Date: 1/10/26 6:32 am From: Aaron Brees <aebrees...> Subject: Re: [ia-bird] Not a sighting, eBird email request for more documentation being misinterpreted.
I am one of several eBird reviewers for Iowa. Clayton is correct that many
of the request for detail emails that are sent are because the observer has
not provided an adequate response to the eBird prompt asking for comments
when submitting their checklist. There are two distinct types of flags
that can come up when submitting a checklist. One is the "R" symbol. This
is for when a bird is rare for the location or rare for the date. For this
flag, the observer needs to describe the bird to support the
identification. We often get comments like "Sitting in a tree" or "At my
feeder" which are fine to include if you want to, but are not of much value
in supporting an identification. What is useful is supporting field marks
and/or an explanation of why it wasn't a more common, similar species. The
second flag type is the "!" symbol. This is the "high count" flag. This
is saying that the bird is not necessarily rare for the date/location, but
that you are reporting a larger number than is expected for that
date/location. This flag is asking you to briefly explain how you arrived
at the number. Did you make an exact count of each bird? Did you take a
wild guess at a large flock? Did you count 10 and then use that block of
10 to estimate the rest of the flock? This flag is generally not asking
about the identification unless it is a species that has similar, more
likely similar species. This flag catches data entry errors (ex. you
intended 10 but typed 100) and gives others an idea of the accuracy of the
count.
The eBird app highlights any species that is flagged on your checklist and
prompts you add comments before it will let you submit the checklist. If
you can't remember what exactly is being asked for, you can just tap the
"R" or "!" symbol and an explanatory text box pops up.
On Sat, Jan 10, 2026 at 7:56 AM Clayton Will <willcfish...> wrote:
> Not a sighting, eBird <ebird-review...> email request for
> more information by eBird reviewers being misinterpreted.
> Twice in the last week I have had birders new to entering birds they had
> seen and entered into eBird express frustration that they were
> receiving emails from reviewers questioning the sighting. I explained that
> this is an automatically generated email based not only on the rarity of
> the bird but also by time of year for that species or number of birds seen.
> I told them it is not personal as the reviewer doesn't single them out and
> reviewers are all volunteers devoted to the compiling of accurate
> information. I explained that I get those notifications all the time. Also,
> I like to post photos for those birds or give a good description of the
> birds seen along with a reply to the reviewer that I corrected or deleted
> the observation.
> Hats off to our eBird reviewers.
> If anyone else has any input I'm missing please respond.
>
> Sincerely,
> Clayton Will
> Madrid
>
>
>
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