Birding Follow-up: Cerulean Warbler

Seeing birds in the field often prompts me to do a little follow-up when I get home. I might read up on natural history details for a particular species or group of species I encountered, maybe track down the natural history information behind certain behaviors I observed, or the biology behind plumage or structural details I noticed that day. Sometimes that information turns out to be worth sharing, so I’m going start posting some of that info here in the form of “Birding Follow-up” posts.

Cerulean Warbler at Glen Echo Park, Columbus, OH. 4.19.2013. Photo by Alex Champagne.
eBird Checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S13805495

Today I came across my second Cerulean Warbler of the year, which was a bit of a surprise given how little I’ve been out birding this spring!  The first individual was last weekend at Glen Echo Park in Columbus, and it put on quite a show (at eye-level!) for my wife and I.

Today, I found bird #2 on the Ohio State University campus, near Mirror Lake (an area I bird frequently during migration).  So why was I surprised?  Because Cerulean Warblers are on the decline, and while not rare, they’re by no means a common bird in Ohio during spring migration!

To illustrate that decline, here’s the BBS data trend for Cerulean Warbler from 1966-2011:

Cerulean Warbler population trend based on BBS data from 1966-2011 (survey wide). These numbers were pulled from the BBS website using the trend analysis tool. The plot was made with the R code at the end of this post.

Not good! Why the declines? As with many species, there are multiple factors involved, most having to do with habitat loss and degradation resulting from human activity, both in North America as well as on their wintering grounds in South America.

For more details, see:

• American Bird Conservancy (ABC): Cerulean Warbler. http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/international/CeruleanWarbler.html
• Search the ABC website for Cerulean Warbler information by clicking here.
• The Fish and Wildlife Service has a Cerulean Warbler Conservation Action Plan available at http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/CurrentBirdIssues/Management/FocalSpecies/Plans/CeruleanWarbler.pdf

Code for the BBS data figure:

# Graphics package.
library(ggplot2)

# Load BBS Heirarchical Model Results from
# http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/cgi-bin/tf11.pl
CEWA = read.table(header=TRUE, text="Year Index CI.025 CI.975
1966 0.91 0.65 1.40
1967 0.81 0.60 1.14
1968 0.86 0.63 1.24
1969 0.83 0.62 1.15
1970 0.83 0.61 1.27
1971 0.77 0.58 1.10
1972 0.76 0.57 1.06
1973 0.72 0.55 0.98
1974 0.66 0.50 0.90
1975 0.62 0.48 0.84
1976 0.69 0.53 0.94
1977 0.59 0.46 0.79
1978 0.53 0.40 0.70
1979 0.56 0.43 0.74
1980 0.50 0.39 0.67
1981 0.51 0.39 0.69
1982 0.45 0.35 0.60
1983 0.50 0.38 0.71
1984 0.46 0.35 0.62
1985 0.47 0.36 0.64
1986 0.44 0.34 0.59
1987 0.42 0.33 0.56
1988 0.43 0.34 0.57
1989 0.40 0.31 0.55
1990 0.41 0.32 0.56
1991 0.38 0.30 0.52
1992 0.38 0.30 0.50
1993 0.36 0.28 0.47
1994 0.34 0.27 0.45
1995 0.37 0.29 0.48
1996 0.38 0.30 0.52
1997 0.35 0.27 0.45
1998 0.30 0.24 0.40
1999 0.27 0.21 0.36
2000 0.27 0.21 0.35
2001 0.26 0.21 0.35
2002 0.26 0.20 0.36
2003 0.29 0.22 0.40
2004 0.27 0.21 0.35
2005 0.25 0.19 0.33
2006 0.25 0.20 0.33
2007 0.25 0.19 0.33
2008 0.22 0.17 0.29
2009 0.23 0.18 0.31
2010 0.22 0.17 0.30
2011 0.21 0.16 0.29")

# Plot
ggplot(CEWA, aes(Year, Index)) + geom_point() + geom_line() +
ggtitle("BBS Heirarchical Model: Cerulean Warbler (1966-2011)") +
geom_ribbon(aes(ymin=CI.025, ymax=CI.975), fill="blue", alpha=0.1)

eBird Rarity Photos on Flickr: Best Practices

We recently updated the guidelines for contributing photos to the eBird Rarity Photos group on the photo sharing site Flickr.  To improve the experiences of current and future contributors to the group, we wanted to take that update one step further and provide some tips and examples of “best practices” for contributing rarity photos to the group.

To begin, take a moment to read the updated group rules and group guidelines, which we’ve paraphrased below. These criteria answer two key questions: Which photos can I contribute to the group? and What additional information should I include with the photo on Flickr?

For inclusion images must meet the following criteria:
1. Observations must be submitted to eBird.
2. Photos must be labeled with the species name, location, date and photographer’s name.
3. Additional information on identification is also welcome.
4. Photos should only be of birds flagged for confirmation when submitting your checklist (that is, outside of their normal range, out of season, or exceptionally high numbers of a more common species).
5. Please include no more than 2-4 photos per bird.
6. Add the URL for the eBird checklist in the photo description, and embed the photo in the checklist comments in eBird (ebird.org/content/ebird/about/embedding_richmedia)

The first question has an easy answer: if it was flagged for confirmation while entering your eBird checklist, then (and only then) can it be added to the group. When something is flagged for confirmation, you’ll see a confirmation box like the one below, prompting you to provide documentation of the observation, e.g. a photo or written description of the bird.

Embed photos for as many species as you’d like in your eBird checklists, but only add “flagged” observations to the eBird Rarity Photos group.

