The Bird Monitoring Data Exchange (BMDE) was developed to be a standardized data exchange schema that would promote the sharing and analysis of observational data about birds. This format includes over 100 variables that correspond to variables in your database. We will help map your data to the BMDE in order to bring as much of your data into the AKN as possible. Supplemental data, or data that cannot be mapped to the AKN, will be stored in auxiliary tables. Good examples of such data are vegetation sampling data, which cannot be safely federated across datasets.

The BMDE
The BMDE includes 111 fields that are capable of capturing all metrics and descriptors associated with a bird observation. The foundation of the BMDE are the 55 fields of the Darwin Core (DwC), a similar exchange schema developed to facilitate the interchange of distributional information about organisms, based on data from natural history collections (i.e., museums), living collections (i.e., zoos), and observations. Using Darwin Core allows bird monitoring data to be integrated with other bioinformatic initiatives such as ORNIS and GBIF. The BMDE extends the DwC schema to incorporate required variables for the comprehensive interchange of bird monitoring data. These extended fields include information on the type of survey and observer effort. The BMDE does not accommodate data on the habitats or conditions of the observation; thus data on vegetation, sea conditions, or weather conditions are not archived in the BMDE.

We remind you that the purpose of the BMDE is not to describe all data fields of every bird monitoring dataset, but rather to allow sharing of information for the purpose generating various analyses. We realize that some types of datasets would require additional field extensions in order to capture it in its entirety. For example, we are currently working on a schema extension for bird banding datasets, which will be a substitute for the BMDE schema when banding data are involved.

The BMDE will function within the DiGIR grid services environment. Currently under development are access tools available at the AKN website to allow access to the federated datasets.

Click here to download the BMDE

Click here to see the full list of BMDE variables and their definitions.