Documentation is one of the key skills every birder learns early on. If you don’t have documentation to back up your sighting of a Bermuda Petrel off the coast of Long Island, no one will believe you! The same goes for unusual breeding observations. Improving our written documentation skills with bullets, prose, or field sketches is a valuable skill. Taking better notes also makes us better birders because we pay more attention to details in shape, plumage, habitat, and behavior, all of which are key factors when making an identification.
But you don’t have to wait until you observe something unusual. The recent advances in smartphone technology mean that most of us are carrying around a high-powered camera and sound recording device wherever we go. Digital media is new territory for some, but fortunately there are lots of tips out there for how to get quality media.
A concern many eBirders have relates to media copyrights, so let’s discuss that before going any further. Any media you upload on your eBird checklist is copyrighted to you. See the photo at the top of this page? Lisa Nasta took this photo of a Baltimore Oriole collecting nesting material at Connetquot River State Park on May 23rd. You can click on the Macaulay Library link to see details of this photo and a second photo of orioles copulating. Clicking on the eBird link takes you to the checklist where you can see other great photos of breeding birds. And all of the photos are copyrighted to Lisa. The Cornell Lab and its projects (including the Atlas) can use media from contributors for non-profit purposes, but you will always be attributed. Read more about media rights.
There are a lot of help articles on the eBird and the Macaulay Library websites about documenting your sightings. This article compiles all those tips in one place. Bookmark this page so you can easily find all you need to know on this topic!
Quick Links:
- When To Document Your Sightings
- How To Document Your Sightings
- Working With Photos
- Working With Sound Recordings
- Uploading Media
- Exploring Media
When To Document Your Sightings
Every birder knows they should document rare and unusual sightings, but not all eBirders know that you can submit media for any sighting! This is particularly important for Atlas projects because few photos of breeding behaviors exist for many species.
Did you see something unusual? Congratulations! You witnessed something special. You must document your sighting if it is automatically flagged by eBird. Read more about The eBird Review Process. Observations are flagged in eBird for one of the following reasons:
- Rarity—a species that is rare or unusual in the region
- Out of season—a species is reported outside its normal date range
- High count—species count exceeds the maximum one might expect to find on that particular date in that region
If you see a rare bird or one that is unusual at that time of year, you will see an orange square with the letter R in the middle next to that species on your checklist. You should include documentation such as a photo and include comments describing your sighting. More on that below.
If you report an exceptionally high count for a species, you will see an orange diamond with an exclamation point in the middle next to the species. You still may want to snap a photo to document the number of individuals, but also be sure to describe how you counted them. See this article for tips on How to Count Birds.
But you don’t have to wait until your observations are flagged by eBird to add documentation. You can upload media and add comments for any observation you submit! For the atlas, you may also want to document your sighting if you observe an unusual behavior. There are a lot of photos of adult birds out there, but not so many photos of young birds or adult birds engaged in breeding behavior.
How To Document Your Sightings
Documentation can be in the form of digital media, handwritten notes, or a sketch you make in the field.
Get A Photo Or Sound Recording
Take a photo or make a sound recording. You don’t need to carry around a huge telephoto lens everywhere you go; media taken with a smartphone are often of high enough quality. Embed the GPS location in your media if possible. Many of us take a photo of a bird without any surrounding landscape features visible, so it’s a good idea to embed the location as additional documentation of the location.
As noted above, all media you upload is copyright to you. The Cornell Lab is allowed to use media that you upload for not-for-profit uses in eBird, the Macaulay Library, and other Cornell Lab resources (such as the Atlas), but anything beyond that is with your permission only.
Write A Detailed Description
Including as many of the following elements as possible in your comments will make it easier for a reviewer to confirm your observation. It also makes it easier for other birders to refind your bird(s) and you can refer back to it at any time to jog your own memory of this special event.
Most Useful Details
- Note diagnostic features
- Explain how similar species were ruled out
- Make detailed notes in the field
- Note age and sex
- Recognize the rarity of the sighting
Additional Useful Details
- Explain your familiarity with this and similar species
- Note if it is a continuing bird
- Describe the habitat
- Describe the behavior and movements of the bird
- Note distance to the bird, lighting, optics, length of observation
- Include a narrative
For additional explanations, see the eBird help page How to Document Your Sightings.
Working with Photos
Photos are a great way to document your sightings. Most birders have some sort of camera with them every time they head out in the field, whether it’s a telephoto lens or a smartphone. There are lots of good tips available on the internet on how to take better bird photos. Once you get a photo, make sure to follow these steps to prepare your photo for upload.
- Upload photos for both rare and common species
- Crop and edit your images before uploading, but try not to over-crop or over-edit
- Upload your full-resolution images, as long as they are JPG and under 10 MB each
- Refrain from adding a watermark or other text to your images
- Add comments and metadata and rate your photo after you upload it
- Please don’t upload composite images or back-of-camera photos
- Upload multiple photos (up to 10 per species), but only if they are sufficiently different
- Photos must be your own and adhere to the media licensing agreement
See the Photo Upload Guidelines for more details.
Working with Sound Recordings
Taking sound recordings used to require lots of specialized equipment, and that is still true if you want to get high quality recordings, but nowadays your smartphone is capable of making decent recordings. This has opened up a whole new way for birders to document their sightings! Since this is still new territory for many birders, eBird and the Macaulay Library have put together a series of help pages to guide you.
General Sound Recording Tips
Whether you are making a sound recording on specialized equipment or your smartphone, follow these Sound Recording Tips.
