Checklist Data

Overview

A bird checklist is a list of all the different bird species that occur within a specific area. Such checklists are standardized. The premise being that as a species is observed, it is checked off or ticked. Checklists are widely used, with the majority of all politically defined regions having a bird checklist.

Types of Checklist Data

There are a variety of checklists ranging from simple checklists that list all of the birds seen in one region during the course of a year to more detailed checklists that include information about each species. The more detailed checklists commonly include information about life-history such as breeding, resident, migrant, winter resident, accidental, etc. 

Checklists serve as a good foundation, and they can easily be modified to suit a specific use case or project need. Breeding Bird Atlases is an example of a checklist that has been modified to a specific use.

How and where to access these data

eBird

eBird is a worldwide database of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society. Birders enter and track their bird sightings during their outing by filling out a checklist using a user-friendly mobile app. Data on eBird can be useful to many people. In particular, they allow other ornithologists to learn about the birds in a specific area, researchers and conservation specialists to follow population trends, and educators to introduce their students to birds and the scientific process.

NatureCounts

The NatureCounts mobile app allows users to collect data for a  subset of monitoring programs to advance the understanding of bird populations across the Western Hemisphere. The NatureCounts app allows you to set up automated checklist sharing to eBird. This means that when you create a checklist through the NatureCounts app, it will create an identical checklist in eBird, allowing you to maintain all your checklists in eBird while also collecting program specific data for various NatureCounts projects.

Avibase

Avibase is an online database that organizes bird taxonomic and distribution data globally. This website offers checklists for over 20,000 geographic regions of the world, species pages with taxonomic information and synonyms, and tools for observers to maintain their own sightings and obtain reports (e.g., maps showing countries or eBird hotspots with the number of target species that are missing from one of their life list).