I’ve learned about a birding resource that I’m excited to be helping with here in Washington. Birding Hotspots is an “Open-source” and “Crowd-Sourced” website that works alongside eBird to help birders know about how to bird at hotspots. By Open-source they mean that the coding and back-end of the website is open, i.e. not secret of proprietary. This is not the way a for-profit site would function, and gives assurance that the founders are not in it for profit from our work. Crowd-sourced means that the content comes from a broad audience of birders, i.e. the “crowd.”

Every eBird Hotspot in the world is imported into Birding Hotspots, and information on how to access and best bird the hotspot, along with any other useful information can be added easily.

I’ve been working for a while with Ken Ostermiller and Adam Jackson ans I think it is a great resource that will help me when I am traveling, and will help any birder visiting an eBird hotspot where they are inexperienced with the site. 

The site relies on local knowledge to be useful. I’ve agreed to be the Washington State editor, a role where I both try to enter content for sites I know, and review and confirm the appropriateness of content entered by anyone else for WA hotspots. I’m having fun and feeling like I can contribute in this role.

I’m asking WA birders to add content for eBird hotspots that they feel like they know a reasonable amount about birding at the spot. It is really easy to do, and can be done either on a computer or directly from your phone.

Because some of you learn best by reading directions, and others are more visual learners, I’ll write a step-by-step how-to use the site here, and also add a short video of how to use the site.

To add information to any eBird hotspot:

1. Go to Birdinghotspots.org either on your phone or computer.  https://birdinghotspots.org/
2. Navigate to the desired hotspot in any of several ways.
   1. Type the name of the hotspot in the “Find a region of hotspot…”  space
   1. Select the state from the list of states with an editor (WA is there)
   1. Click on the Explore Nearby Hotspots blue text to navigate by address of by city and state.
3. Once at the hotspot click on the “Suggest Content” text.
4. Enter your name and email address so the editor (me in WA) can know who is submitting content and contact you if they have questions. This also can help by letting the editor know that you are not a “bot”.
5. The key sections are “About this Location” and “Tips for Birding.”  The Birds of Interest and Notable Trails sections can be filled in if you have helpful knowledge.
6. If possible answer the Yes-No button questions Restrooms, Wheelchair trails, Roadside Viewing, and  Entrance Fee questions.  (Unless there is safe and good roadside viewing either enter “no” of leave as “Unknown”
7. If you want the editor to know something not appropriate to put in the options otherwise enter them in the “notes to the editor” section.
8. Be sure to click on the Submit Suggestion big green button so it gets submitted.
9. I If possible add a photo of the site.  To do this is a separate task.  Click on the Upload Photos text.  Enter you rname and email. Then click on the “Browse” text in the big rectangle.  You can add photos either from your photo library or other folder, or directly on your phone by clicking on the “take a photo” option.  This is designed to be a photo to help visiting birders know what to expect. Great examples might be a photo of the entrance or parking area, a photo of the general habitat, or a photo of the trailhead.  A photo of a map of the site is good too.  Again be sure to click on the big green “Save photos” button.

If you want to see this visually, watch this video. 

Hopefully this is helpful. If you have any questions contact Ed Pullen. I answer the submissions on the Contact section of this website.