Observing & Reporting Birds

Observing

Watching and Listening to birds is a source of pleasure for many people.

Knowing good places for observing birds can enhance that pleasure. Fortunately there are many such places in the Canberra region.

Developing your identification skills is also likely to enhance your pleasure in observing birds as you’ll then be able to distinguish similar species, males from females, and young birds from adults.

A male Spotted Pardalote

Reporting

You can make a significant contribution to COG’s efforts to conserve birds by reporting what birds you see, and when and where you see them.
COG can then determine if arrival dates of migrants, such as the Rainbow Bee-eater to the left, are changing over time.

Keeping personal records can also enhance your enjoyment of birding as well as contribute to citizen science projects.

How to Report

COG collects bird observations to its database for research purposes and for its Annual Bird Report and Birdlife Australia’s ongoing Atlas.  COG’s records cover the COG Area of Interest (AOI) which extends from Yass and Burrinjuck Dam in the north-west, to the centre of Goulburn in the north-east, Adaminaby in the south-west, and Lake Bathurst, and Majors Creek in the east. (see map). COG also collects observations via the Garden Bird Survey.

Your reports of birds helps COG to detect changes in species and abundance resulting from factors such as habitat and climate change and allows us to provide up-to-date information to government and others.

COG is currently (2022) replacing its database system however records can and should still be entered as below.

Bird observations can be entered by any of the following means:

    1. Birdata – This is Birdlife Australia’s (BLA) Atlas database. Birdata observations from the ACT region are forwarded to COG by BLA at regular intervals so will eventually be included in COG’s records. New users will need to register first with Birdata. You can enter records to Birdata using their app or on a desktop/browser.
    1. eBird Australia – This is the Australian portal of Cornell University’s worldwide bird recording system and is the most widely used means of recording bird lists and observations. COG downloads bird observations recorded within its area of interest from eBird Australia. By this means all ACT lists submitted to eBird are included in COG’s records, and these now compose a large proportion of the records received by COG. New users will need to create an account with eBird.  You can enter records to eBird via their app or on a desktop/browser. eBird accepts complete lists and incidental observations.
  1. Paper forms are available from the COG website (COG Observation Report, COG Incidental Record), at COG meetings, or from the COG Secretary (secretary@canberrabirds.org.au). When you have completed your paper forms, drop them in the red box at COG meetings, or mail to COG Records Officer, PO Box 331, Jamison Centre ACT 2614.

Avoiding Duplication

As mentioned above, entries are swapped between organisations.  For this reason please do not submit the same observations to more than one of COG, eBird or Birdlife Australia.

Using other systems

If you use some other website or a personal system to record your observations, and want to submit these electronically to COG, please contact the COG Database Manager via secretary@canberrabirds.org.au.

COG Chatline

Observations reported to the COG ‘Chatline’ (COG’s discussion email list) are NOT automatically transferred to the COG database, so even if you have posted an interesting observation on the chatline, please ALSO submit it to the database using any of the above methods.

Follow-up

If a data checker has any queries about your observations, you may be phoned or sent an email, asking for clarification. Please assist us by responding.

Filling in a COG Observation Report

Most sections are self-explanatory.

COG Observer Code First time users will not have one. Just submit paper records with the space empty – the Records Officer will then give you your code for future use.

Time Use 24 hr clock – i.e. for 1 pm use 13.00 not 1.00

Location If you know the Latitude and Longitude of the location please report these and give a clear description of where you were.

If you don’t know the Lat/Longs provide a location/place name in the box at on the right hand side. Acceptable locations include any named place or feature in the suburban or rural area of COG’s Area of Interest e.g. Haig Park, Orroral campground, Goulburn Lawn Cemetery, Kings Highway bridge over Shoalhaven River.

If you wish to give a precise location within a Nature Reserve, Suburb, etc you must give the Lat/Longs and clear description e.g. 35 ?? ??, 149 ?? ?? Mt Taylor NR, Dam near Tuggeranong Parkway.

Abundance Enter the exact number of each species you have seen, or your best estimates. Preferably give a low estimate rather than using an “x” for ‘presence’ However, if you know there is more than one bird in a bush, but you can’t count them an “x” is best. Please do not give a number range.

Include birds flying over the site, high as well as low e.g. Wedge-tailed Eagle, as these are important additions. The only difficulty is usually estimating whether a bird flying high over a site is within the boundaries of a “Within 500m” search. Estimate as best as you can. The boundaries for 2ha and 5km aren’t usually an issue.

Bird species not on the list. Write in the species name in the blank spaces provided, complete an ‘unusual bird report’ (form available at meetings or from the website) and submit it with the original observation record sheet. Unusual bird reports can be completed electronically and submitted to rarities@canberrabirds.org.au. The secretary of the rarities panel will contact you in due course about your observation.

And please check your record carefully before you submit it – even the experts make mistakes.

History of Reporting

COG bird record collecting

ACT bird records have been collected by individuals since the days of the early settlements. Recording took on a new lease of life with the formation of the ACT Branch of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Group in 1964 (Canberra Ornithologists Group from 1970 onwards), and with its publication of annual bird reports. 1986-1989 saw the data collection period for the ACT Bird Atlas; there have also been surges in recording activity associated with BirdLife Australia’s ongoing Atlases and with specific COG projects such as the Woodland Survey, the Garden Bird Survey and the Waterbird Survey. Because we have systematic records of the avifauna in the ACT and surrounds over such a period, COG has a reasonably accurate picture of local birds, and is well-placed to detect the changes in species and numbers that are occurring as a result of habitat and climate change. Continued monitoring is essential, however, so that we are in a position to provide up-to-date information to government and its agencies on request.

COG’s area of interest

The COG Area of Interest (AoI) includes the ACT and surrounding region, encompassing Yass and Burrinjuck Dam in the north-west to Goulburn in the north-east, Adaminaby in the south-west and Bungendore, Captains Flat and Lake Bathurst in the east. The area is bordered by parallels of latitude 34° 45′ and 36° 00′ S and meridians of longitude 148° 40′ and 149° 45′ E. For precision in recording, and before the widespread availability of online mapping tools, COG divided this area into 2.5 minute grid cells, numbered from A1 in the north-west to Z30 in the south-east. There is a map on the COG website and it is published annually in COG’s annual bird report.

Past Surveys

Threatened Bird Surveys

COG created a survey protocol for the long-term monitoring of the abundance of two listed threatened species, Brown Treecreeper and Hooded Robin, at a number of sites around Canberra. These sites included existing woodland survey sites, some Atlas of Australian Birds sites and others. The survey is no longer being conducted.