Attention please, we have an important announcement!

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

The Ornithological Society of New Zealand and eBird have partnered to develop New Zealand eBird, a scientific database collecting information on bird distribution and abundance in New Zealand.

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.

eBird is now in a beta-testing period for South American and Antarctic data entry, so we’ve updated Birdstack’s eBird export tool to include your observations from the following countries and territories: Anguilla, Antarctica, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Bahamas, Baker Island, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), French Guiana, Greenland, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Howland Island, Jamaica, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Martinique, Mexico, Midway Islands, Montserrat, Navassa Island, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Palmyra Atoll, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, U.S. Minor Outlying Islands, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Virgin Islands (British), Virgin Islands (U.S.), Wake Island.

Here’s how it works.

Whether you live in the Western Hemisphere or not, we hope you’ll take part in this important collaborative effort. By contributing some of your data to eBird, you make it available for scientists and researchers studying bird distribution and population trends. You’re helping put together a wondrous and intricate puzzle.

And you know what? That makes you special. I think you deserve a giant slice of peanut butter pie. Mmmmmm. If we had a budget, I’d buy pie for everyone!