New eBird Occurence Maps

Recently, eBird posted occurrence maps for 10 species of birds: Northern Cardinal, American Pipit, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Red-headed Woodpecker, Western Tanager, Wood Thrush, Swainson's Hawk, Dickcissel, Grasshopper Sparrow, and Olive-sided Flycatcher. These occurrence maps show species presence throughout the country over the year. Every week, eBird plans on coming out with occurrence maps for 5 new species. I chose to display the occurrence map for Dickcissel because I got to observe them on point counts on Kentucky grasslands this previous season. Dickcissel is one of my favorite birds and that is why I thought this was very interesting. These maps help show how the populations is increasing or decreasing and could help serve as a useful tool for good management practices. The occurrence maps produced by eBird, in my opinion, are much more useful than species range maps found in field guides and on internet databases. The maps use data provided by eBird users who enter data throughout the year and compiled all of it and produced these amazing maps. Here is the occurrence map for the Dickcissel followed by the link for all occurrence maps.

Dickcissel Occurrence Map (eBird)