NEW TO EBIRD? Welcome! Start by taking our FREE eBird Essentials course. This 100% free, self-paced online course answers most questions and helps you start eBirding faster!
Welcome to eBird! Your first step will be going to eBird.org and clicking the green Get Started button to create your account. We highly recommend taking the brief, free eBird Essentials course to get oriented.
If you have an iOS or Android device, we also recommend downloading eBird Mobile. This free app is the fastest way to enter your sightings in the field. Learn about entering sightings via mobile here.
Where did you bird?
Click “Submit” from the top of any page in eBird.
First you’ll select where you went birding, an essential step to ensure your sightings are reported accurately. Find it on a Map is the fastest and most precise way to find a new location.
Check out using and choosing locations in eBird for more info.
Can't find it on a Map? Start by entering a county, state, or province in the first search bar. Select your region when it appears in the drop-down, then try searching for a more detailed location on the map page.
When and how did you go birding?
For Date and Effort, enter the day and time you went birding, how far you traveled, how long you spent birding, and the type of birding that you did (e.g., Stationary, Traveling).
Be sure to enter the correct start time, duration, and distance for your birding activity(or use eBird Mobile to record all of it for you!) This information makes your checklists more valuable to birders, researchers, and conservationists. If you don’t have this info, then please use Incidental or Historical for the Observation Type. Learn more about eBird observation types.
Note: Do not submit checklists spanning multiple days. Each checklist should correspond to a single calendar date. If you have bird sightings from multiple dates on one list, use our guidelines for Uploading your Life List.
What birds did you see?
Now we’re at the best part: entering your species list! All of the expected species for your selected location and time of year are shown. You can enter numbers for each species that you observe, or an "X" if you weren’t able to estimate how many individuals you saw. For tips on how to count birds, check out this article.
Use Group by Most Likely to view the most frequent species in you area. Type a species name or its Quick Entry Code in the Jump to Species box to quickly find what you’re looking for.
Can't find a bird on the list? First select "Show Rarities" for a list of all species reported from that area. If you found a rare bird not on the list, use the "+ Add Species" button to search the entire eBird taxonomy. Just make sure you include documentation to support your sighting!
Are you submitting a complete checklist?
Before you can submit your list, you must answer a very important question: Are you submitting a complete checklist of the birds you were able to identify? Learn more about answering this question.
You do not need to identify or detect every bird. If your list includes every species you could identify to the best of your ability, even if you couldn't identify everything, choose Yes! If you intentionally leave out any species you identified, choose No. Check out our eBird Best Practices to learn why it’s important to keep complete checklists.
Save and return later: the checklist page will automatically time out after 60 minutes. To save your progress on longer lists, go ahead and click “Submit.” You can always come back by visiting "Manage Checklists" on My eBird. Thanks for your contribution!
That's it! You've submitted your data to eBird and contributed to a global database of more than 850 million observations that helps to inform birders, researchers, and conservationists across the world. Thank you.
If you have more checklists to submit, check the options on the left side of the checklist page, like “Submit another checklist for the same location and date.” These options can save you time by pre-entering details based on the checklist you just submitted.
You should now see this checklist on the Manage My Checklists page. If you need to add or correct something, you can always edit a checklist at any time by clicking “Edit Species.”
For more information about managing and exploring your eBird data, visit: