Let’s talk tags! Tags offer a way to label your observations with bits of information that aren’t built into the Birdstack system. This vastly extends your list-making and record-keeping abilities because you can tag by anything that’s meaningful to you. We’ve been interested to see how you are using tags. Here are some uses we’ve noticed:

Photos: We’ve noticed Birdstackers like Wren and the BirdLife Trogons tagging their observations with ‘photo’ when they use the link field to point to externally hosted photos. I thought this was a great idea, so I’ve started doing it too. This way, I can quickly pull up a list of all the species I’ve photographed (well, at least the ones I’ve tagged), etc.

Bigby: Have you heard of Bigby (The Big Green Big Year)? Clange is using a ‘bigby’ tag to track his GreenBirding observations. This is a great use of tags, because Bigby observations can’t easily be defined by location or other criteria built in to Birdstack.

Nesting records: RHicks, AndyRuffle, and others are using a ‘nest’ tag to make a note of nesting records. I was talking to another Birdstack member who wants to track owl and hawk nests in his hometown, and I suggested that he implement a similar system. (Of course, I should point out that birds’ welfare should come first — don’t jeopardize rare or threatened species unnecessarily.)

Feral: I started using a ‘feral’ tag to keep track of records like House Sparrows in North America, Red-vented Bulbuls in New Caledonia, Bananaquits in Lima, and other birds that have been taken by humans to places where they didn’t naturally occur.

In captivity: We haven’t seen anyone using a tag like this yet, but I do know that some of you Birdstackers keep track of the birds you see in zoos and parks. That’s great! There are no rules for using Birdstack, and we hope you’ll list whatever birds you want to. I wonder if a ‘captive’ tag or something like that effect might be helpful in such situations?

Subspecies: Some of you have asked about tracking subspecies. Our datasource (the World Bird Names project) doesn’t currently include subspecies, so we can’t integrate this into Birdstack right now. However, I started thinking that tags might be a way to keep track of subspecies. But how to do it? Should I just tag an observation with the subspecies name? Maybe … but I think machine tags (also called triple tags) might be a better solution. It would look this: taxonomy:subspecies=calurus — perhaps a bit ugly in tag clouds, but it is semantically very meaningful and could be expanded to things like taxonomy:subfamily=larinae, etc. What do you think? If we see this catching on, we can edit the display so that things look a little neater in your tag clouds.

What other ideas do you have for tags (machine or otherwise)? How are you using tags now? How would you like to use them or see others use them in the future?

Currently, you can search one Birdstacker’s observations by a tag. But if tag use increases and we see some informal standards emerging, we’d like to extend tag search capabilities site-wide. In other words, I could search everyone’s observations to find anything tagged ‘photo.’ What do you think?

Birdstack’s database has just been upgraded to conform with version 1.7 of the IOC’s World Bird Names project.

The IOC announced:

Included in the updates of this working list of 10,354 species are

• Additions of one newly discovered species (Olive-backed Forest Robin), and three splits each of Pyrrhura parakeets and Zimmerius tyrannulets
• Removal of all “species” previously marked for Deletion (DEL).
• Adjustments or changes of 19 English names, including restoration of Long-tailed Tit.
• Generic revisions including broad reclassification of gulls and terns as well as AOU’s separation of two species of Scytalopus tapaculos to a new genus Eleoscytalopus, assignments of Buarremon and Lysurus brush finches to Arremon, Darwin’s Rhea from Pterocnemia to Rhea, Slender-billed Kite from Rostrhamus to monotypic Helicolestes, Anianiau from Hemignathus to monotypic Magumma, and most Pionopsitta parrots to Pyrilia.
• Resequencing of Donacobius to Old World warblers (Sylviidae), and of Sapayoa to broadbills (Eurylaimidae) in accord with DNA revelations.

Changes to English names, binomials, family assignments, and the like have been made automatically in the database. If you would like more information about the changes that have taken place, you can peruse the World Birds Names updates pages.

Other types of changes, though, will require your input. Some of you will see a pending taxonomic updates icon in the notification area near the top of every page. When you click this icon, you will see a list of the observations that need to be reassigned after splits or lumps.

There’s a video tutorial available if you need help: taxonomic updates screencast.

We’ve just rolled out a new private messaging feature called Conversations.

You can view and send messages by following the link on your dashboard, by clicking the envelope icon in the header, or by clicking “Start conversation” on a Birdstack member’s profile page.

By default, you will receive notifications of new messages at the email address associated with your Birdstack account. But as always, you can adjust your email notification preferences on your account settings page, which is accessible through the dashboard.

Several of you have asked for a feature like this, so we hope it will be helpful and that it will encourage further communitization for all!