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?

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.

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!

We’ve just opened the Birdstack store, where you can find T-shirts and other goodies:

We’re starting off with two designs, both shown above.

One features the Birdstack logo and Web address. Show off your Birdstack pride and help spread the word about the Birdstack service with a genuine Birdstack tee! We’re not sure, but we think birds themselves are attracted to the Birdstack logo, so wearing Birdstack apparel in the field may increase your birding success. (Or maybe not, but can you really afford to take that chance?)

The second design is called “birder’s lingo” because it features several dozen of our odd, geeky, and fun expressions: pish, empid, warbler neck, crippler, sibe, and birdo to name a few. Oh, and let’s not forget acronyms like LBJ and BIGBY! Preliminary results indicate that wearing this design increases the success rate of first dates by up to 50 percent!

Dozens of style and color combinations are possible. You’re sure to find something that suits your taste … and remember, Christmas is coming. Any birders on your list? I bet there are….

We also have both designs available on canvas tote bags. Did you know that billions (yes, billions) of plastic bags are discarded each year? Far too many of them end up in places they shouldn’t; plus, it’s just a foolish waste of resources that aren’t going to last forever. Well, there’s something you can do about it. Take one (or two!) of our bags along on your next trip to the store.

And this isn’t just for our American friends. Printfection, the company we’ve selected, ships to many countries around the world. And hey, if you make your money in pounds or euros, this is a good time to buy goods priced in US dollars….

If you’re still not convinced, I’ll just close by mentioning that every sale in the Birdstack store generates a small amount of income to help keep the site running smoothly and to support the development of new features. Thank you for your support!

Have fun with the shirts. When you get one, put it on and take a picture. If you send it in, we’ll post it!

Just type “Birdstack” into the search box when you’re logged in to Facebook, or click on the badge below:

You can add photos or videos (we know you’ve got some lovely bird shots), chat with other Birdstackers, and keep up with the latest Birdstack news. See ya there!

Maps showing everybody’s observations are now available on species pages. Let’s take a look at the Galah page for an example. (Galahs are stunning pink Australian cockatoos. They look like raspberry sherbet, mmmm.)

I’d like to point out several things in the example above. First and most obvious is the map peppered with markers. You can click on a marker to find out more about observations made at that location. Clicking the link (see where my mouse is hovering?) will take you to Mosura’s page for that particular observation.

You’ll also note, circled in red, the “My observations” link. This link appears when you are logged in to your Birdstack account, and as you’d expect, it reloads the map with only your observations displayed.

Then below the map, you can see the page numbers, also circled in red. To keep the maps from being too slow and unwieldy, 50 observations are loaded at at time. If you want to see more, click on those links to keep exploring!

Now, you may or may not have noticed that the whole World Bird List section of Birdstack is now searchable. There’s a box at the top of order, family, genus, and species pages. You can type English family names, species name fragments, binomials, etc. into that box, and we’ll show you whatever we can find. That should make it easy to start exploring the maps.

Finally, I should explain which observations show up on the maps and which ones don’t. Observations must meet the following criteria to be displayed on the public maps:

1. The observation is public, not private.
2. The location is public, not private.
3. The location has latitude and longitude coordinates.

Again, that’s for public maps. When you click the “My observations” link, you (and only you) should be able to see your private observations and your observations made at private locations.

Well, what are you waiting for? Go check out some maps! While you’re at it, you might see some big holes in distributions, or species that aren’t represented at all. We’re guessing that you have data that can help fill those gaps — maybe it’s still in a paper notebook, or maybe you just haven’t added latitude and longitude to your list of locations.

So remember, just like the little Dutch boy did with the dike, if you see a hole, plug it up! (OK, OK, one of my Dutch friends insists that the story is merely an American fable, but you now have the power to do what the little Dutch boy never did.)

Effective today, August 31, 2008, Birdstack is owned and operated by Kapikpik, LLC. No, Birdstack hasn’t been sold or anything like that. Instead, Birdstack’s founders (David Ringer and Curtis Hawthorne) formed Kapikpik, LLC to help accomodate Birdstack’s growth and expansion.

This move will allow us to serve you better now and especially as we continue to grow.

As part of this legal reorganization, the Birdstack Terms of Service has changed. Please take a moment to review the new Terms of Service document.

Birdstack is free. However, running a website like this is an expensive undertaking. If you’ve been using the service regularly and appreciate what we offer, we’d like to ask that you consider making a donation to help us with our operating costs, which so far we have been paying out of our own pockets.

