rebird: wrapper to the eBird API

reBird is a package to interface with the eBird webservices.

eBird is a real-time, online bird checklist program. For more information, visit their website: http://www.ebird.org

The API for the eBird webservices can be accessed here: https://confluence.cornell.edu/display/CLOISAPI/eBird+API+1.1

Install

You can install the stable version from CRAN

install.packages("rebird")

Or the development version from Github

install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("ropensci/rebird")

Direct use of rebird

Load the package

library("rebird")

Sightings at location determined by latitude/longitude

Search for bird occurrences by latitude and longitude point

ebirdgeo(species = 'spinus tristis', lat = 42, lng = -76)
#> # A tibble: 40 x 12
#>      lng locName          howMany sciName  obsValid locationPrivate obsDt 
#>    <dbl> <chr>              <int> <chr>    <lgl>    <lgl>           <chr> 
#>  1 -75.8 Chenango Valley~       4 Spinus ~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-~
#>  2 -76.1 US-New York-End~       4 Spinus ~ TRUE     TRUE            2018-~
#>  3 -75.9 Salt Springs SP        5 Spinus ~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-~
#>  4 -75.9 US-New York-Cas~       2 Spinus ~ TRUE     TRUE            2018-~
#>  5 -75.9 Woodbourne Fore~      19 Spinus ~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-~
#>  6 -75.9 Boland Pond            1 Spinus ~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-~
#>  7 -76.0 Murphys Pits (r~       3 Spinus ~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-~
#>  8 -76.0 Waterman--IBM G~      12 Spinus ~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-~
#>  9 -75.9 Workwalk               2 Spinus ~ TRUE     TRUE            2018-~
#> 10 -76.0 "Home "               13 Spinus ~ TRUE     TRUE            2018-~
#> # ... with 30 more rows, and 5 more variables: obsReviewed <lgl>,
#> #   comName <chr>, lat <dbl>, locID <chr>, locId <chr>

Recent observations at a region

Search for bird occurrences by region and species name

ebirdregion(region = 'US', species = 'Setophaga caerulescens')
#> # A tibble: 209 x 12
#>      lng locName        howMany sciName    obsValid locationPrivate obsDt 
#>    <dbl> <chr>            <int> <chr>      <lgl>    <lgl>           <chr> 
#>  1 -80.2 Bill Baggs Ca~       9 Setophaga~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-~
#>  2 -80.6 Lori Wilson P~       1 Setophaga~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-~
#>  3 -80.1 Hugh Taylor B~       2 Setophaga~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-~
#>  4 -80.0 Lantana Natur~       3 Setophaga~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-~
#>  5 -80.1 Spanish River~       1 Setophaga~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-~
#>  6 -81.8 Fort Zachary ~       1 Setophaga~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-~
#>  7 -81.0 Embry-Riddle ~       1 Setophaga~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-~
#>  8 -82.3 Paynes Prairi~       1 Setophaga~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-~
#>  9 -80.2 Greynolds Park       4 Setophaga~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-~
#> 10 -80.1 Orchard View         3 Setophaga~ TRUE     TRUE            2018-~
#> # ... with 199 more rows, and 5 more variables: obsReviewed <lgl>,
#> #   comName <chr>, lat <dbl>, locID <chr>, locId <chr>

Recent observations at hotspots

Search for bird occurrences by region

ebirdhotspot(locID = c('L99381','L99382'))
#> # A tibble: 125 x 12
#>      lng locName   sciName    obsValid locationPrivate obsDt   obsReviewed
#>    <dbl> <chr>     <chr>      <lgl>    <lgl>           <chr>   <lgl>      
#>  1 -76.5 Stewart ~ Branta ca~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-0~ FALSE      
#>  2 -76.5 Stewart ~ Spatula d~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-0~ FALSE      
#>  3 -76.5 Stewart ~ Spatula c~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-0~ FALSE      
#>  4 -76.5 Stewart ~ Anas plat~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-0~ FALSE      
#>  5 -76.5 Stewart ~ Aythya co~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-0~ FALSE      
#>  6 -76.5 Stewart ~ Aythya af~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-0~ FALSE      
#>  7 -76.5 Stewart ~ Bucephala~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-0~ FALSE      
#>  8 -76.5 Stewart ~ Lophodyte~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-0~ FALSE      
#>  9 -76.5 Stewart ~ Mergus me~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-0~ FALSE      
#> 10 -76.5 Stewart ~ Oxyura ja~ TRUE     FALSE           2018-0~ FALSE      
#> # ... with 115 more rows, and 5 more variables: comName <chr>, lat <dbl>,
#> #   locID <chr>, locId <chr>, howMany <int>

Frequency of observations at hotspots or regions

Obtain historical frequencies of bird occurrences by hotspot or region

ebirdfreq(loctype = 'hotspots', loc = 'L196159')
#> # A tibble: 8,976 x 4
#>    comName                     monthQt   frequency sampleSize
#>    <chr>                       <chr>         <dbl>      <dbl>
#>  1 Snow Goose                  January-1     0.           27.
#>  2 Greater White-fronted Goose January-1     0.           27.
#>  3 Cackling Goose              January-1     0.           27.
#>  4 Canada Goose                January-1     0.           27.
#>  5 Cackling/Canada Goose       January-1     0.           27.
#>  6 Trumpeter Swan              January-1     0.           27.
#>  7 Wood Duck                   January-1     0.185        27.
#>  8 Blue-winged Teal            January-1     0.           27.
#>  9 Blue-winged/Cinnamon Teal   January-1     0.           27.
#> 10 Northern Shoveler           January-1     0.704        27.
#> # ... with 8,966 more rows

rebird and other packages

How to use rebird

This package is part of a richer suite called spocc - Species Occurrence Data, along with several other packages, that provide access to occurrence records from multiple databases. We recommend using spocc as the primary R interface to rebird unless your needs are limited to this single source.

auk vs. rebird

Those interested in eBird data may also want to consider auk, an R package that helps extracting and processing the whole eBird dataset. The functions in rebird are faster but mostly limited to accessing recent (i.e. within the last 30 days) observations, although ebirdfreq() does provide historical frequency of observation data. In contrast, auk gives access to the full set of ~ 500 million eBird observations. For most ecological applications, users will require auk; however, for some use cases, e.g. building tools for birders, rebird provides a quicker and easier way to access data. rebird and auk are both part of the rOpenSci project.

Meta

• Please report any issues or bugs.
• License: MIT
• Get citation information for rebird in R doing citation(package = 'rebird')