Posted by Mike V on January 01, 1970 at 00:00:00
The same interface used for submitting observations should be integrated into the rare bird alert system. Every bird species observed for an area would be the default: For this example, setting the parameters for a Florida Rare Bird Alert would require a user to go through a checklist of the 541 extant species currently on eBird for Florida. The user then defines what rare birds (any birds really) they would like to know about. Whether the user wants to know about these birds or those birds, this system works great. I would even pay a few dollars a month to use the service I'm describing. This wouldn't be a perfect system, but close enough for me. To make an example of the much maligned waterfowl at that one pond: If I wanted to chase a wild, vagrant White-cheeked Pintail, I would have to leave it on my alerts list. I would still have to see all the reports of emancipated captives, but that's a very particular situation. I'm not knowledge about programming, but all this seems like it would be simple.