eBird Australia

eBird Australia is a collaborative project managed by the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science.

The precursor to eBird Australia was Eremaea Birds, developed by Richard and Margaret Alcorn. Launched in March 2003, Eremaea Birds rapidly became the web site of choice for Australian birders for recording and maintaining their bird sightings in Australia and overseas. Eremaea Birds merged with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology eBird project in February 2014 to become Eremaea eBird, the Australia portal for eBird. The portal was later renamed to eBird Australia.

eBird Australia is maintained by a community of volunteers comprising the steering committee, the website team, reviewers, and hotspot editors.

A real-time, online checklist program, eBird has revolutionised the way that the birding community reports and accesses information about birds. Launched in 2002 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, eBird provides rich data sources for basic information on bird abundance and distribution at a variety of spatial and temporal scales.

eBird’s goal is to maximise the utility and accessibility of the vast numbers of bird observations made each year by recreational and professional bird watchers. It is amassing one of the largest and fastest growing biodiversity data resources in existence.

The observations of each participant join those of others in an international network of eBird users. eBird then shares these observations with a global community of educators, land managers, ornithologists, and conservation biologists. In time these data will become the foundation for a better understanding of bird distribution across the western hemisphere and beyond.