eBird Representative Ian Davies Visits Taiwan

Mr. Davies visits the Budai Salt Pan Wetlands

By Scott Pursner

From November 1-6, 2023, Mr. Ian Davies, project coordinator for eBird, visited Taiwan for the first time. The trip was organized by the Taiwan Wild Bird Federation and Taiwan Biodiversity Research Institute to hold meetings about the use of eBird in Taiwan, and help Mr. Davies to meet key stakeholders in the Taiwanese birding community.

Created and run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University since 2002, eBird is a real-time online platform for recording bird checklists. It allows users to share what they’ve seen, create checklists with friends, and show local hotspots for birdwatching. With more users and more data, it is also possible to use the open data collected there for researching the status and trends of individual species as well. Globally there are nearly 930,000 eBirders who have shared nearly 85 million checklists. One of the major contributors to eBird is Taiwan. The eBird Taiwan portal is a traditional Chinese portal managed by the TWBF and TBRI. Taiwan currently ranks 7th globally for completed checklists and has one of the most active eBirder communities in Asia. TBRI and the TWBF are also currently engaged with eBird on the creation of a Taiwan Bid Atlas as well. Due to its prominence and all the collaborative work currently taking place between Taiwan and eBird, Mr. Davies came to the country to visit, hold meetings, and see the situation on the ground for Taiwanese eBirders.

Mr. Davies spent the first two days in Taipei. While there, two events were held to discuss eBird, its functions, and the eBird Taiwan portal. On the night of November 1st, a Google Meet session was set up for Mr. Davies to talk about the eBird portal and meet members of the Taiwan eBird community. He also fielded questions about usage and troubleshooting. Participants were not only from Taiwan, but Hong Kong, and Thailand as well. The next day, a technical workshop was held for members of the TWBF, TBRI and active members of the eBird community. Major topics discussed included the upcoming Taiwan Bird Atlas, sound ID, and ways that eBird could help support these efforts.

On Novemebr 1st a Facebook Live Session was held for eBirders

A Technical Workshop held on  November 2nd

After the sessions in Taipei, on Friday November 3rd representatives from the TWBF, TBRI and Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society brought Mr. Davies to the Dasyueshan National Forest Recreation Area for birding and to understand the situation for Taiwan’s endemics and resident birds. Species seen included Yellow Tit, Taiwan Barwing, and Taiwan Yuhina. After this birding trip, the team took Mr. Davies to meet stakeholders working on conservation of different species and habitats to hear their stories and discuss how they use eBird in their work. On November 4th, Mr. Davies met Ms. Wen-chen Lee, Director of the Pheasant-tailed Jacana Conservation Park. She shared with him the conservation success story of the local Pheasant-tailed Jacanas in Guantian District, Tainan as well as the threats and issues the park currently faces.

Meanwhile, on November 5th, Mr. Davies and the Taiwan team headed to the coast where they spent the day learning about the situation facing Taiwan’s abandoned salt pans. In the morning, they joined members of the Wild Bird Society of Tainan during a training session for new waterbird surveyors in the Sicao Wetland and the Dingshan Salt Pans Wetlands. While there Mr. Davies learned about the threats to the area and how eBird data was used by the Chiku and Jiangjun Salt Pan Wetlands Restoration Alliance in order to adopt this critical habitat for waterbirds. They also got too see many of wintering Black-faced Spoonbills in the area. That afternoon, the group visited the Budai Salt Pan Wetlands in Chiayi to learn about the current situation facing the area used by over 40,000 wintering birds each year. Mr. Davies learned about how the Budai Salt Pans Wetland Team, under the Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society, used data from the TWBF Bird Record database and eBird to show the importance of the salt pan wetlands to decisionmakers planning to put photovoltaic projects in the area. This enabled them to later adopt the land from the National Property Administration which they now manage. He also was shown some of the projects the group is doing to improve the habitat quality there so more waterbirds might use the area. Time was also set aside for Mr. Davies and the Taiwan Team to discuss ways to improve the collaboration between Taiwan and eBird and continue the strong partnership well into the future.

 Mr. Davies learns about the Pheasant-tailed Jacana Conservation Park in Tainan

Mr. Davies talks with philip Kuo at the Wild Bird Society of Tainan

The trip was quite successful, with an array of members from the Taiwan birding community being able to meet Mr. Davies and ask him their questions about eBird and birding. The eBird representative was also able to get a better understanding of the ways that Taiwanese people use eBird, the issues they face with the app, and their thoughts on how to improve the tool. Everyone looks forward to when Mr. Davies and the team from eBird can visit Taiwan again!