Reporting Birds

Introduction
Where to Send Reports
Report Types
Report Format
Note About Accuracy
Membership
Reporter's Instruction Manual

Introduction
This page contains general information about reporting birds to the NYC Bird Report. Although intended primarily for someone who plans to report birds, this information may be of interest to anyone who reads the NYC Bird Report.

Ultimately, all reports of bird sightings submitted to the NYC Bird Report (NYCBR) are submitted in a standard format via E-mail. This manner of submission allows for the automatic and immediate update of the NYCBR website. However, this does not mean that one must learn the standard format or even send an E-mail message to report sightings. Anyone, by whatever means, can report sightings to an NYCBR editor, who in turn can submit a report in the prescribed manner.

Where to Send Reports
Observations made at a participating birding site can be sent to the birding site's editor. Observations made in New York City outside participating birding sites can be sent to any NYCBR editor. In either case, the editor will submit the observations in the manner described below.

Registered reporters can submit regular reports (see Report Types below) directly into the NYCBR system using the E-mail address given to them upon registering. To become a registered reporter for a birding site, contact the editor for that birding site.

Report Types
Two types of reports can be submitted to the NYCBR:

Regular Report
This form of report may be submitted by any registered reporter and is used to report sightings made by one or more member reporters on a particular day for a particular site. (See Membership)

Report From An Unregistered Birding Site (for editors only)
Noteworthy sightings of birds that occur outside of formally participating birding sites can be reported to any NYCBR editor, who in turn can submit this form of report. The sightings from these reports show up in the Noteworthy Sightings from Outside of Registered Sites page of the NYCBR website.

Report Format
Reports are submitted to the NYCBR as plain-text E-mail messages. HTML messages are not accepted. The subject of the E-mail indicates which of the three types of report is being submitted.

E-mail Subject Line	Report Type
report	Regular
add elsewhere sighting	Report From An Unregistered Birding Site

The format of the E-mail body is the same for all three types of report. The first three lines indicate the site, date, and observers for the report. Each of the remaining lines lists a bird species. Here is what a regular report might look like before it is submitted to the NYCBR system:

Each line containing a bird species must be in the following form:

<species> <confidence> (<information>) [<species observers>]

<species> is the only required element, and it must match the common name of a bird in the NYCBR Master Bird List. All other elements in the line are optional.

<confidence> must be in the range 50% to 100%. If omitted, this value is assumed to be 100%.

<information>, if included, must be enclosed in parentheses. Up to 100 characters of information giving details of the sighting, or sightings, of the bird may be submitted.

Information should be written in sentence form. That is, first letter capitalized and ending with a suitable punctuation mark. Examples:

    (South end of Conservatory Garden. 6am.)
    (One at feeders. One at Willow Rock. Same individual?)
    (Reservoir. 2M, 2F.)
    (Flyover.)
    (Seven!)

Information should not include the names of any observers.

<species observers> need only be included if the set of reporters participating in the sighting of the particular species does not include every reporter listed on the "observers =" line. This comma-separated list of reporter names must be enclosed in brackets.

(For more information see Command Reference)

Note About Accuracy
Sightings submitted directly to the NYCBR website are initially assumed to be valid. That is, the system will give the reporters the benefit of the doubt and accept the sightings. However, this does not mean that all sightings initially accepted by the system will stand. The editor has the authority to reject any sighting belonging to his birding site, even after it has been posted on the website.

In most cases, birders should be 100 percent confident of an observation to report it. In rare cases, it may be useful to report sightings with less than 100 percent confidence. These tentative sightings will appear only in Today and Yesterday lists and will not be treated as part of the official record of birds reported to the NYCBR. The purpose of a tentative sighting is merely to alert other birders to the possibility of a particular species being in the area.

Membership
The NYCBR is not a club. Membership simply makes automated reporting possible and is the only way to prevent wholesale vandalism of the website. Membership allows the NYCBR system to recognize report submitters and prevents people who, for example, have never set foot in New York City from submitting reports of birds endemic to New Zealand.

Who should register? Membership associates a birder with a formally participating birding site (e.g. Central Park), so only birders who regularly bird a birding site should bother to register with that site. In fairness to the readers of the NYCBR, inexperienced birders are discouraged from registering.

Birders may be members of multiple birding sites. To become a member reporter for a participating birding site, contact that birding site's editor.

Reporter's Instruction Manual
The Reporter's Instruction Manual contains important information for registered reporters. To view it, click here: Reporter's Instruction Manual.