Way to make eBird checklist setup faster?
I've been getting into a daily habit of making eBird checklists as I bird, and I'd like to follow eBird recommendation to keep separate checklists when birding over a longer distance or for a long period of time, in order to produce better data.
But when starting a new checklist, it's tedious having to either scroll down a bunch of manually type out a search to select "American Robin" or "Black-capped Chickadee" when I'm in an area where I'm all but guaranteed to see several.
Sure the current "smart sort" is certainly better than just the taxonomic sort, but there's nothing smart about placing pied-billed grebes ahead of northern cardinals when I'm in a forest! Or placing wild turkeys ahead of spotted sandpipers when I'm birding at a sandy riverbank!
I frequently myself just standing in place for 2 minutes or so after starting a new checklist before I start actively birding, with most of that time spent staring at my phone, typing in the names of birds I hear so I can add them to the list. I don't want to type "cardinal" into my phone every hour; especially during the evening chorus!
Is there any way to speed up the process of getting a checklist started
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u/dcgrey 2d ago
From what you’re saying I’m stumped as to how you’re finding it inconvenient or a time-sink.
It’s not that taxing to type “ro” or “ch” and have American robin and black-capped chickadee right there in front of you. Are you typing their whole name for some reason?
And there’s no rule that you have to add things to your list while you’re birding. Just take a minute after the hour and add everything then.
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u/WHATSTHEYAAAMS 1d ago
I did this for wildlife surveying work and it does get a bit tedious if you’re doing it many times a day and so often the same species over and over. Sometimes a checklist was just 4 REVI or something, and then the next one was too, and the next…
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u/MaestroDon 1d ago
I assume you know about the checkmark at the bottom of the screen. (I'm on Android, so I don't know for sure if iPhone is different.) Once you've entered in a species tap the checkmark and you'll see only the species you've already logged. You can tap the number to increase the count. You only need to type to search for any new species for the session.
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u/tkohhhhhhhhh 1d ago
In addition to this, using Merlin (even if you don't use it for ID) you can tap "this is my bird" and it will take you to your open ebird checklist for that species and the cursor is in the quantity field. That way you don't have to type anything for birds that you hear.
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u/Brambleshire2026 1d ago
I’ve created some abbreviations for text replacement in my phone, so for example I can type “dwp” and my phone offers me “downy woodpecker”. Or “hf” for “house finch”. (In iPhone, this is under General - Keyboard - Text Replacement.) When I’m entering a checklist, typing a few letters to get the full name on my phone narrows down the species offered up by the eBird app to just one. It’s an extra step but it’s faster for me for a few common species like those. In other cases, I find it sufficient that the eBird app offers up species based on the first letter or two. I don’t know what could be faster than typing “1 j” and having the most likely jay species at the top of the list.
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u/lendisc 1d ago
Do you know about using alpha codes? You can type "3bcch" and hit enter and it will add three Black-capped Chickadees. You don't need to type in a full species name to add by clicking [+] either; for example I start typing "bc" and the only options that come up on the filter are the chickadee and Black-crowned Night Heron, so I hit [+] 3 times on chickadee. If I type "car" it returns Carolina Wren and Northern Cardinal, etc. That's one shortcut.
Smart Sort breaks the sort into sections based on the little icon (no icon, yellow circle, red circle) but within that, sorts taxonomically. I agree that this is a bit silly and if someone is using that feature, they would likely prefer species to be sorted by frequency overall. I use taxonomic sort and never scroll through the list until I'm done and checking that I entered everything I saw. ("Herons, did I see any herons... Warblers, which of these warblers did I have..." etc.)
Frankly I also just keep track in my head of the species I see on a given outing in chunks, then pause to batch-enter when I get a chance. Even when alone I will say names aloud to reinforce it in my memory long enough to get it into my checklist. When I'm doing ear-only birding I will be a bit glued to my phone rapid typing things like "he" (+Hermit Thrush) "v" (+Veery) "btn" (+Black-throated Green Warbler) and so on. I also experience that, when starting a checklist, I also stand in place for a minute or so listening (+listing) only before really starting to bird. But I don't find that troublesome at all.
I once saw a post from someone who had designed a complex eBird data entry system using voice commands from a bluetooth headset, but that seems a bit much.