Birding/Birdwatching Discussion Topic

[upupa-epops]

@tanker-aviator-naturalist

What is eBird better at that iNat is not?

There were a couple good answers to this further up in the thread!

@eligug08

I have a lot more trust in eBird for birds, but for plants iNaturalist is my favorite option. The graphs and maps that it gives are far superior to anything supplied by iNaturalist. It is much easier to accurately log the birds that were seen or heard on eBird, and more details can be given to provide a more full picture.

@mollymjacobson

eBird is, imo, really the best way to go for bird data. That is where the majority of birders post their data, therefore it’s much more complete, and it’s heavily quality-controlled. In general I find birds posted to iNat are duplicates or backups of what’s on eBird, and the ways you can visualize data on eBird are near limitless and far beyond iNat’s capabilities, especially when you see how they’ve used it for migration science and population trends. As a birder I rely 100% on eBird for scoping out birds in my area, checking migration timing, keeping track of my life/state/yard lists, and IDs

There are also multiple old topics on the forum discussing it actually… Here are a couple of the longer ones: Birders: iNaturalist and eBird & iNaturalist vs eBird