03-02: eBird's Spectacular Status & Trends with Tom Auer

Cornell's eBird has been around for 16 years now, and 2019 finds it as ingrained in the birding community, especially in North America, as it's ever been. More users than ever plugging more data than ever into the project, which in turn facilitates a ton of great information that informs research, conservation, and everyday birding. In the last few weeks of 2018, eBird launched a new status and trend database, an incredibly detailed spatial and temporal information on bird populations, combining eBird data with NASA data that takes into account land cover and topography. Cornell's Tom Auer is the Geographic Information Science (GIS) Developer charged with creating these maps, and he joins host Nate Swick to talk about them.  Also, Fantasy Birding and a little on McCown's Longspur and the question of who bird common names are for.  Thanks to Rockjumper Birding Tours for sponsoring this episode of the podcast. Come join the ABA in Colombia this summer!