eBird has all kinds of ways for you to explore and learn about birds. Checklist data from eBird, media from the Macaulay Library, and identification tips from Merlin all combine here to place an unparalleled resource at your fingertips. 


An eBird account may be required

Some of the Explore functions described below require a free eBird account to access. This prevents us from exceeding the website activity limits set by Google Maps and also helps to keep our data exploration tools functional and your eBird observations safe.


Creating an eBird account is 100% free and easy. To get started, go to eBird.org and click on the green 'Create account' button in the top right corner of the page.


EXPLORE REGIONS AND HOTSPOTS


Explore Page Features:

Explore Regions and Hotspots

Explore Region provides one of the most powerful tools in eBird, allowing you to view data summarized across geopolitical regions from local counties to entire countries in a near instant. Just go to the Explore page on eBird.org and type the name of a county, state, province, or country into the search bar under "Explore Regions" to get started!



Explore entire continents and hemispheres: You can also view certain larger regions using the Major Regions dropdown menu below "Explore Regions" (these regions will not appear in the search box). 


Explore US National Wildlife Refuges: You can view sightings from anywhere in the United States National Wildlife Refuge System, which includes over 560 refuges across all 50 states. Unlike other regions in eBird, refuge borders sometimes cross county or state lines.


Explore individual towns and cities: At this time it is not possible to explore eBird data for towns/cities. The smallest geopolitical areas summarized in eBird's Explore tools are counties or districts. You can also explore popular birding patches in your area using eBird Hotspots instead.

Explore Hotspots

There are three ways to explore eBird Hotspots. 


1. On the eBird.org website, open the Explore page and click "Explore Hotspots" 

2. Search for any county, state, or country using "Explore Regions" then tap Hotspots from the navigation menu.

3. Explore eBird Hotspots on your mobile device using eBird Mobile Explore.




Hotspot offer many of the same Explore features, including species lists, illustrated checklists, recent visits, and top eBirders. These sections are described in detail below. 

eBird Mobile Explore

The free eBird app is an exciting way to discover new places to go birding on your mobile device. 


eBird Mobile Explore lets you discover eBird Hotspots in a selected area and also gives you essential information to plan your birding activity such as which Hotspots have been visited recently, plus handy navigation directions so you can find local places with the species you want to see.

To explore species on eBird Mobile, simply tap “Explore” at the bottom of the app. Change your search area by tapping the filter icon (three lines with dots) in the upper right corner.



 

Explore Page features

Explore pages for Hotspots and geopolitical regions offer many summary features, described below. 



Tap the icons at the top to jump to the species list, recent visits, and Top 100 eBirders. 



Use the Region Navigation or Hotspot Navigation menu for more ways to explore data including Bar Charts, Illustrated and Printable checklists, and your personal activity.


eBirding This Month and Year

eBirding This Month / eBirding This Year provides up-to-date eBirding stats including the newest species added to the Species List, and—for all counties, states, provinces, and countries—the top “Community Targets”: species that haven’t yet been reported for this month, but that are most likely to be found based on past years of eBirding in the region. 



Community Targets

Community Targets are part of the eBirding This Month section on all Regional Explore pages. These are species that haven’t been reported yet this month, but have been observed around today’s date in previous years. 

  • To be on this list, a species must be reported from multiple years, including at least once in the past two years. 
  • Species are sorted by how frequently they appear on eBird checklists from the current week in previous years. 
  • Once a species is reported*, it moves to the New Species list and a new Community Target is added.


* If a reported Community Target is also a flagged rarity, it must be reviewed and Accepted by an eBird volunteer before it will be removed from Community Targets and added to New Species.

Regional Content and Resources

eBird Regional Explore Pages highlight the groups that work together to coordinate eBird in a region. You’ll  see regional content and resources whenever you explore pages in areas with active partner networks.




How do I contribute data to regional partner networks? All of your data, including past checklists, are automatically contributed to regional portals where applicable and will be displayed with a regional logo on the eBird website.


Explore Trip Reports

Regional Explore pages display the 10 most recent public eBird Trip Reports that have a majority of their checklists located within that region. To see your Trip Report featured here, make sure to set the visibility of your Trip Report to “Public”. Learn more about eBird Trip Reports. 


Species List

Tap the species total at the top of the page or select 'Bird List' from the navigation menu for a list of all species reported from that region, sorted by when the species was last observed. More recently reported species will appear near the top of the list. 


NOTE: If "Last Observed" is selected, the Bird List will only show the most recent report of that species for that region. If your observation isn't showing up there, it probably means that someone reported that species after you did. Check out the Recent Visits to see your checklist(s) on the Explore Region or Hotspot page.


You can change the default sorting of these displays to Species Name (taxonomic order), Count, or Date. You can also choose to see the first time a species was seen ("First seen"), or the highest count reported for that species ("High count"). Tapping "Show details" will display species comments and media added to that observation.

Printable Checklist

For a pre-formatted, printable list of all species reported to eBird from a region or Hotspot, tap Printable Checklist from the navigation menu.


printable checklist

Illustrated Checklist

The Illustrated Checklist tab of any Explore page combines eBird Bar Charts with the natural history media archived by eBirders in the Macaulay Library to display an enhanced visualization of species occurrence in a region. The highest-rated media asset from the region will be displayed for each species entry on the Illustrated Checklist. You can search for any species on the list, view which species have photos and audio recordings, and which species lack them. Can you help fill in these frequency and media gaps? 


Explore Subregions

From larger regions, tap 'Subregions' from the Region Navigation menu to display information for either the states/provinces within a country or territory, or the counties/districts within an individual state or province. 


Other Features

   

View Global Big Day data: to view Global Big Day and October Big Day summaries for any region, use the 'Custom Time Period' dropdown on the Bird List, Hotspots, or eBirders pages. Since these Big Days cover a single date, the “Date” column will display the checklist start time rather than the calendar day.