Creating Hourly ebird RBA (with screenshots to help)

[Caleb A]

Hello, CObirders!

I know there has already been much discussion about the end of the cobirds RBA, so I won't bog this post down with more of that. Instead, I hope to make it as easy as possible for this entire community of birders to use ebird's RBA email system. One last note before I get into it: something that has personally helped me is getting in contact with other local birders and joining "text RBA" that way. It's not comprehensive, of course, but just another fun way to interact with the birding community while finding great birds!

Step-by-step to set up HOURLY ebird email alert:

1) On your ebird homepage, click on the "Explore" tab in the upper-left side of the the screen:

2) Scroll down a little and click on the "Alerts" button found below the "Bar Charts" button:

3) Once in that menu, you can type in whatever region you would like to get reports for. Since this is CObirds, I've typed the state of Colorado as the region in the screenshot:

4) Once you click the green "Subscribe" button, you should be redirected to a page that looks something like this:

5) If you only want to subscribe to a daily RBA, then that is the default setting, and you're done! However, the daily RBA may lead to you missing reports that occur in the middle of the day and don't show up until the next morning. To prevent missing any birds, you can change the settings to receive hourly RBA. To do this, hit the change button with a little pencil and paper icon next to it:

That opens a pop up that looks like this:

You can change this to be daily or hourly. Click "Save" and you're done!

Hope this helps for anyone new to ebird! It's a great website, but sometimes their features aren't super easy to figure out.

The birds are happy, and so am I

~Caleb Alons, Larimer County

[Beverly Head]

Hi Caleb, thank you for thinking of us new to birding and cobirds!! I had been able to navigate my option for notifications. What I am struggling with now is finding a good list of rare birds, which I thought would be easy, but I haven't been successful. I imagine that it changes by season and areas, so that it would be pretty extensive. I was surprised to see the redheaded woodpecker being reported here. We saw one at Boyd Lake, Larimer County last Wednesday, and can confirm it with a photo. However, I didn't do a checklist at the time, so is it still of value 5 days later? I did take and pass the ebird essentials online. Are there other free resources to learn more? We just spent a wad on a DSLR camera. Thanks for your help. Bev Head

[Gregg Goodrich]

Merlin Bird ID is a free field guide app from Cornell and integrates with eBird. A really excellent resource. I love the bird songs that show the sonograms. And it utilizes the best photos out of eBird.

Gregg Goodrich
Highlands Ranch

[Caleb A]

Hi Beverly!

I think what constitutes a "good list of rare birds" is highly personalized to the birder. Since I live in Larimer County and don't have a driver's license yet, I am not too concerned about things that happen say, in Pueblo County or Mesa County. I do care about what's being seen in Larimer County, however, so in light of this, I went through the steps shown above in my first post to subscribe to the daily Larimer Rare Bird Alert as well as the Larimer Needs Alert.

I think I should mention that the ebird engine sort of determines what constitutes "rare" at various times of the year. For example, we all know that American White Pelicans are pretty common birds...in the right time of year. So, a Pelican reported on Christmas Day would be a pretty big deal, because that's "rare"...as in "out of place rare." Maybe you aren't finding lists with "good birds" because you need to also subscribe to the Needs Alert for your desired regions. That way, you can see everything from uncommon to rare.