Media tags help make the Macaulay Library collection more useful, allowing users to filter photos, audio, and video by specific categories. Tags also include important metadata that add value to a media specimen. They can be added to your media in the Manage Media tool.
For more information on how and what to upload, visit our pages on uploading media; upload guidelines for photos, audio recordings, and video; and rating media.
Quick Links
Tips for adding tags in Manage Media
- Use the View icons in the top left to filter down to all media, only photos, or only audio.
- To select a range of media, Click, then Shift + Click the asset at the end of the range.
- To select/deselect individual media, use Ctrl or Command + Click.
- To select all media, use Ctrl or Command + A.
Age/Sex
Use the Age/Sex grid to enter counts for the age and sex of all individuals of the focal species (species to which you upload the media) visible or audible in the selected media. Accurately assessing the age and sex of birds is frequently challenging, so if you are unsure, be conservative and use the “Unknown” fields. If you’re unsure of the number of individuals, use “X” or “+” to indicate presence.
Sounds (audio recordings and videos only)
Tag any applicable sound types audible in the selected recording. Some recordings will include more than one. Only apply tags when you know the type of sound being made. Err on the side of caution, or check the Listen option on Explore Species to compare sound types.
- Song: Vocalization used for territorial advertisement or mate attraction. Typically but not always more complex than call. Applies to more than just songbirds; advertising calls of owls, marsh birds, and shorebirds should be called Song.
- Flight song: Specific song type given in flight, often more complex and rapid than typical song. Not necessarily any song given in flight. If unsure, use only Song.
- Mechanical sound: Audible sounds not made vocally. Examples include non-vocal advertising sounds like drumming of a woodpecker or wing snaps from a manakin, plus incidental sounds like wing noise or foraging sounds.
- Duet: Two or more birds singing collaboratively, usually a pair or family group. Counter-singing territorial birds or vocal flocks of birds should not receive this tag. If unsure, use only Song.
- Call: Any vocalization that doesn’t qualify as song. Often but not always less complex than song. May include contact calls, alarm calls, and other vocalizations given in a variety of contexts.
- Flight call: Specific call type, most often given in flight. Not necessarily any call given in flight. Should be used with all nocturnal migration flight calls. If unsure, use only Call.
- Dawn song: Specific song type, usually given at dawn or dusk. Not necessarily any song given at dawn. If unsure, use only Song.
Playback (audio recordings and videos only)
If playback was used before or during the recording to influence the subject(s), select “Used.” If no playback was used, select “Not Used.” Playback includes vocal imitations. Recordings made after mobbing tapes, pishing, or other activity that changes the behavior of birds but is not from a conspecific should be tagged as “Not Used,” but these other stimuli should be noted in the comments.
Additional Species
Add additional or background species present in the selected media using this field. Note that an additional species can only be selected if it is also reported on the checklist to which you’re uploading media. Include species identifiable in the frame for photos. Include any species audible in the recording for audio. Prominent species are most useful to tag, but anything visible/audible can be tagged.
Behaviors
Tag any applicable behavior(s) displayed by the focal species (species to which you upload the media) in the selected media. You may select more than one behavior if they are all happening in the same image or recording. Do not apply these tags for behaviors the bird exhibited but that did not take place during the piece of media in question. These are specific to the media, not the observation.
- Foraging or eating: Any bird actively seeking, catching, or eating food items. For photos, this behavior should be apparent from the image alone. A kingfisher simply perched over a river wouldn't qualify, but an egret actively peering into the water as it walks would.
- Vocalizing (photos and videos only): Any bird that is actively calling or singing in the image. Reminder: this is not for media where the individual was heard to vocalize, but that is not visibly vocalizing in the media.
- Carrying food: Any bird carrying food in its bill or talons, often used as an indication of breeding. Typically should not be used for the same media as Foraging or eating—a bird is either foraging/eating, or carrying the food elsewhere. Similarly, if the bird is actively feeding offspring, this tag should not be applied.
