Rare bird alerts are getting better and worse

[@bluecollarbirder]

“Get out there and find your own”. Amen brother.

[@tolstoy21]

I started using e-bird when it first came out, and used it for a few years (before that I used listservs) . But increasingly, it felt like the marriage of technology and the hobby was sucking the life out of birding for me. I'm no luddite; I've worked in tech for decades (in fact, my organization hosted our state's RBA listserv and it's admin worked a few cubes away from me). Around this time, I also grew weary of chasing rarities. Pulling up to a location and finding a long sought-after bird simply by following the gaze of 400 cameras felt anti-climatic. I remember seeing a common greenshank minutes after parking my car in a long line of other cars and thinking "thank god that's out of the way, now I can go birding!" I had a similar feeling when seeing an ivory gull. All of this struck me as the opposite of what I thought I was supposed to feel -- apathy instead of exhilaration, obligation instead of wonder. I hate to say it, but social apps have made me anti-social (if one can consider apps to be truly 'social'). In the end, I now just enjoy going out into the quiet woods of my local patch with only my bins, seeing the expected birds of the season, arriving at their familiar haunts like old friends returning from a trip.

[@lizblock9593]

'totally get you. I find joy in listening to my neighbor the oak titmouse scold me because I'm sitting too close to the bird bath and he wants a drink.

[@CH4NN3L_o_o]

I feel like it's more enjoyable seeing the bird in its native habitat. Maybe it's just me, but I don't get the appeal of chasing down a bird that is extremely common elsewhere, but outside of its range. Also RBAs for birds that have arrived early from migration are annoying and pointless. I work in the tech industry and I honestly do not like social media. I keep my Facebook because I love helping the older folk who have bird feeders identify what's at their feeder or why a bird is behaving a certain way, but I have left all the birding groups that are super toxic to younger people interested in the hobby.

[@oldtimer5045]

@@CH4NN3L_o_o does take some of the thrill of whats around the next corner when you park the car walk a few minutes and bam there it is. looking for birds gave me an excuse to get out and explore in the 1st place.

[@hairiestwizard]

I created a local discord for Northwest Louisiana and Northeast Texas because the vast majority of the birders here are elderly and don't want to share their sightings with anyone (sometimes waiting full months to upload to eBird) we only have a handful of members but they're all great people that are interested in having community and open info to help others.

[@dmsdms215]

Could you share a link to your local server? I’m in a group with a several other birding Discord admins and I’d love to pass this along.

[@amysantee]

Great video and commentary. It’s interesting to see how people of different generations feel about communication and identification technologies. Oregon has a fantastic and fairly newly established discord with numerous channels within so you can customize locations and content. It’s decently active with moderators who encourage and enforce community norms and rules, and make it a welcoming place.

[@amysantee]

PS the vermillion flycatcher story was great!

[@RoyceMarcus]

Another great video, Doug. The education of the term "Eternal September" was very informative. We use Group Me in my country and I find it frustrating that it's gated (though understand why). I've found that it's not the right app for RBAs and when new and excited, but maybe less informed or educated people join (either about birds or social norms) the moderators aren't very kind in providing the education in a thoughtful way. For months I've been thinking Discord was the perfect solution - and am glad to see some communities start to adopt it. I've thought about starting my own, but the idea of migrating here seems challenging and - unfortunately - would probably be more politcalized instead of focusing on the birds and education. Taking a step back - its truly incredible how for birds and RBAs have come in the last few decades, and even 5 years or so.

[@dhitchcox]

Thanks! And thanks for sharing your experience. Discord does seem to have a lot of potential but I suspect would be a little too challenging for most users (at least local to me). It was only a few months after setting up GroupMe for Maine that someone proposed we do a New England Discord, which was just bad timing because I think too many options too soon would make it all worse.

[@lilym1428]

I really enjoyed the more historical and researched aspects of this video

[@dhitchcox]

Thank you!

