eBird Commentary

This is a post I should have written more than a year ago, because eBird seems to have cleaned things up a bit since June 2023 when I noticed it. First, some background. American Robin is a polytypic species, with Pyle (1998) delineating five subspecies as occurring in Canada and the US:     caurinus  -- breeds coastally from southeast Alaska to northwest Oregon and winters south to southern California     propinquus  -- year-round in the interior from south-central British Columbia and southern Saskatchewan and south to coastal southwest California east to western Texas     migratorius  -- breeds from Alaska south and east to central British Columbia then to central Quebec and southeast to New Jersey and winters south within that range but also south from New Mexico to Florida     nigrideus  -- breeds from northern Quebec through Newfoundland, wintering south to Mississippi and Florida     achrusturus  -- year-r...

 ... are quite common, and that points out one of the insidious problems with the eBird process of review of reports. First, a digression. The single most widespread problem with eBird is that eBirders are not required to understand how eBird works, what different sorts of entries mean, and what they include... or exclude, or, even, be able to reliably identify individual birds by sight and/or sound. Literally, anyone can report data to eBird and, so long as entries do not trip relevant filters, eBirders can report whatever they believe or, worse, whatever they want. There is probably no more nearly invisibly pernicious effect on aspects of eBird caused by the ignorant eBirder than that engendered by eBird subspecies entries. eBird subspecies entries -- that is, those subspecies or groups of similar subspecies for which eBird provides individual entry options -- are impenetrable for an apparently sizable number of eBirders. So long as the subspecies entry selected by the eBirder is...