Hi All,

 

Not to resurrect the recent discussion about the merrits of eBird and listservs, but a recent study regarding the utility of bird lists, even those without effort data, might be of interest to some members of this list.

 

The study evaluated whether or not the length of a birding list (the # of species seen) could be utilized to measure changes in species abundance.  Through the wizardry of statistical analysis, beyond my understanding, the authors were able to show that list length can be a valuable tool for measuring changes in species abundance.

 

The data set for the study was provided by a local bird club, from Brisbane, Australia, that had been collecting birding lists from their members for over 40 years.

 

I'm sure there are limitations to the value and use of analyses of these sort, as there are with any analyses, but I think this might be a nice illustration of how bird lists reported to and collected via both listservs and citizen science initiatives, like eBird, are both potentially valuable for bird conservation purposes, and could help reinforce one another.

 

You can read a summary of the study here: http://tinyurl.com/yen6zmh 

 

Or you can access the science journal article directly below:

 

Judit Szabo, Peter Vesk, Peter Baxter, Hugh Possingham (2010) Regional avian species declines estimated from volunteer-collected long-term data using List Length Analysis. Ecological Applications  http://tinyurl.com/ygphg7j 

 

I hope this prove interesting and useful.

 

Thanks,

 

Casey Tucker

Columbus, Ohio

 
                                          
_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail: Free, trusted and rich email service.
http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/201469228/direct/01/
______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]