The eBird Reference Dataset
Red-tailed Hawk
Here we introduce the "eBird Reference Dataset (Version 1.0)". The PDF below describes the eBird reference data set and the processing steps taken during creation. We hope this data will be a useful resource for studying avian dynamics and for developing new ecological modeling techniques. This dataset contains count data for bird species observed by novice and experienced bird observers (a.k.a. birders). The data were submitted by volunteers to eBird, a citizen-science project run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society. Each record in this dataset is a part of a checklist that a birder uses to mark the number of birds of each species detected; one checklist is submitted per sampling event (i.e., birding session). Each checklist submitted from the 48 states in the contiguous United States is additionally annotated with hundreds of predictor variables (covariates) that are derived from the location of the sampling event.
The Dataset
Download the data
Download the data
manual
Download the species primer (50MB file - please be patient)
Usage and Copyright
The eBird reference data is freely available for all usages. The observational data included in the data set have data access level 5 in the Avian Knowledge Network (AKN) data warehouse and are published here in compliance with the AKN data sharing policy. eBird is run by the National Audobon Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the data is copyrighted by both organizations. A primary goal in publishing this data is to provide a common data resource for studying and comparing ecological models; as such, derivative versions of the eBird reference data set must not be distributed without explicit permission from the copyright holders. The data set is a snapshot of submitted observations for years prior to 2009 that were submitted to eBird and reviewed by January 21, 2009.
Published results using this data should cite this document as follows:
M. Arthur Munson, Kevin Webb, Daniel Sheldon, Daniel Fink, Wesley M.
Hochachka, Marshall Iliff, Mirek Riedewald, Daria Sorokina, Brian
Sullivan, Christopher Wood, and Steve Kelling. The eBird Reference
Dataset. Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society,
Ithaca, NY, June 2009.
Please direct any questions to:
M. Arthur Munson at mmunson@cs.cornell.edu and
Steve Kelling at stk2@cornell.edu