[Tweeters] Question about confirmed/unconfirmed rare bird reports on EBird

[Steve Hampton via Tweeters]

Emily and all,

I'm not a reviewer but I am familiar with the general process and best
practices. As far as the process goes, the reviewers are volunteers and,
depending on their schedule, it can take many days and sometimes weeks.

As far as best practices, I've heard it's best to include some context and
at least 3 field marks and make it so you can read the description to
someone and they can guess the bird correctly. Sometimes people write
things like "definitely was it" and that's all, which leaves the reviewers
with little to go on.

Here's a good example: A duck with a brick orange head, black breast,
grayish body above and below; bluish bill with black tip; yellow eye;
swimming in pond with Mallards and Wood Ducks. Similar in shape to
Mallards.

That, of course, would be a Redhead and rules out Canvasback.

There is guidance on eBird about audio recordings, how to edit them, etc.
which is helpful.

Please send a redstart to Port Townsend!

good birding,



On Sat, May 31, 2025 at 7:15 AM Emily Birchman via Tweeters <
tweeters at u.washington.edu> wrote:


> Hi all,

>

> I am relatively newer to using EBird, having only started using it in

> 2023. While I've gotten used to a lot of the features, I'm not an expert,

> so I was wondering if someone could shed some light on this for me.

>

> I'm wondering why some reports of rare birds that contain photos or

> recordings become 'confirmed' and others do not? Occasionally I can see why

> because the report doesn't clearly indicate the species being reported

> versus something else that's more common. But I reported two sightings in

> the last week that have remained unconfirmed despite adding recordings or

> photos and I'm curious why they're still unconfirmed.

>

> This past weekend, on 5/25, I hiked at Big 4 Ice Caves with my family and

> did some birding. I was using Merlin, and it very clearly caught an

> American Redstart singing. After patiently looking for awhile, I finally

> ended up spotting it - too far to take a photo but it was very clearly a

> redstart - black and orange warbler, white underside, I could see it

> singing while Merlin ID'd the song. I got my lifer redstart here in the

> same area last June with very clear but brief views, and this time I got to

> watch the bird actively flit around a tree for much longer. It was

> delightful! (side note: I think there was briefly a female present, as

> well, but I didn't have my guide or a cell phone signal to look it up so I

> wasn't sure of the ID and didn't report her).

> I reported the singing male with a description and later added 2

> recordings from Merlin, which I didn't know how to edit but the second

> recording only has the redstart and a Hammond's Flycatcher calling so it

> seemed fairly clear.

>

> The report showed up on the Snohomish County rare bird alert as

> unconfirmed, and it has continued to be unconfirmed even though other

> birders went the next day and 2 of their reports were confirmed with only a

> description (not a recording) of the song, as they didn't see it.

> There are other subsequent reports after the 2 confirmed ones that have

> recordings and those are also unconfirmed.

>

> More recently, I went to Juanita Bay Park this week with a friend and we

> saw a horned grebe. We got photos using my binoculars to zoom in since

> neither of us have a camera other than that on our cell phones. I posted my

> sighting with those photos which are admittedly not great, but I think are

> clear enough to see that it's a horned grebe, not another species, but that

> one has also remained unconfirmed.

>

> I'm wondering if it just takes a long time for sightings to be confirmed,

> or if there's something I should have done differently to describe what I

> saw to make it more likely to be confirmed? I don't often get to see 'rare'

> birds but am happy to learn more about how to report sightings more

> helpfully.

>

> Thanks for any advice you have! :)

> Emily Birchman

> Kenmore WA

>

>

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>



-- 
​Steve Hampton​
Port Townsend, WA  (qatáy)
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