Hi, folks. I wrote this several days ago, but as a  rank-and-file frequent eBird user I'm still sending it as an addendum to Vic's highly informed, technical discussion. The last eBird thread ended on rather negative note for such an amazing tool. One of the biggest positive aspects of eBird is its national and even international exposure. In spite of the problems, such as beginners posting crazy stuff, (which is fairly easily detected) the data are used in serious research that potentially preserves bird populations that we watch as a hobby. OHIO-BIRDS is extremely valuable and versatile, but it's primarily an Ohio site, although birders from other states undoubtedly, but unfortunately laboriously, glean data from it. Most importantly, someone also noted that birders can easily use both; it's simple to enter lists on eBird and then with one click, send the list (with no extraneous data) to Ohiobirds or anywhere on the Internet -- with accuracy and precision. If you wish, you can also add your own comments to eBird lists that you send to Ohiobirds. Then you automatically accumulate both a personal list that is incredibly versatile and useful for almost any kind of analysis (and an excellent management tool for bird areas), and provide data that are readily available to any birder or biologist anywhere. The program, of course, is not perfect, but improvements are constantly being made and time alone will obviously improve eBird's historical records. In addition, many people, including myself, are entering lists from past years and decades.  I must add that I got the impression from their comments that some (not all) of the negative posts were written by folks who never used eBird.
 
Many birders are already entering lists on Handheld Birds, the Cornell/National Geographic app for cell phones or PDAs such as Palm, and then easily transferring them into eBird though USB or Bluetooth. This involves NO TEDIOUS TYPING; for most species you enter only two or three letters on your handheld and hit the appropriate number key. Everything else is then done electronically and accurately.  HHBirds also contains the entire Nat Geo field guide plus other features not in the book, and playbacks for almost all species. I believe the program is now available on other platforms besides the Palm OS. (Not the read-only program for iPhones) This program also can practically eliminate, as it did for me, procrastination when it comes to transcribing the jumbled (and nearly illegible in my case) field notes that tend to pile up very quickly. If necessary,  you can also easily copy all of the lists from eBird back into other programs such as Excel or even MS Word. In an eggshell: easy and versatile, and, in conjunction with eBird, you can enjoy birding while make a real contribution to bird science and preservation.   
   
Bill Jones 


PS No kickbacks on the hard or software, in spite of the hard sell.           





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