BIRDBASE/BIRDAREA FOR WINDOWS
(Updated 9-30-99)
Santa Barbara Software Products, Inc.
INTRODUCTION
BirdBase is a solid listing program, while BirdArea is the best range data program
currently available. Although they can be purchased separately, their whole is greater than the sum
of their parts. Together they allow you to create various lists and reports based upon the birds you
have identified (seen or heard), and where you did or did not identify them. BirdBase/BirdArea also
work well on older computers and operating systems which may not handle some listing programs
(or do so very slowly). However, BirdBase/BirdArea do not handle multiple users especially easily.
Until recently, BirdBase required repeating a number of steps to create lists and reports. This now
has been revised and is no longer the draw back it once was. Were my wife and I required to use
BirdBase/BirdArea and no other listing software for the rest of our foreseeable birding careers, they
would serve us well.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
BirdBase/BirdArea run on any IBM compatible PC using a current Windows operating
systems (e.g.: 3.1, NT, 95, or 98), with a 3.5 inch (9cm) diskette drive, "several megabytes" of
unused hard drive, and "enough RAM to run a substantial Windows program." (The quotes are from
http://members.aol.com/sbsp/index.html, Santa Barbara Software Products's web-site. Although I
do not have more specific data, for years I ran BirdBase/BirdArea on a 486 computer with a 33 MH
processor and 4 Mb of RAM. They ran slowly (by current standards), but did everything I wanted
them to do. (Not all listing programs could have done this!) Nonetheless, BirdBase/BirdArea are
among the faster, current listing programs.)
COST/OPTIONS
BirdBase and BirdArea list for $59.95 each, or as a set for $99.95. A version of BirdBase
limited to the birds of North America and Hawaii lists for $39.95.
INSTRUCTIONS/INSTALLATION
The instructions for BirdBase/BirdArea are not difficult, but must be followed carefully.
(Keep in mind, listing programs are relational databases and, as such, necessarily complex.) You
should first load BirdBase. Its instructions then demonstrate how it works by having you enter small
amounts of data. (The "show me" versus the "how to" approach.) Once you have been "walked
through" this process, you are told how to remove these data so you will have a clean slate.
BirdArea is then loaded rather simply.
PRE-INPUT DECISIONS
Although BirdBase/BirdArea are among the easiest listing software to set up, you need to
make some preliminary decisions. The most significant is designating the nine on/off "Markers" that
are an integral part of the relational aspects of BirdBase/BirdArea. The first 5 are interrelated (by
turning on one, you turn on all those above it); the others are not.
The interrelated Markers are pre-set as Inclusive, Nation, Region, Locale, and Home. For
example, although I live 50 miles north of Cape May County and 75 miles north of Cape May Point,
I have for decades considered Cape May my home birding area. Thus, I have denominated the last
4 of the interrelated Markers as United States, New Jersey, Cape May (meaning Cape May County),
and Cape Island (Cape May County, South of the Canal). There is no need to name the Inclusive
Marker as it automatically applies to all entries. I use only 2 of the 4 independent Markers; one for
home and one for the World Series of Birding. The easiest way to record entries for others is to
designate an independent marker for the additional individuals. However, this can quickly deplete
these Markers, especially if you also want to use them for something else such as tracking multiple
Christmas Bird Counts. Other ways to accommodate additional users are to load BirdBase/BirdArea
into different directories (easy for some people; intimidating for others), or onto different
computers.
ENTERING DATA
There are two primary ways to enter data into BirdBase. The first permits you to quickly
enter pre-existing sightings when you do not know all your observational details (or do not want to
take the time to enter all of them.) The second permits entry of all your data. For the former, click
the "Initialize" button of the BirdBase Main Menu, click the species you want to enter, and then
click the applicable Markers. For example, to enter Least Grebe this way, which I have seen in
Texas and Costa Rica, I would click the second dependent (Nation) Marker as I have seen this
species in the United States. For Fork-tailed Flycatcher, I would click the first (Inclusive List)
Marker because I have seen this species in Trinidad and Costa Rica (i.e.: not in the United States).