The second question, regarding what information to include with the photo, requires a bit more elaboration. Many contributors have room for improvement in this area!  Photos in the eBird Rarity pool should include the species name, date, location, photographer’s name, and the URL for the checklist. For the rest of this article we will discuss ways of including this information, which can be added in six different places on Flickr: the photo title, description, tags, map and comments. Here are some easy ways to make sure all this information appears along with your photo in Flickr.

The species name is easy, so lets start there: include it in the photo title.  To ensure the name used is the standard common (and/or binomial) name for the species, you can easily copy and paste that text from the eBird checklist.

The date, location and URL for the eBird checklist (the most commonly omitted piece of information!) are easiest to provide in the photo description.  Here is an example photo (from this eBird checklist) where all required information is provided in the photo description.  Note that the location information (or more precise location information) is also provided using Flickr’s built in map tools.

Here is a minimalist example. Note the photographer’s name and the date of the observation appear in the top-right of the page (acceptable!), and the description includes the location and the all important checklist URL. Here is another minimalist example, and another.

Finally, we all like to share our photos.  To keep species diversity high in the eBird Rarity group, contribute no more than 2-4 photos per flagged observation. But what if you have multiple photos you’d like to share? An excellent compromise is to only contribute your single best photo to the eBird Rarity group, then embed the others in the comments to that photo.  Here’s another example of this approach. This way anyone who wants to see more photos gets them all with just one click!

New Wildlife Conservation Stamp Needs Your Support!

Corey Finger and the folks over at 10,000 Birds have launched a petition to create a Wildlife Conservation Stamp modeled after the Duck Stamp and similar state programs like the Ohio Wildlife Legacy Stamp. As someone who’s love of the outdoors (and birds!) has it’s roots in hunting trips with my dad, I think this is a fantastic idea!

To sign the petition click here.

Yup, that’s where you come in: To help bring in even more conservation dollars to our National Wildlife Refuge System on behalf of those who enjoy what those conservation efforts have done for America’s native plants and wildlife (game and nongame species alike), all you need to do is spread the word, and sign this petition!  We need 25,000 votes by December 14th, so every signature counts!

First Federal Duck Stamp. Design by J.N. ‘Ding’ Darling [Source]

The Backstory: The Duck Stamp has been a huge success in helping set aside habitat for waterfowl by putting 99 cents on every dollar towards purchasing and leasing wetland habitat under the National Wildlife Refuge System — along the way, these efforts have conserved vital habitat for countless other species.  There’s also a Junior Duck Stamp program that supports environmental education programs.  Many non-hunters, for example, bird watchers, regularly purchase Duck Stamps to support to these great programs. A Federal Wildlife Conservation Stamp will give birders, hikers, photographers and others a way to be recognized along side hunters for their conservation support and this stamp will hopefully encourage more of the people who enjoy wildlife (be they hunters or not) to make a contribution on behalf of more than just the game species protected by the National Wildlife Refuge System.

Now, share this post, then go sign!

Central Ohio is due for a Little Gull (Larus minimus)

These stunning little birds are always something to look for among flocks of Bonaparte’s Gulls, but picking one out of the crowd isn’t always easy! Below I’ve compiled a few photos to pour over with your favorite field guide in-hand to get geared up to find yourself a member of the worlds smallest gull species this winter.

Little Gull, Huron County, Ohio. (Not my photo!) See the original and others here at Jeff Schultz’s blog.

First, a couple of Bonaparte’s gulls. As with all gulls, the first step towards making a species ID is to correctly age the bird. Grab a field guide and confirm that this is an adult Bonaparte’s.

Bonaparte’s Gull, Hoover Reservoir, Columbus, OH. 11 Jan 2009.

… and this, an 1st winter Bonaparte’s…

Custom eBird Needs Lists

Ever wished the eBird website would take your state or county lists and tell you what you’re missing? What birds you need, ranked by how easily they might be found in a given state or county during a given week?  Well this past weekend I finally sat down and rigged some R code to do just that!

Here are my top 50 target birds according to the eBird data, ranked in the first/top figure by frequency of reports in eBird throughout the entire year, and ranked in the second/bottom figure by frequency of reports over the time period from last “week” (quarter month) through 2 “weeks” from now. If you were wondering, the last week in October is Week 39.

Top 50 Target Birds for Ohio (ranked by annual occurrence).

Top 50 Target Birds for Ohio (ranked by annual occurrence over week 38-41.

So how’d I make these?

Too many birding forums in Ohio?

There has recently been some discussion about the fate of the Ohio-Birds email list with the recent rise of the Birding Ohio facebook group and with other Ohio birding forums like rarebird.org.  Some were concerned about Ohio-Birds falling out of style, so I thought I’d take a look at posting rates to see if there has been any noticeable drop in posting rates to the email list since the facebook group was launched on 3 Jan 2012.  The results? The email list is doing just fine, and showing no obvious signs of slowing down.

Top: Birding Ohio facebook group activity since it’s launch on 3 Jan 2012.
Bottom: OHIO-BIRDS posts/emails per month over the past 6 calendar years.

eBird Data: Maps showing number of species by county

How many inland counties have species totals in eBird over 400? Only 8! Care to guess which 2 of those 8 are outside of CA and AZ?

Species totals by county for the lower 48.

That was the gist of a message I received recently from Tim Lenz — a friend of mine, top notch birder, and member of the eBird team at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. I was elated to see my home county of Pueblo, CO was one of those top 2 inland counties outside of CA & AZ, but Tim had piqued my interest. I wanted to see the rest of the data!

Since I’ve been visualizing similar eBird data over this past year or so, it was only natural that I get the data from Tim and tweak some of my R code to visualize his data set for the U.S. lower 48* to see what other patterns might pop out.  After a little tinkering, here they are — enjoy!