- Know your gear
- Create uncompressed .WAV files
- Get close to your subject
- Aim your microphone
- Set the record level to avoid distortion
- Don’t adjust the record level while recording
- Make longer recordings
- Find quiet, be quiet
- Make a voice announcement
- Review, organize, edit, and upload your field recordings
Smartphone Recording Tips
If you are using your smartphone to record audio, start by downloading a dedicated app. The Macaulay Library and eBird recommend: RØDE Rec (iOS), Voice Record Pro (iOS), RecForge II (Android), and Hi-Res Audio Recorder (Android).
Then follow these Smartphone Recording Tips:
- Download a recording app that makes .WAVs
- Choose the best settings
- Use an external microphone
- Use good recording techniques
- Back up your files
Extract Audio From A Video
Extracting Audio from a Video is possible through the use of a sound editing program such as Adobe Audition or Ocenaudio.
- Import the video
- Save a new file
- Confirm file type and save
- Follow the audio preparation guidelines
Audio Preparation Guidelines
Once you’ve made a sound recording, follow these Audio Preparation Guidelines using dedicated software. The Macaulay Library and eBird recommend Ocenaudio (free) or Adobe Audition (paid).
- Save copies of your original sound files
- Record and submit .WAV files
- Trim the endings of the recording
- Boost the volume (normalize)
- Group recordings of the same bird together
- Keep it continuous
- Append voice announcements
- Avoid filters and cosmetic editing
Uploading Media
Now that you have taken a photo or sound recording and prepared it for upload, follow these steps to upload it to your checklist, add tags, and add a rating. Taking the extra steps of tagging and rating files is really helpful to the Atlas project and others searching media files. For example, atlasers can search Macaulay library for juvenile birds or images of nests to learn what they look like.
Uploading Media
Upload Media to your eBird checklist using the Add Media button.
- Go to your eBird checklist containing the record for that specific bird
- Click “Add Media” in the top right of any checklist to begin adding media OR click “Manage Media” if you already have media in that checklist.
- Upload media for a species by clicking “Add Media” next to that species name OR drag and drop the file from your computer onto the corresponding species.
- Use the sidebar on the right to add tags and ratings (see below).
- Repeat as desired (up to 10 files per species).
- Click “Done” in the top right to return to the checklist once the changes are autosaved.
Tagging Media
Tagging Media with a range of filters makes your media searchable.
- Use the View icons in the top left of the Media screen to filter by all media, only photos, or only audio.
- Select the asset(s) you want to tag.
- Add age and sex of the birds.
- For sound recordings, you can note if the recording is of a:
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- song
- flight song
- non-vocal sound
- duet
- call
- flight call
- dawn song
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- For behaviors, you can note:
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- foraging or eating
- vocalizing (used with the S, S7, and M atlas codes)
- carrying food (CF code)
- nest building (CN and NB codes)
- flying
- feeding young (FY code)
- molting
- courtship, display, or copulation (C code)
-
- You can also note if the photo includes:
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- habitat
- eggs (NE code)
- a nest (ON, NB, UN, NE, and NY codes)
- field notes/sketch
- a bird in the in-hand (might be used with the PE code)
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- For audio recordings, you should also note the equipment used and if playback was used.
Rating Media
Rating Media on a 5-star scale allows the best media to be discovered and used in eBird, Cornell Lab, and even Atlas projects.
Photos should be rated on:
- Sharpness of the image
- Visibility of the bird
- Size and resolution of the photo
- Watermarks (lowers the rating)
- Composite photos, back-of-camera, photos with graphics, or extreme editing (lowers the rating)
Sound recordings should be rated on:
- how loud the bird is compared to the background noise
- the best section of the recording
- handling noise (caused by the person making the recording; lowers the rating)
- recording level (recordings should be normalized before uploading)
- extreme editing (lowers the rating)
eBird Media Upload FAQ
If you have any lingering questions about uploading media, check out the eBird Media Upload FAQ page. The FAQ covers topics like adding media to checklists, the types of media allowed, and copyright rights.
Exploring Media
One of the great things about adding media to your checklist is that is archived by the Macaulay Library and is easily discovered by anyone. No one can download your media, but it still serves as documentation and can be used as an educational tool. Learn how to search for media and quiz yourself on photo and sound identification with the quiz tool.
Searching For Media
On the Macualay Library website you can Search for Media submitted by you and the entire eBird community. Go to the Macaulay Library search tool and type in any species from around the globe. This is where you can put those tags and ratings to good use. You can search for media by any of the tags.
Media can be searched by:
- type of media (photo, video, or sound recordings)
- date
- location
- contributor (search for your photos!)
- quality (sorted by the ratings!)
- any of the tags you are interested in (under More Filters)
For example, you can search for the nearly 2,000 American Robin photos taken in NY in 2020. Among the images you might even notice a swimming Robin!
If you are mostly interested in your own media, you can use the My Media button (to the right of the search bar) to see all your media. You can also use the the Save Spreadsheet option (above the upper-rightmost media file) to download a copy of all your metadata (the information describing your media files).
Downloading Media
While you can’t download someone else’s media files, you can download your own media. This means that, when you upload your photo or sound file to eBird, it acts as your own personal cloud storage, too! When you view your own media files on the Macaulay Library, an additional link will show up that says “Download Original.” Click on the download button to save a copy of the file to your device.
Photo & Sound Quiz
Want to test your identification skills? The eBird Photo & Sound Quiz takes uploaded media and presents you with 20 identification questions for the location and date you choose. You choose whether you want a photo or sound quiz. After each answer, you are immediately told if you correctly identified the species, and if not, what the correct answer is. You are then asked to rate and tag the media before proceeding to the next question. At the end of the quiz, you are shown an overview of your correct and incorrect answers. This is a great tool to brush up on local birds or to study species you might encounter on an upcoming trip!