Gulf Coast oil spill: Help survey birds at risk

Cornell University’s Team eBird has produced the eBird Gulf Coast Oil Spill Bird Tracker gadget that can be embedded in your iGoogle page for quick access to the eBird database.

This gadget includes ten focal species of conservation concern that could be impacted by the current oil spill. For each species, we display hundreds of recent Gulf Coast sightings on a map along with count information.

Spot a bird (even if it’s not one of the 10 focal species featured on the iGoogle page), enter some key data, and tag your location. Your counts will be aggregated with others and represented on the map as a stickpin (see right). Click on the stickpin and you will see the location name as well as a list of all the recent reports with the observer’s name and the species counts recorded in the Gulf Coast region since April 2010. This information can effectively steer beach protection and cleanup efforts to the sites with the greatest concentrations of birds and most important habitats.

The eBird team also wants you to know this:

Please remember that it is easy to change to a different species, region, or date range. Just notice the options for these changes at the top of your screen. Many other species, like Black Skimmer, Sandwich, Gull-billed, Least and Forster’s Terns, and even offshore species like Audubon’s Shearwater and Bridled Tern, are at risk too. The ten we have selected are simply some of the most conspicuous, engaging, and at risk species.