- Courtship, display, or copulation: Any bird engaging in courtship or copulation behavior. This includes direct display behavior, flight displays, copulation or solicitation, or other behavior visibly related to courtship.
- Flying: Any bird that is flying, including taking off and landing. For audio, if the bird is in flight or takes flight during the recording, this tag can be applied. For photos and video, the bird should be visibly in flight.
- Feeding young: Any bird actively providing food to a nestling or fledgling. For photos and video, the young should be visible in the frame or obviously in a nest. A photo of a bird just carrying food should use that tag instead. Photos of birds feeding nest parasites should also use this tag if the parent is the focal species.
- Nest building: Any bird actively carrying nesting material or building a nest.
- Preening, scratching, or bathing: Any bird exhibiting preening, scratching, bathing, stretching, anting, sunbathing, dust-bathing, or any other grooming or self-maintenance behavior.
Tags (photos and videos only)
Tag any applicable characteristics shown in the selected photo or video by the focal species (species to which you upload the media.)
- Habitat: Any photo where the habitat where the bird was found is highlighted or featured prominently, usually meaning that the bird is fairly small in the frame and its surroundings are more prominent. It is not required that a bird is visible in the photo, but it should be the habitat where the bird was seen. Images with sticks, leaves, etc. present but that are otherwise fairly closely focused on the bird itself should not receive this tag.
- Nest: Any photo with a clearly visible nest (bird can be present or absent from the nest). The nest might fill the frame, or be smaller in the frame, in which case Habitat might also be applied.
- Egg(s): Any photo that includes one or more clearly visible eggs known to be from the focal species.
- Field notes/sketch (photos only): Any image of a sketch, field notes, or other supporting documentation. (If field notes do not include sketches, consider transcribing them into the observation details instead of uploading them as an image.)
- Molting: Any bird showing signs of active molt, such as dropped feathers or molt limits.
- Flock: Any media showing a group of approximately 10 or more individuals of the same species or related species.
- In-hand: Any photo or video of a live bird being held or restrained by a person. This can include mist-netted birds or birds otherwise restrained or temporarily captive. Note that photos of dead or captive birds are generally not appropriate to upload to eBird/ML.
- Aberrant individual: Any bird showing a phenotypic oddity that is not related to an injury. This includes birds exhibiting leucism, albinism, melanism, erythrism, other pigmentation abnormalities, bill or claw deformities, or gynandromorphy. Oiled birds and birds with unusual appearances related to injuries, disease, or molt do not fall into this category.
Equipment (audio recordings and videos only)
For audio recordings, enter the information for the type of recorder and microphone used to make the selected recording, along with any accessories that affect sound quality, like a parabolic dish.
For video, enter the camera, any external microphone used, and the lens or other accessories, if they are separate from the camera. You can enter your equipment once for each checklist and click the “Apply equipment to all recordings on this checklist.”
Secondary equipment like shock mounts, windscreens, recording apps, tripods, or lens filters do not need to be listed here.
Additional tags available only through the Photo + Sound Quiz
The following tags are only available to apply when taking the Photo + Sound Quiz.
- Multiple species: Any photo with more than one species of bird visible. (Note: In such cases, rate and apply other based on the focal species.)
- Watermark: Any photo with a watermark of any kind, including signatures or any other text on the image. (Note: Please do not add watermarks or text of any kind for images or videos being uploaded.)
- Back of camera: Any photo or screenshot of the back of a camera, phone, or computer screen. Any representation of a photo that is not the actual photo should receive this tag. Often uploaded as temporary documentation for rare sightings, these should always be replaced with the actual image eventually.
- Dead: Any photo where the primary subject is dead. This can include specimen photos uploaded with historical data or dead birds found in the wild. Do not tag images showing predators with prey if they are uploaded as the predator species. (Note: dead birds are generally not appropriate for eBird, so media of dead birds should usually not be uploaded.)
- No bird: Any image without a visible bird. For example, a photo of habitat, a nest, eggs, or any other image that does not show the bird.