Whatbird.com

Mitchell Waite:

Yes you are totally correct, but adding such a feature is a very difficult thing to do. You would have to narrow your location down by not just state but more exacting details such as zip code, then we would need to enter the month. The hard part is obtaining the date/location information, there are very few web sites that offer such data, ebird is the only one I know of. We'll do it some day I am sure.

Being on the East Coast, I forget about big states like Texas and California where you need to get that granular.  I was just thinking about pinpointing things like southern vs Northern NJ.  Makes sense that you really need a detailed database for this.

 

Alan

 

Have you ever run across a site that divides bird location with granularity like by location or season? I have seen a few books that do, but the numbers are all relative.

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iBird Explorer: Finally a field guide as light as a feather. See it at http://www.ibird.com

Mitchell Waite:

Have you ever run across a site that divides bird location with granularity like by location or season? I have seen a few books that do, but the numbers are all relative.

 

I have not seen a good single source.  Just figured the range map data must come from somewhere.  I have a booklet for Maryland birds that takes it down to month, including first and last recorded dates, and the Cape May Bird Observatory checklist had a seasonal indicator, but getting that for all states or regions electronically will probably be a challenge.  I wonder if Cornell has a database?

 Alan

 

I believe that ebird in their standard checklist does take into account the date in what it presents.

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Rob Miller
Blog: http://wolf21m.blogspot.com/

I bought the official product last week and I love it. 

Here are some of my enhancements I would like to see.  They are similar to some other comments.

1. When birding I like to keep a species account for that day or location.  It would be great to enter the location and various details and then just check off the birds and counts observed at that location.  If these are life birds then they should be automatically added to the life list. A trip list is far more important to me than a life list, as I will maintain my life list elsewhere.

2. Trip summary showing all of the species and counts for a given trip.

3. Exportable trip list for upload into ebird or other citizen science database.

Thanks for all teh hard work and congratulations on the first shipments.

 

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Rob Miller
Blog: http://wolf21m.blogspot.com/

wolf21m:

I bought the official product last week and I love it. 

Here are some of my enhancements I would like to see.  They are similar to some other comments.

1. When birding I like to keep a species account for that day or location.  It would be great to enter the location and various details and then just check off the birds and counts observed at that location.  If these are life birds then they should be automatically added to the life list. A trip list is far more important to me than a life list, as I will maintain my life list elsewhere.

2. Trip summary showing all of the species and counts for a given trip.

3. Exportable trip list for upload into ebird or other citizen science database.

Thanks for all teh hard work and congratulations on the first shipments.

 

 

 

I think what is mentioned above is exactly what should be worked on.  The interface to EBIRD>ORG and the ability to upload trip lists will be very important to include.  In fact a competitor software already does this.  Just do not want to buy two softwares, so this would be great to have in the WHATBIRD tool.

 

Thanks for the nice comments. Your ideas are right on. We are working on a eBird.org compatible sighting/observation system. Unlike the current system it will be based on date events, which is how the eBird Record Format works. Think of it as a calendar and each observation is an appointment. The program will sync with an account at whatbird.com and upload all your sightings. Once there you can see it visually, manipulate and correct it. Then you can export the results in eBird format so you can upload to your eBird account. We will make the sync work in both directions so the corrections made at the site can be sent back to the device. It  will be a separate program that communicates with Winged Explorer, not part of the program.

Thanks again,

 Mitch

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iBird Explorer: Finally a field guide as light as a feather. See it at http://www.ibird.com

Mitchell Waite:

Thanks for the nice comments. Your ideas are right on. We are working on a eBird.org compatible sighting/observation system. Unlike the current system it will be based on date events, which is how the eBird Record Format works. Think of it as a calendar and each observation is an appointment. The program will sync with an account at whatbird.com and upload all your sightings. Once there you can see it visually, manipulate and correct it. Then you can export the results in eBird format so you can upload to your eBird account. We will make the sync work in both directions so the corrections made at the site can be sent back to the device. It  will be a separate program that communicates with Winged Explorer, not part of the program.

Thanks again,

 Mitch

 

You sold me on it Mitch.  Without even prompting, you mentioned a TWO WAY SYNCH, which is missing in the competitor product.  I noticed that was needed.  I want to update my life list separately at EBIRD.ORG and then do a data synch back to your product to let me know, while I am mobile, if I need to find that bird.

 yes I understand you mentioning that the tool is NOT PART OF WINGED EXPLORER, which I think means you will be asking people to purchase this tool.  That is fine, as long as it works, and hopefully we can get a discount for being a part of the FORUM crowd. 

 I am willing to test it, if you are looking for beta testers.  Have an engineering background, so would be very throurough in testing.

It be great if you could test this new program for us. One thing however - the way it will work is you sync with your whatbird account, then you export from there to ebird record format and import that to ebird.  To sync from eBird to our product is not in the cards because we don't have access to eBird's web services (which too bad as it would give eBird a lot more client data) but we might allow an import from eBird if you can export that data to your whatbird account. Does this make sense?

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iBird Explorer: Finally a field guide as light as a feather. See it at http://www.ibird.com

Mitch,  Unfortunately I will not be able to test the feature.  My handheld met a physical death and has not yet been replaced.

 

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Rob Miller
Blog: http://wolf21m.blogspot.com/

Mitchell Waite:

It be great if you could test this new program for us. One thing however - the way it will work is you sync with your whatbird account, then you export from there to ebird record format and import that to ebird.  To sync from eBird to our product is not in the cards because we don't have access to eBird's web services (which too bad as it would give eBird a lot more client data) but we might allow an import from eBird if you can export that data to your whatbird account. Does this make sense?

 1)  I can export from EBIRD to an EXCEL file structure (actually just a standard data file structure).  That is a built in function of the EBIRD.ORG web site tools.  Which effectively means I can create any file structure needed for import by anything (via EXCEL). Just let me know what the final import field structure requirements are (name, type, size), so I can give some improvements to what is available from what EBIRD.ORG exports.

2)  Did not realize that WINGED EXPLORER will sync with a WHATBIRD account (is that created on my PC during WINGED EXPLORER install?), assuming via ACTIVE SYNC .  Reading the manual and there is no mention of this account.   Need to do some reading and experimenting to see how that sync works (have not found that mentioned yet - but have not done a lot of reading about WINGED EXPLORER and that ability - which I assume exists now).  Or do I have this wrong?

 

I am describing "future" functionality not current. #2 is something we hope to provide, right now there is no exportation in our lifelist feature.

Is #1 something that can be done now in eBird? I was not aware they let you export.

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iBird Explorer: Finally a field guide as light as a feather. See it at http://www.ibird.com

Mitchell Waite:

I am describing "future" functionality not current. #2 is something we hope to provide, right now there is no exportation in our lifelist feature.

Is #1 something that can be done now in eBird? I was not aware they let you export.

 

Yes #1 is now available from EBIRD.  I like it because with all my data entry done I can download it all to a spreadsheet.  At least it makes me feel like I would not loose what I added to EBIRD, if I can save a EXCEL file of the data myself. 

Thanks that is great to know. We'll make sure that our system will import from eBird. I am assuming that the export is in there record format not the checklist format. When you keep records in eBird to you add a lot of details or just date, location and birds seen?

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Mitch Waite