Author: Mu-Min Lin
Keywords: Aves, bird observations, birdwatchers, citizen science, long-term population trends, Samplingevent

Chinese Wild Bird Federation Bird Records Database

Chinese Wild Bird Federation^1, Mu-Ming Lin^2, Wan-Jyun Chen^3, Da-Li Lin^4, Chie-Jen Ko^4, Ruey-Shing Lin^4, Tzung-Su Ding^5, Mu-Ming Lin^5, Da-Li Lin^3, Endemic Species Research Institute^3

1 Chinese Wild Bird Federation, No.3, Ln. 36, Jinglong St., Wenshan Dist., Taipei City 116, Taiwan (R.O.C.), 11683, Taipei City, Taiwan; 2 School of Forestry and Resource Conservation, National Taiwan University, No.1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Da’an Dist., Taipei City 106, Taiwan (R.O.C.), 10617, Taipei City; 3 Endemic Species Research Institute, No.1, Minsheng E. Rd., Jiji Township, Nantou County 552, Taiwan (R.O.C.), 55244, Nantou County, Taiwan; 4 Endemic Species Research Institute, No.1, Minsheng E. Rd., Jiji Township, Nantou County 552, Taiwan (R.O.C.), 55244, Nantou County; 5 School of Forestry and Resource Conservation, National Taiwan University, No.1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Da’an Dist., Taipei City 106, Taiwan (R.O.C.), 10617, Taipei City, Taiwan

Corresponding author(s): Chinese Wild Bird Federation (mail@bird.org.tw)Mu-Ming Lin (aming0412@gmail.com)Wan-Jyun Chen (jyun@tesri.gov.tw)Da-Li Lin (dalilin@tesri.gov.tw)Chie-Jen Ko (jeromeko@tesri.gov.tw)Ruey-Shing Lin (rslin@tesri.gov.tw)Tzung-Su Ding (ding@ntu.edu.tw), Mu-Ming Lin (aming0412@gmail.com), Da-Li Lin (dalilin@tesri.gov.tw)

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

Chinese Wild Bird Federation, Lin MM, Chen WJ, Lin DL, Ko CJ, Lin RS, Ding TS (2018): Chinese Wild Bird Federation Bird Records Database. v1.4. Taiwan Endemic Species Research Institute. Dataset/Samplingevent. http://ipt.taibif.tw/resource?r=cwbfbrd&amp;v=1.4

Abstract

Chinese Wild Bird Federation Bird Records Database (CWBF Database), the first and the largest web-based biodiversity citizen science database of Taiwan, has collected a large number of birdwatching checklists provided by more than 3,000 users. From 1972 to 2017, the CWBF Database accumulated 1,853,589 bird records within 102,716 checklists, covering nearly all area and almost 90% of the 653 bird species of Taiwan Island and its outlying islands.

Keywords: Aves, bird observations, birdwatchers, citizen science, long-term population trends, Samplingevent

Project details

Project title: Chinese Wild Bird Federation Bird Records Database Integration Project
Personnel: Tzung-Su Ding, Mu-Ming Lin
Funding: Endemic Species Research Institute, Taiwan.

Data published through GBIF: http://ipt.taibif.tw/resource?r=cwbfbrd

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: A total of 586 species and 2 subspecies, as well as 16 species combinations and 3 domestic types, were recorded, covering about 90% of the bird species have been recorded in Taiwan. The classification system followed the 2018 edition of the eBird/Clements taxonomy (Clements et al. 2018).
Taxonomic ranks
Class: Aves
Common names: Birds

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: CWBF Database is a nationwide database which covered the island of Taiwan, its offshore islands, and surrounding seas.
Coordinates: 10°22'40.8''N and 26°22'55.2''N Latitude; 114°21'54''E and 123°35'38.4''E Longitude 

Temporal coverage: July 8, 1972 - April 9, 2017

Methods

Method step description: 
- . 	During the surveys, birdwatchers detected and identified bird species with naked eyes, through binoculars and telescopes, or by listening to the bird sounds, and filled out the checklists with species, number of individuals, location, date, start time, duration, sampling protocol, and survey effort.
- . 	Birdwatchers submitted their checklists to CWBF Database via a web form that validated the content and format of the entered records. To ensure the quality of data, each checklist was requested to at least provide the information of survey location, date, time, and the completeness of species lists (users could choose to submit a complete checklist, including all the species detected, or an incomplete checklist with only certain species they concerned).
- . 	We obtained the raw data from CWBF database and standardized it according to the Darwin Core format. The original contents were kept as much as possible during the data conversion unless there was an obvious mistake. Most of the checklists lack precise coordinates information because the CWBF database had requested only textual descriptions of survey location for a long time. Therefore, we inferred and restored the approximate area where each event took place according to the description, then located the latitude and longitude at a vicinal bird-watching hotspot, the location with suitable habitat, or the geographical center of the area. The uncertainty of coordinate inference was within 1000 meters. For those checklists stating further details about the sampling methods, we looked into the descriptions, defined the practices as transects, point counts, or area searches, and quantified the corresponding sampling efforts with transect length, time duration, or area covered.
Study extent description: Surveys were conducted by birdwatchers and local birdwatching societies between 1972 and 2017 throughout the land and sea under the jurisdiction of the government of the Republic of China (widely known as “Taiwan”), including Taiwan Island and its outlying islands, which are scattered across Taiwan Strait, Pacific Ocean, and the South China Sea.
Sampling description: Each provided birdwatching checklist represents one sampling event. From July 8th, 1972 to April 9th, 2017, a total of 102,716 sampling events were conducted. The main sampling methods include transects, point counts, and area searches.
Quality control description: The checklists with abnormal sampling time, doubtful or overly vague spatial information, as well as uncertain species identification, had been regarded as invalid data after confirmation in multiple ways and eliminated from the publishing version.
The contents of all versions during data conversion were kept to track the modifications. 

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Chinese Wild Bird Federation Bird Records Database
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: http://ipt.taibif.tw/archive.do?r=cwbfbrd
Publication date of data: 2019-06-18
Language: Chinese
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2018-08-15
Hierarchy level: Dataset

References
eBird Basic Dataset. Version: EBD_relMay-2017. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. May 2017.Fang, W.-H. 2015. Commemorate the pioneer of bird occurrence database, Mr. Guo-Dong Lin. Yuhina Post 256:19-20. (in Chinese)