For Painted Bunting, I would click the Cape Island Marker to activate all those above it because I
have seen this species at Higbee Beach which is south of the canal in Cape May County, New
Jersey, U.S.A. For Killdeer, I would click the Cape Island Marker for the reasons just noted, and
would also click the two independent Markers I use because I have seen this species at home and
on the World Series of Birding.
If you want to enter data not covered by the Markers, you need to use the second method in
which you enter a Description, Location Code, and Date for each Trip.
Description is your name for a particular Trip. (BirdBase uses Trips to generate cumulative
lists/reports, so it is important to name your Trips consistently. You can "Store" your Trip names,
or "Recall" your latest trip parameters by the use of buttons bearing those names. Also, requiring
you to designate a trip for each entry complicates editing since a change to an entry can result in a
change to the entire trip.) The Location Code identifies the geographic region in which a given Trip
occurred (e.g.: country, state, etc.), and uses a 2 or 3 letter, pre-determined code available from a
pull down list. The Date is the day of the Trip. After having entered the Description, Location, and
Date, you check off the appropriate Markers. You now have defined a "Trip".
Until recently, to enter your data you had to locate and click each species (one at a time)
from one of two lists. One contains all of the world's species (the almost 10,000 in Dr. Clements'
Birds of the World) while the other contains a "short list" of a specified region. (Short lists can be
created automatically for the hundreds of regions for which BirdArea can make a checklist. They
can also be created manually via the "Specify short list" tool in BirdBase.) To help you find species,
BirdBase lets you type any group of letters, regardless of case, spaces, hyphens, or apostrophes (a
really nice feature); then click enter. All species containing those letters in that order are shown, one
at a time, in taxonomic sequence. Upon selecting a species, you had the option of adding up to 500
lines of notes, and checking or unchecking (again) any of the 4 independent Markers. (This permits
the use of some entries, but not others. Without this option, the Markers would be significantly less
useful.)
For example, originally to enter a sighting of a Least Grebe, I 1) had to find Least Grebe on
the selected list, 2) click the species, 3) enter a note of up to 500 lines (optional), 4) modify the
independent Marker selections (again, optional), and 5) click OK or Cancel (or use Alt O or Alt C).
I would then have to repeat this process for each additional species. This was tedious. Now you can
choose this method, or another which only requires (once you have defined your Trip) to mark the
desired species and then click the Use button (or double click the species). It is options such as these
that separate the good listing programs from the "also rans".
Another situation can arise as a result of changes in taxonomy (which seems to be happening
with increasing frequency of late). Suppose sometime in the 1980s you saw your first and last
Bullock's Oriole; but you only record life, country, and state species. Thus, your record keeping was
limited to adding new species to one of these lists. Given that Bullock's was not a species when you
saw it, you did not record it and now do not remember when or where this occurred. You can
nonetheless enter Bullock's via the "Initialize" option. This will add it to your life list, as well as
to any Markers you select. If you know where you saw it but not when, you can either enter it via
"Initialize" or you can enter it using the Description as the general region in which you saw the
species (perhaps simply U.S.A.) and then approximate (guess at) a date.
VERIFYING/CORRECTING YOUR DATA
If you enter a lot of data (and have yet to earn your halo), you make errors. BirdArea allows
you to catch some of these by clicking "Inspect" on its Main Menu. This will identify all the species
you entered not known to occur in the regions in which you recorded them. (It also identifies the
regions.) An analogous tool in BirdBase exists using the short list option. If, when entering data, you
select a short list limited to where you were birding (e.g.: New Jersey), and try to enter a species not
known to occur in that region, the species will not be present. Neither situation necessarily means
you erred as bird ranges are imperfectly understood. However, these tools identify potential errors
(or accidentals). Other than this, you are limited to periodically reviewing each entry. To make
corrections, click "Display" on the Main Menu and bring up the entry you wish to amend, click the
species, and then click Modify. You will be presented with five options: 1) Edit the sighting note,
2) Invert first sighting status, 3) Change the species sighted, 4) Fix error in the trip profile, and 5)
Delete the sighting. If you wish to make just one correction, you can do so immediately. If you wish
to make multiple corrections, click Queue and make all of your corrections when you exit
"Display". (You will not be permitted to enter new data or exit the program until you have made or
canceled these modifications.)
