Monday, July 2, 2012

How To Make A "Where I've Birded" Map Using Your eBird Data


I've always wanted a map showing just the areas I've birded, but didn't know how to get one.  LONG STORY SHORT: I figured it out.  Check it:

Click on it to make it better (but remember this is just a screenshot, not the interactive Google Map that is actually is).

Want one?  Here's what I did:

  1. Go to eBird > My eBird > Manage My Locations
  2. Make sure you hit "Show All" in the lower right so all of your locations are on one page
  3. Select all the text, and copy it into an Excel spreadsheet
  4. Delete the "in my locs?" "Type" and "# checklists" columns (and any other stray stuff that got in there).
  5. Make sure you have "Location" "Country" "State/Province" and "County" as Row 1 in your spreadsheet, or else insert a new column and add them.  It'll look something like this:
  6. Go to www.BatchGeo.com
  7. Copy your spreadsheet into the big "paste here" box at the BatchGeo homepage.
  8. Go to Validate & Set Options > Advanced Options and make sure that "Enable clustering for high density markers" is NOT checked.
  9. Make the map!  Check it out!
It's pretty cool to see where you've been spending all your birding time (and where you haven't been).  The maps isn't foolproof, and I'm still working out some of the details stemming from oddly-named or inputted eBird checklists (i.e. Washington County, IL shows on the map as Washington, IL - a very different part of the state).  I'm sure you can do a better job than I have, but it's a great way to visualize your birding.

3 comments:

Robert said...

This is great. I don't know the proper protocol for asking this, but: can I reblog this with a link to your blog?

NickL said...

Rob-
Of course, post away! Glad you like it.
N

Ted Floyd said...

Cool. Thanks for sharing. Unfortunately, one can input only up to 250 locations? (I've eBirded ~900 eBird locations.)

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