birders fill out the
effort information and report all species, then they have done the two most
important parts. If they count every bird even better, but filling out an
'x' for starlings at least tells us that they were present, and not that
they were looked for, but missed.

Thanks for asking,

Best,

Marshall Iliff
-------------------------------------------------
eBird/AKN Project Leader
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Rd.
Ithaca, NY 14850
http://www.ebird.org
http://www.avianknowledge.net
-------------------------------------------------


-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Sullivan [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 9:59 AM
To: James Tyler Bell
Cc: Iliff Marshall
Subject: Re: Fw: eBird and x/s

Tyler

Using "X" for present certainly does not harm the database, and we have 
it so that people not comfortable with counting birds can participate.  
A complete checklist with all X's is good, but not as good as one with 
numbers.  We encourage folks to estimate numbers whenever possible--at 
all times really.  Your best estimate will always tell us more than an 
X.  An X could be one, or it could be a million, however, your estimate 
of 250K starlings tells us a lot, even if its off by an order of 
magnitude.  Bottom line is, no problem with using X, but numbers are 
better.  We try to be accommodating.


Thanks

Brian L. Sullivan
eBird/AKN Project Leader
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Rd.
Ithaca, NY 14850
www.ebird.org
www.avianknowledge.net


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