A word of warning, when you use the fourth option (Fix error in the trip profile), your
corrections will apply to all entries associated with that Trip. Thus, if you wish to have your edit
apply only to one entry (i.e.: species), delete that entry and enter it anew. This may take longer than
you think is warranted, until you discover that doing otherwise results in having to spend much more
time correcting your newly created errors. Hence my objection to being required to define a Trip.
RANGE DATA
The Range Data in BirdArea is as Good as it Gets.
BirdArea is so good that it is used by other listing programs, some by license (as it should
be) and some by appropriation.
The monumental task of compiling, verifying, and updating all this data is the work of Cape
May's Shawneen Finnegan. Great job, Shawneen!!! And thank you Santa Barbara Software
Products for funding this project.
BirdArea divides the world into 321 regions, including every State, Canadian Provence (even
Nunavut which just came into existence on April 1, 1999), and Country; many islands and island
groups (especially those with endemics or otherwise of special interest to birders); and major
oceans. It can create check lists and short lists for each region as well as for predefined
combinations of regions and major faunal zones such as the ABA reporting areas and the Western
(or entire) Palearctic. You can also manually define combinations of regions such as Scandinavia
or Northeastern U.S.A., and create checklists and short lists for these areas.
There are four main uses for the range data: 1) to prepare lists of species you have or have
not recorded in various regions (discussed below), 2) to check your records for sightings not known
to occur in the Trip's region (discussed above), 3) to see what species occur in given regions, and
4) to create short lists for BirdBase. These data are updated about once a year, and are available for
about $20.00. (Other updates are free at http://members.aol.com/sbsp/index.html, Santa Barbara
Software Product's web-site.) You can also edit the range data manually via the EditData Utility in
BirdArea. (More on this below.)
If you want to view where a particular species occurs, click the "Edit" button of the
EditData's Main Menu, and select a species. You will be presented with a series of region boxes.
If this species is known to occur in a region, its box will be checked. (To add a species to a region,
check the box; to delete it, uncheck the box.)
LISTS/REPORTS
The essence of any true listing programs is the ability to create various lists (containing little
data) and reports (containing potentially a lot of data). BirdBase/BirdArea offer a variety of
list/report options which you select as described below.
Click the "List" button on the BirdArea Main Menu, select a region, and then one of the
following options:
1) species that occur in the region;
2) species that occur in the region and symbols showing the species you have seen and whether
you have seen them in that region, outside that region, or both;
3) species that occur in the region you have seen somewhere;
4) species that occur in the region you have seen in that region;
5) species that occur in the region you have not seen anywhere; and
6) species that occur in the region you have not seen in that region.
You can have these lists/reports appear on the screen, be transferred to a word processor or
data file, or be printed. If the last, you can choose additional format options including one that
creates a 16 day checklist with symbols denoting species you have seen only in the region, those you
have seen but not in the region, those you have seen both in and out of the region, and those which
you have not seen anywhere. All of these lists show the number of species and endemics (if any) in
the region.
Other list/report options available with BirdBase/BirdArea include:
- All sightings with all information (i.e.: everything you entered);
- For a particular region or Description (the latter requires that Trip Descriptions be consistent
which is why the ability to store them is so important);
- For each Marker set;
- For each species (one species at a time);
- For taxonomically continuous species;
- One per species (which when combined with a region, generates your life list for that
region);
- First sightings (which identifies, in taxonomic order, where and when you made each of your
first sightings);
- Date sequenced first sightings (which identifies and numbers the order in which you added
species to your life list);
- Population survey tabulations (which gives you a running total, in taxonomic order, of the
species and number of individuals you entered);
- Summaries of trips (which gives the Description, Location Code, Date, and number of
species seen for all trips in a specified period of time); and
- Initial/final sightings of a season.
