We’re pleased to announce the launch of eBird Targets–a new tool that creates a prioritized list of county, state, or life birds that you can expect to find in a region. Enter a region, range of months, and then select the list you’d like to compare. eBird compares your selected list against the full species list for the selected region and months, creating a target species list that can be sorted taxonomically or by frequency (the percentage of checklists that have reported the species). Each time you submit a checklist to eBird, a geo-referenced tag is created that allows you to keep track of your lists on the My eBird pages. From the simple life list to very focused region-based year lists, eBird Targets allows birders to play the games they find most interesting while creating more and better data for science.

In the example below, we’re using the Targets tool to explore what new life birds one could expect to find in Guanacaste, Costa Rica in the month of November.

After typing in the region and selecting the month range, select your world life list as the list of interest. eBird then compares the birds you’ve previously reported against the full list of species for the selected region and month range, and creates a list of ‘target’ birds ordered by most frequently reported at the top. Of this species that this person has yet to record in Guanacaste, we can see that Double-striped Thick-knee is the most frequently reported bird in the region, and would represent the most likely addition to this person’s life list.

If one wants to take it a step further and explore exactly where in the region a particular bird is being reported, a map link is provided that takes the user to the range map for that species.

Please give the new eBird Targets output a try, and use it to find everything from your next life bird to your next year bird in your home county. Have fun, and submit lots of complete eBird checklists along the way!

Team eBird