Browsing Aussie Backyard Bird Count list for inner Sydney at http://aussiebirdcount.org.au/sightings/ you find a significant fraction of lists contain obvious mis-identifications. Most like Barn Swallow, Forty-spotted Pardalote, Black Currawong, Black-tailed Native-hen & Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo are easy to understand. And perhaps the reporter of Abbott’s Booby from Newtown was making a political point. Others IDs are just mysterious like Black Grasswren. In one way its good news that a wider demographic has been attracted, although there is clearly challenges ahead to educate observers & improve the observations and make the data useful. The mis-ID could be useful, to estimate observer accuracy, someone reporting (say) Black Currawong shouldn’t be relied to have correctly ID’ed Little Wattlebird & White-faced Honyeater they’ve also reported. Andrew
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Looking at the list of suggested birds, I can see there are no location smarts when you enter observations. For example, Baudin’s Cockatoo should only come up in SW WA, yet it appeared when I was entering a Brisbane list. Another limitation is that you can’t provide details of breeding activity – I had a couple of breeding observations today. Regards, Laurie. On 20 Oct 2014, at 8:17 am, Andrew Taylor < andrewt@cse.unsw.edu.au > wrote:
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It is not so easy to use the app whilst actually birding, especially in the rain. Has anyone any idea how to make a correction after it has been submitted? I put down the wrong bird – White-browed treecreeper, and I should have entered White-throated. I did not notice until after I had submitted it. I suspect at least some of the improbable species noted are just errors in using the app. Catherine Gillespie —–Original Message—– Andrew Taylor Sent: Monday, 20 October 2014 9:17 AM Browsing Aussie Backyard Bird Count list for inner Sydney at http://aussiebirdcount.org.au/sightings/ you find a significant fraction of lists contain obvious mis-identifications. Most like Barn Swallow, Forty-spotted Pardalote, Black Currawong, Black-tailed Native-hen & Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo are easy to understand. And perhaps the reporter of Abbott’s Booby from Newtown was making a political point. Others IDs are just mysterious like Black Grasswren. In one way its good news that a wider demographic has been attracted, although there is clearly challenges ahead to educate observers & improve the observations and make the data useful. The mis-ID could be useful, to estimate observer accuracy, someone reporting (say) Black Currawong shouldn’t be relied to have correctly ID’ed Little Wattlebird & White-faced Honyeater they’ve also reported. Andrew
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I’m with Andrew in thought of using such listings to develop estimates of error and using others’ obvious errors to assist in understanding why so many birders get it so wrong much of the time, accepting there’ll always be super optimists and, worse, cheaters. On Mon, Oct 20, 2014 at 9:46 AM, Elliot Leach < elliot.leach@griffithuni.edu.au> wrote:
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I’m sure the Birdlife crew is going to be keeping an eye on the data coming in Andrew, but I don’t envy whoever has to sort through all of these lists! I agree with you in that it’s good news that a wider demographic are trying to contribute to this project – they’ll just need a bit of practice
elliot On 20 October 2014 08:17, Andrew Taylor < andrewt@cse.unsw.edu.au > wrote:
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