How do you eBird?
Why do you use the Eremaea eBird website? Do you like to find out what birds others have seen in your area? Or are you eager to maintain your life list? We wanted to know how our new and loyal users spend their time on eBird, so we analysed how eBird has been used since the site opened in February 2014.
We’re pleased to find that since Feb 2014, the eBird website has over 21,000 users. Currently, around 400 eBirders a day use the website. The number of users per week has more than doubled from about 600 in the second week of February 2014 to about 1300 in the same week in 2015. The number of eBird website users per month has nearly tripled from almost 1300 in February 2014 to almost 3800 in January 2015 (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1 Number of users per month
Fig. 2 Percentage of returning and new visitors
More than 1.6 Million pages have been viewed on the eBird website. The average eBirder spends about 8 minutes on the eBird website, and views about seven pages per visit. About 87% of the traffic to eBird is from returning visitors, and 13% are new visitors (Fig. 2). Throughout the past year, around 28% of eBird visitors viewed only one page on the site. While submitted checklists account for only about 3% of the all the page viewings, as of 4 March 2015, over 255,884 checklists have been submitted and 821 bird species have been sighted in Australia.
Fig. 3 Percentage sessions by city
By city, Melbournians are the most avid eBird site users (35%), with Brisbanites close behind (26%), and about half as many Sydneysiders (17%). However, per capita, Canberrans are just as enthusiastic as Melbournians (3.5% of the site users and 10% of the population of Melbourne). Perthlings and Adelaidians each account for about 3% of the site users, and Gold Coasters account for about 1%. Other parts of Australia and the World account for the remaining users (Fig. 3).
Many people like to see where others are seeing birds. Most new users (46%) have come to eBird website from the Eremaea Birdlines website, which lists interesting or unusual bird observations. Most existing users come first to the eBird home page (34%), but many first link directly to the pages that list where birds have recently been seen in the differents states of Australia or at hotspots. Fewer people (2%) go immediately to their own My eBird page. Of the people who read the eBird news items on the homepage, there appears to be interest in rare and unusual sitings (e.g. the Eurasian Hoopoe), and how eBird functions (e.g. about Eremaea eBird, the birdlog app and naming sites).
Eremaea eBird will continue to be the hot site for locating the birds you want to see, for keeping track of your life list, and as a resource for detecting trends in birds. The more you use the eBird website to assist you in your birding needs, the better it gets for everyone, including the birds. Both birding in the 21st Century and Eremaea eBird in Australia will continue to evolve. We’re glad you’re along for the journey.
by Nancy Auerbach, eBird Website Committee