Good questions Terry. There is an entire article in eBird archives on 
this very subject at http://ebird.org/content/vt/news/Data_Quality.html.

I am the editor for Vermont eBird. I don't play bird god by any means. 
As you can read in the above mentioned article, there is a filter in 
eBird. The filter for Vermont follows the Vermont Bird Record Committee 
state checklist and I change it as they vote and change it each year 
during their November meeting. Anything entered as counts too high, 
out-of-season, or deemed rare or not occurring (yet!) in VT by the 
committee is automatically flagged for me to review. I contact the 
observer and request that they submit their sighting to the committee 
using the form from the committee web page. I defer all out-of-season or 
rare birds to the decision by the Vermont Bird Records Committee. You 
can visit their web page at http://www.vtecostudies.org/vbrc/.

I should mention that even if a sighting entered by someone is reviewed 
as "invalid", it remains in the database, but not available to public 
queries on eBird page. It also remains in the observers personal 
checklist and My eBird section. So if anyone ever wanted to request from 
eBird for a study of some sort, of say, all the Black Vulture records 
for New England for the last decade, they could ask to see ALL of them 
whether they were final reviewed as invalid or not. Each record has 
tagged to it the review process and why it was deemed valid or invalid 
when it was under review. So it might say - Accepted by Bird Record 
Committee - for example. Or Not Accepted by BRC if it is flagged invalid.

I hope this answers your questions. Let me know if I can be of any help. 
Thanks for eBirding.

Kent

Kent McFarland
Vermont Center for Ecostudies
PO Box 420 • Norwich, VT 05055
802.649.1431
http://www.vtecostudies.org/




>
>> *Subject: eBird Question for VCE*
>> From: Terry Wright <terry AT JJAUDUBONGALLERY.COM>
>> Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:58:48 -0500
>> VT eBird community,
>>
>> No doubt, the VT eBird program is a great tool and a great addition to 
>> birding in VT.    I wonder about one thing, however.   In reviewing 
>> eBird sightings,  I see a check mark which indicates "Sighting confirmed 
>> by an eBird reviewer."    My question is:  'what does this mean?'    How 
>> does eBird _confirm_ a sighting?     Do they contact the reporter and 
>> verify basic information?  Do they go out to the site and confirm the 
>> bird is there?   Is there some other method for confirming the sighting? 
>>    Is there an automatic 'confirmation' if the bird is seen within safe 
>> dates?   If anyone can shed some light on this question, I'd be 
>> grateful.  Of course, I am not trying to second-guess anyone, but I am 
>> just curious about the 'confirmation' process and what it adds to the 
>> credibility of a particular sighting.
>>
>> Good birding,
>>
>> Terry 
>>   
>
>
> -- 
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