A number of options can be used together to generate additional lists/reports. Options 1-10
can cover any period you select, up to 100 years. And, except for option 9 (population surveys), you
can use just the beginning and ending month and day to select a season. For option 11, you must
select a season. You can also refine your lists/reports by limiting the displays to truncated notes
(only the first line is displayed) or show species only (which displays the species sighted without
the rest of your data).
If you select "One per species" you generate your species list for the selected criteria; if
"Only count species" you generate just the number of species you have entered for the selected
criteria. You can display your lists/reports on your computer screen, print them, or send them to a
word processor or data exchange file. BirdBase/BirdArea no longer require you to display data to
your screen, and then repeat the entire creation process to print your data. Now you can click the
new "Reoutput" button to transfer the data to a printer, word processor, or data exchange file. (This
is a significant improvement.)
As with all data bases, the quality of your lists/reports is dependent upon the quality of your
data. (Garbage in = garbage out.) For example, on September 6, 1979, Jim Dowdell and I found a
Sooty Tern on the beach off South Cape May Meadows, (one day after Hurricane David). If I had
(incorrectly) checked my WSB (World Series of Birding) Marker when entering this sighting, this
species would appear as having been recorded during the World Series of Birding, some four years
before Pete Dunne developed this birding phenomenon.
TAXONOMIC EDITING AND UPDATING
BirdBase/BirdArea permit you to edit, add, and/or delete families, species, and range
information with virtually no limit. At the top of the BirdBase Main Menu is the "Update
species/families" option which allows you to modify the list and sequence of species and families,
as well as the sightings already entered. If you want to edit the birds and/or families to conform with
(the ever increasing) taxonomic changes or the latest range data (or for any other reason), you can
do so without having to await an update. If you are going to make a lot of changes, this will be time
consuming, as is true with all listing programs that permit editing. However, when it comes to
moving groups of species, BirdBase allows you to do so much more easily than the others. Another
way to make changes is via the EditData utility of BirdArea. By using that Main Menu's "Edit"
button, you can add a species to, or remove it from, various regions. Its Main Menu also contains
buttons to "Insert" (add), "Rename", and/or "Delete" species or families; while a button to "Create"
allows you to add or modify region descriptions (e.g.: create County lists).
It is very important that you be able to edit your data (without relying on someone else for
updates) so their ongoing validity is not dependent upon a company that may not update (or may
cease to exist). BirdBase/BirdArea offer this option thereby living up to its claim as a program "That
Cannot Be Outgrown."
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
BirdBase/BirdArea offer good technical support. In fact, the first time I updated them, I
misread the directions. A phone call was all it took to resolve the problem. (This was before I had
begun reviewing programs, so Robert Eisberg, who is Santa Barbara Software Products and who
personally solved my problem, had no reason to treat me special.) I have also e-mailed data files to
him when I was having trouble. (Again because I did not carefully follow instructions.) Each time
I received a return e-mail with specific instructions that day, and on at least one occasion,
subsequent updates. (I wish I could get such support from the software makers of the programs I use
in my practice!!!)
BACKING UP DATA
If you are unwilling to back up your data, do not even contemplate listing software. As
the saying goes, you have either experienced a hard drive crash, or you will. While all of the listing
programs with which I am familiar let you back up your data, the ease with which they do so varies.
Backing up BirdBase/BirdArea (in Windows 95) involves going to Windows Explorer, clicking the
appropriate drive, and opening the directory containing BirdBase/BirdArea. Highlight the
appropriate folders (which are identified in the instructions), and save them to disc. With over
25,000 entries, I need two 3.5 inch (9 cm) discs. However, with a Zip drive, I can save the entire
program on a disc with (a lot of) room to spare.
In summary, BirdBase is a solid listing program with enough options to satisfy most birders,
especially when combined with BirdArea, by far the best species distribution program available.
Together, they allow you to keep up with taxonomic changes, facilitate data verification, and create
various lists/reports (including an annotated, 16 day checklist). BirdBase/BirdArea are set up for
use through 2100 A.D. On a scale of 0 (truly worthless) to 10 (the outer limit of human ability), I
rate BirdBase/BirdArea an 8 ½ and recommend it.
Michael R. Hannisian
September 30, 1999
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