[@dmsdms215]

I’ve found Discord to be the best option because it offers the ability to have conversations, as well as to simply send out rare bird alerts. Locally, there’s one for Maryland and DC, and it provides a forum for people across the two states to connect and share. It doesn’t create silos like with GroupMe (e.g. most MD counties and DC have individual GroupMes), it’s more inclusive, and information is archived in a more user-friendly way.

[@dhitchcox]

Great points! Thanks

[@Adasaur250]

8:03 This brings up something I was wondering; if you're watching a live feed of something taking place nowhere near you and you identify a bird in the background, does that count as birding? I happened to be near a TV playing a live golf tournament in Florida last year and there was a robin loudly calling. Can that count as say, an incidental sighting (to use eBird's criteria)?

[@dhitchcox]

Not as far as eBird wants you to submit for a record; they only want birds that you detect when and where you detected them. The golf-on-TV example is a good one to show potential errors because sometimes producers play recordings of birds that aren't even there (ftw.usatoday.com/2024/04/masters-bird-sounds-controversy#). You can keep your own "TV List" though. I have a spreadsheet for a few of my lists like that.

[@LiamsManual]

I had my rare bird alerts on from eBird, as I live in the CA Bay Area, and my phone is literally blowing up. I turned it off a while ago, and while I haven't been birding a lot this summer due to the crazy heat, I personally find using apps for anything other than cataloging my finds to take a lot of the enjoyment out of birding for me. Thats just my 2 cents from a youngin though no shade to anyone who chases rares lol

[@oldtimer5045]

If my area just found out about a secret txt group that shares info. plus people that have spots only they are allowed in or wait before reporting something.

[@grigoryheaton9346]

As a huge WhatsApp hater (Facebook products are the only boycott I've ever stuck to...) I've really been trying to promote using the California RBA discord server, unfortunately my county of Los Angeles still primarily uses WhatsApp and annoyingly also has probably the least active listserv in southern California. I end up mainly relying on eBird alerts for most things. If this was San Diego next door where the listserv is incredibly active I wouldn't mind as much...

[@racy1977]

In Sweden we use Band groups a lot for bird alerts.

[@dhitchcox]

Oh cool, I've never heard of Band. Will check it out

[@PossiblyAHuman-d5j]

I do agree that there are too many rare bird information systems and that does make it confusing for someone like me who is not deeply entrenched in the local birding community.

[@CH4NN3L_o_o]

Also, it's hard to get entrenched in a local community if you're new. A lot of my questions get ignored, but if one of the "elite" ask a similar question, everyone jumps to answer it. It's frustrating. I've found more joy helping birdwatching elderly folks with backyard identification/behavior explanation. I've left all my local birding groups because they are so toxic to younger people. I do chat with my alma mater's birding group even though I'm 300 miles away, our species overlap a lot but obviously I can't make it to a rare bird sighting there. But because I live north, I can get hints on what is getting ready to migrate to me in the spring, and I'm telling them what warblers we're seeing here in the fall.

[@PossiblyAHuman-d5j]

@@CH4NN3L_o_o around where I live the locals are friendly to young birders, since most borders there are seniors and need some way to keep local birding alive.

[@PossiblyAHuman-d5j]

*birders not borders

[@dhitchcox]

Sorry to hear that your questions get ignored. I'm just curious if that is that mostly on Facebook groups?

[@dhitchcox]

Yeah it is bad. I feel like I'm as 'in it' as I can be and I still miss out on stuff.

[@sparrowjax275]

The font update was great 🤥

[@steveberkson3873]

My experience is not being believed without a clear photo. I get it but ..also had a problem with pelagic birds from the deck of a fishing boat. (All three N.Hemisphere albatross around boat~ a short-eared owl perched on bowsprit at night 60miles off Kodiak Is.) ..still its fun and following Kaufmans lead about what to anticipate in your area is good. Having fun 😎 🪶