The eBird Southern Ocean Calibration (eBSOC) Project:
A partnership between Viking Expeditions and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Birdwatchers traveling the world often report the birds they observe to eBird. Scientists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have designed sophisticated methods to interpret eBird data, allowing us to visualize the status and trends of many species throughout their whole range. These tools can be very useful for wildlife conservation.
On the open ocean, however, the number of eBird checklists submitted is much too low for typical eBird status and trend maps. But understanding the distributions of seabirds in pelagic environments is crucially important, and while many existing scientific programs monitor marine bird distributions, most only cover a relatively small part of the ocean or can only be operated for short time windows. The eBSOC project was designed to directly compare ship-based eBird checklists to traditional marine bird survey data. We have now completed two field seasons of data collection, and are in the process of building models and analyzing the results. |
You can read more about the project's progress in these seasonal reports, summarizing the activities of each Antarctic field season:
2021-22 Season Report
2022-23 Season Report
2021-22 Season Report
2022-23 Season Report