There are moderators for out-of-range/season and high counts that the system flags. Otherwise, it is generally geared towards serious birders who wish to contribute data, so there’s not much concern for false reporting.
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For what it’s worth, there’s already been an extensive discussion about the various pros and cons of eBird. I think it would be best to keep this discussion to the original question of whether @alex2537 should use it rather re-hash that discussion.
@alex2537 I’m not sure any of us can give you a better answer aside from what’s been said - try it out and see if you find it enjoyable and if it enriches your nature explorations.
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Thank you everyone so much for the help. I will definitely check out eBird, and I will either continue or discontinue using it depending on what I think about it.
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I finally got around to installing ebird on Android thanks to this thread :) and found it was a lucky weekend to do so. There is a bioblitz-like event about to start on May14, according to the newly installed app.
It’s sort of like someone installing Seek just before last weekend!
I hate list structure, it’s only useful when you’re doing some work as it’s the same as regular bird counts, but in real life I don’t wanna think twice if I hear the same group or no, where to put one single dot that accounts for kms of my walk, should I do differrent lists when I use transport and see birds, it’s all is much easier on iNat, and ideally you can make observations for each bird you see though who needs that? I have a big beaf with a guy who says that iNat bird data is useless, as if only data that can be used is that you saw 40 Great Tits. Also, our local birds site is better that eBird in structure, but I still prefer iNat over anything.
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I don’t think you should do anything. Do what you want. Personally I don’t use any platform besides iNat. I just can’t be arsed. Lots of work for me here. My choice - it’s what I want to do!
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I don’t use iNat for birds. If I see 20 goldfinches on a walk, I need to get photos of all of them and make individual entries for each one for iNat. And, what if I see 50+ species and multiple counts of some of the species? I have to get photos of all of those individual birds to make them valid entries in iNat. This is not practical. The eBird website/app is better suited for birding. And, with apps like Merlin, Audubon, Sibley for ID, iNat just isn’t as good if you are going to do a listing. Also, there are no reviewers in iNat like eBird. That seems to work because you need a photo to make a valid entry. So, eBird is the best choice for me for birding because I enter one or more checklists most every day. (I am very lucky because I live in an area where the eBird reviewers are very good. They will discuss a sighting with you if there is a question and will even help you learn to ID birds.)
However, I do use iNat for dragonflies. I can usually get photos of them. And, there is a dragonfly/damselfly survey in Ohio that uses iNat. The iNat website is really suited for that because it uses individual entries with photos that can be grouped into projects. I have to give credit to iNat for getting me more interested in insects and plants because it is well-suited for individual entries and because the Ohio Odonata Survey uses it. It is a wonderful tool.
So, each websites/apps have their uses.
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