Thanks to John for digging out these data. I'd like to echo his cautious reminder about historical records. For the time being at least, eBird, for all its undoubted virtues, falls well short of accurately representing regional lists for this and other reasons. For Franklin County, for example, I have evidence qualitatively better than eBird's for 342--not 285--species (and without counting trumpeter swan, mute swan, monk parakeet, etc., or published reports of other species [often from highly-regarded persons] best regarded as hypothetical). This is 57 (20%) more species than the eBird total, which also may include locally unestablished species. The numbers listed for other counties may have similar deficits. Overall, does the eBird database routinely incorporate all records beyond those submitted by its enthusiasts---all CBC records or banding data or old Biological Survey numbers, etc.? As far as I know, it seldom does, relying instead almost entirely on recent reports from enrolled members and their contemporaneous reports, though to his credit local editor Vic Fazio seems to be leading the charge to include historical records for states and counties involved. Overall, eBird promises to study history to come rather than history past, and relies mostly on enrolled adherents for its data rather than others. Fine as far as it goes, but these results should not be misinterpreted as something larger. I think eBird automates many important analyses of numerical records of commoner birds--a segment too often ignored--and of course it provides free listing software, and an ever-growing network of nifty analytical tools, not to mention encouraging a sort of social network among its enthusiasts. Still, I advise against using it in every case as if it represented all we know, as John Herman cautions. It will improve with time. In the meantime, stick with the published records if you want to compare complete county lists. Bill Whan Columbus On 1/1/2012 8:12 PM, John Herman wrote: > The following is a list of the current ebird all-time Ohio counties top 10. > Not surprisingly, many of the top Ohio counties are along Lake Erie. Those > counties have the obvious advantage concerning shorebirds and gulls. > However, inland counties, due to a variety of reasons, also have very good > county numbers. Remember that many counties do not have all known species > reported, mostly because the majority of records have been reported by > individuals that have birded since 1980, and historical records lacking for > counties. Some counties could use some birding, as Van Wert, with 51 ebird > all time ebird species. > Cuyahoga 320 > Lucas 320 > Ottawa 311 > Lorain 310 > Lake 299 > Erie 293 > Richland 286 > Franklin 285 > Delaware 284 > Hamilton 284 > Hancock 284 ______________________________________________________________________ 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]