[Solved] download ebird checklist to mobile

Hi Judy,

Thanks for posting.

Unfortunately, eBird recently changed its website and added new anti-bot protection. That now blocks the automated access Birder’s Diary Mobile was using to download eBird location checklists and abundance data. So this is not a problem with your phone or your Birder’s Diary setup.

For now, in BD Mobile you can use eBird Checklists → Download Checklist for Current Location. This builds a checklist from recent eBird observations around your current coordinates using the radius and number-of-days settings.

You can override the Lat/Lng coordinates to include any location you want instead of just your current location. To get the coordinates for any location on Earth, go to maps.google.com, find the location on the map, then right-click the exact spot. The latitude and longitude will appear at the top of the popup menu, for example 39.7392, -104.9903. Click those coordinates to copy them, then enter the latitude and longitude into the corresponding fields in Birder’s Diary Mobile.

The downside is that this method does not provide the eBird seasonal abundance graphs that the previous download did.

I am working on finding a replacement for the old eBird functionality, but at this point eBird's supported API does not provide the same abundance data that the old method supplied.

Let me know if you have any questions or if I can assist with anything further.

Hi Jeff,

Yuck!

The example I gave you was for a hotspot, but on our birding trips, we typically download a checklist for each state or province.  The latitude/longitude method only covers at most a radius of 50 km and only birds reported in the last x days. Along with the common birds, we will be looking for the hard-to-find birds that might not have been reported in that time frame. The other problem is that we won't have mobile access in the field and may cover quite a bit of ground in a single day.

Is it only abundance information that you can't access? We don't need the abundance info if leaving that out is a viable short-term fix.

Judy

Hi Judy,

I understand your angst. I feel the pain also.

eBird Downloads

I am away on vacation and not back until Tuesday. I have been away for a month.

Once back, it should take me 1-2 weeks to solve this problem.

I should have a workaround with no abundance data available sooner than that.

I notified Cornell/eBird of this 4 weeks ago when the first customer noticed it. I have not heard back from them. They rarely reply, if at all, in less than 2 months.

Unfortunately, BD Mobile will fail every time on the Download for eBird Location functionality. It requires the now non-functional web page for the abundance info.

iNaturalist Downloads

Another workaround is to use the INATURALIST CHECKLISTS tab where you can download by location. It tends to include fewer species that the eBird download. In this case, select a larger area than usual. E.g. Choose 'Colorado' instead of 'Teller County'.

This is the best workaround in your case. 

• Preload state checklists from iNat.
• When in the field, if a name is not present, simply add it to your checklist at that time. Quick and Easy. 

Other Options

• You can always add names to any checklist during an outing. You can use Voice Recognition for that - or choose "Add Name to Checklist" from the menu. For example,
  • Touch the Mic icon/button at the top of the checklist to enter VR (voice recognigtion) mode.
  • Say "Add Name Ostrich"
  • The add name dialog will appear with "Ostrich" in it. Click Ok.
  • The name will be added and the list will be scrolled to that name ready to be checked off.
  • Caveat: requires internet access to use VR.

Go ahead and give this a try right now for a couple states, let me know what you think.

Let me know if I can assist further and help brainstorm until I get back to my office and can make changes.

Hi again,

We'll be leaving for Northwest Argentina next Friday. Interesting, the iNaturalist download for the whole country is only 500 species out of over 900, but the individual provinces I checked have 370 (Tucuman) to 500 (Salta) species.  

The iNaturalist downloads will get us started. We'll only have Internet access at our hotels so VR is out but we can type in others. Please reply here when you get workaround and we can try out any changes you make.

Hope you've had a great vacation

Thanks,

Judy

Thanks for the update Judy. 

You should auto-update whenever your phone gets internet access after I have uploaded a fix. In any case, I will update here also as soon as I have something.

Enjoy your trip. Lots of luck and Lifers!