What Are Observational Data?

Definition: An observation characterizes the occurrence of an organism or set of organisms through a data collection event at a location.  Observations are not necessarily independent entities and could be linked via characteristics such as time, place, protocol, and co-occurring organisms (as defined by the Taxonomic Data Working Group's Observational Data sub-group).

All observational data have value!

Within the United States it is estimated that greater than 60 million digitized bird observations, spanning 100 years, are immediately available, and a comparable number still need to be digitized.

These data constitute one of the largest and longest-running resources of environmental time-series data in existence.

From the most rudimentary observations (such as the occurrence of an organism somewhere in the environment, ie. Great Backyard Bird Count) to protocol driven hypothesis testing projects (such as Birds in Forested Landscapes) all observational data can serve a purpose. This can best be described by the observational data matrix, where the columns represent the kinds of information that need to be collected, and the columns represent the kind of product that can be produced from the data collected. For example, a seasonal distribution map can be created from all observational data projects where the protocol, location, species date and number of individuals of a species were counted. But to get an accurate measurement of true abundance, additional information must be gathered, which also includes: effort in time and space, distance from bird, and observer confidence.