210 in 2010: eBird Idaho

This is a two-part friendly competition to achieve "Two-Ten in Twenty-Ten".


1) Be the first Idaho eBirder who can see or hear 210 bird species in Idaho in the year 2010. Challenging but achievable!


2) Be the Idaho eBirder to record the most Idaho checklists by July 29th, the 210th day of 2010 (a minimum of 210 checklists is required to win.)


The eBird project leaders have generously agreed to provide prizes from the lab at a $210 value to the winners. More details to come!


Here are the rules:

1. In order for sightings to be counted, they must be reported on eBird.

***** eBird is very simple to use and its FREE! If you have never used it before, check out this tutorial and get started today! I encourage all participants to submit checklists showing "effort" which means you record the number of species seen as well as how many of each bird, the date, time, duration and estimated size of the area in which you made observations. This way your sightings will be more meaningful to science as well. *****

***** The second part of the competition is to encourage us all to submit an eBird checklist every time we go birding. This could include reporting on the 5-10 minutes you spent watching the birds at your backyard feeder. To win the checklist portion of the competition you must submit a minimum of 210 checklists. For checklists to count you must check "Yes" in response to the to question: "Are you submitting a complete checklist of the birds you were able to identify to the best of your ability?" You can submit several per day and we encourage at least one per day. The more checklists we submit, the better the data for science as well as for our own personal use. *****

2. Birds must be seen or heard within the geographic boundaries and air space of Idaho. Birds must be on the middle to Idaho side of rivers, lakes or reservoirs that make up the Idaho border.

3. Bird sightings may be subject to review by the already existing eBird reviewers among us. If your sighting is disputed, you've got to convince the eBird reviewers with the best field documentation you are able to provide. There will not be appeals beyond the eBird reviewers.

4. If eBird counts it, it counts! eBird does count introduced species such as Mute Swan and Northern Bobwhite. I know some will not agree with that, but this is just for fun anyway!  Scientists want to know about the proliferation of introduced species too.

5. eBird already maintains a Top eBirder list for Idaho which shows the leaders for the current year for both species and checklists. eBird's list will be the official tracking site for the 2010 competition. I will post the weekly top ten on the Avimor Birding Blog along with photos and stories submitted by participants.

6. This is all in good fun! Good sportsmanship and integrity are essential. Teamwork and sharing is highly encouraged.

Happy Idaho eBirding in 2010!

P.S. If you need some help getting started using eBird, myself and a few other eBirders across Idaho would be more than willing to show you how. We can demonstrate how easy it is to use eBird at chapter or club meetings or personally upon request. eBird even provides PowerPoint presentations just for such occasions. We can even walk you through it over the phone.