February 2017 eBirding Challenge

The monthly eBirding challenge for January 2017 was simple – to upload 25 checklists with at least one containing media. February, apart from being a very productive month for birding, is time for the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC).

This year the dates for the GBBC are 17-20 February. The Campus Bird Count, a sister event of the GBBC, is also a fun way to go around your campus to count birds. You can also conduct or take part in public birdwalks or regional events. The GBBC is a great platform to get birders together and to introduce non-birders to this wonderful hobby!

In keeping with the spirit of GBBC and birders birding together, the challenge this month is to upload at least 20 effort-based, no-X, complete  checklists of at least 15 minutes duration. Crucially, at least 3 of these lists should be ‘shared‘ between 3 or more birders on the GBBC dates (17-20 February)!

When you go birding with your friends, and then upload the lists of species seen, you can ‘share’ the list with those who were on the trip, and then the list of species gets copied into each person’s account (so there is no need for each person to upload their list separately).

AUD students during the Campus Bird Count in Delhi, pic: Meghna Joshi

This list is an excellent example of a shared checklist. Note how you can click on the ‘List’ button to see each individual person’s list. Once shared, each person can tailor the lists specifically to what s/he saw – deleting missed species, and adding species that the others may not have recorded. In this way, everyone on the trip can keep a faithful record of what they saw.

Note also that if you just want to show others your list, you shouldn’t ‘share’ with them; rather, you can simply send them the URL to your list (eg: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S30191358).

The Gap-filling Challenge, announced in November 2016, continues this month. The Gap-filling Challenge this month (February 2017) is to upload a minimum of 4 complete checklists of at least 15 minutes duration each from one or more of the districts from the list of 247 districts that have 30 minutes or less of birding represented on eBird for February.

You can download the list of target districts in any of the following formats: CSV XLS PDF

Please upload all your lists by 5 February so that we can announce the results the next day.

Here are the general rules of our monthly challenges. And check out the yearlong challenges as well! You can keep track of fresh lists coming in from India at this page.

Important. if you are new to eBird, please read this description first, and do take a look at the Beginner’s Guide.

Header Image: Large-billed Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus magnirostris © AVINASH SHARMA/ Macaulay Library