That decision is up to you, though. We love and appreciate you either way. :-) Really.

We’re excited about this new phase in the project, and we’re looking forward to continued growth and expansion in the future. We hope you’ll come along for the ride!

Good birding,

Curtis and David

Birdstack’s eBird export tool has now been extended to include records from New Zealand.

If you’ve birded in New Zealand, look through your records and make sure they meet the requirements for export. Then, from any list containing New Zealand records (e.g., “All observations” or a year or country list), click the “Export” link and follow the instructions for eBird export.

You will be able to import your records either using the New Zealand eBird interface or the standard eBird interface, if you’re already using that.

And of course, the eBird export tool will continue to export records from North, Middle, and South America and the Caribbean (details) as well.

Data contributed to eBird is available to biologists and conservationists around the world. Bit by bit, it helps increase our understand of bird populations and their responses to changes in habitat and the climate.

Birdstackers have already exported several thousand observations for submission to eBird. If you’re one of the people who’s contributed already, thank you, and keep up the good work! If you haven’t gotten started yet, now’s a great time to begin.

The IOC announced: “Major features include alignments with Rasmussen and Anderton (2005) for the avifauna of South Asia, BirdLife World List International Version 1.0, and Christidis and Boles (2008) for the Australian avifauna.

“This update also includes taxonomic updates published or identified in peer reviewed journals since the posting of Version 1.5, upgrades of seabird taxonomy, and revisions of Ranges and English names, including Great Black-headed Gull (=Pallas’s Gull), Roughleg (=Rough-legged Buzzard), and others.”

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. Most of you will see a pending taxonomic updates box in the right sidebar when you log into your Birdstack account. When you follow this link, you will see a list of the observations that need to be reassigned to newly created species.

Here’s a video that explains the process: taxonomic updates screencast (link updated 19 October 2008).

Because this is the first time we’ve gone through an update like this, please let us know how it goes for you as you work through the changes. Also, we’d love to see you talking with each other on the forums, offering advice and discussing the updates that have occurred.

Here’s some final information about the IOC list and the direction it’s headed. If you look carefully at the update pages on the World Bird Names web pages, you will see that there are many “proposed splits” included in the list, and that there are lumps that are pending but haven’t actually occurred.

The organizers of the IOC list are treating it as a work in progress — from my perspective a very reasonable way to proceed given the massive changes we are seeing in all levels of bird taxonomy and nomenclature. Here are some comments I received from Dr. Frank Gill:

“We opted to use this category [proposed splits] to be as current as possible with the literature, but with the recognition that some of them might not be accepted by leading authorities or us. So we post them as a first step, with a window of opportunity for feedback and review before conversion to ‘actual splits.’ We suspect that 90% or so will convert in 6 months’ time.

“More specifically, we view these as editorial steps towards the release of version 2.0 in January 2009, for which we will evaluate the decisions by BirdLife, AOU, etc. [...]

“[...] Our philosophy is that distinct allopatric populations should be recognized as species until it is proven that they will interbreed freely with another such population, and judged conspecific. [...]”

There are lots more changes ahead, but don’t fear. Rejoice! Birdstack is here to help.

This feature has been a long time in coming, and we’re excited to launch it today. As you have probably noticed, you can comment on each other’s observations, locations, trips, and Birdstack profiles, but it’s very difficult to keep track of or follow up on those comments. Many of you have stored several thousand pages of information in Birdstack, so how could you possibly notice a new comment somewhere on one of those pages? It’s the proverbial needle in a not-so-proverbial haystack.

But now — drumroll please! — you have two options for tracking and engaging with comments.

Option 1: You can receive emails every time somebody comments on one of your observations, trips, or locations; on your profile; or on a discussion that you begin in the forums. Really, that’s five options all rolled into one! All five choices are turned on by default. To change them, access your account settings page through your dashboard.

Option 2: Comment threads are now available as Atom feeds. Just look for the orange feed icon next to the “Comments” header on profiles, observations, locations, and trips. And you’ll also find feed icons on the forum discussion pages. You can subscribe to comments on your own pages, but you can also subscribe to anybody else’s (for example, to comments on your friend’s Birdstack profile) or to a discussion topic in the forum.

Comments are a hip, easy way to communitize with other Birdstackers — which we have heard you say over and over is important to you. So go on, comment away! I think I’ll go make a few more comments myself….

Yours, till full communitization is at last achieved,

David and the Birdstack team