Tropical Audubon Society

South Florida’s Voice of Conservation

If it's a continuing Smooth-billed Ani, why are there no previous reports on the bird board?

You'd have to ask the ani. Seriously though, there was one reported at Black Point Marina a few days ago so we were kind of thinking that might be the one. And I think we were told Robin may have had one or mentioned one being there recently. Aside from the Bird Board this bird or the one at Black Point appeared on the daily eBird rare bird report--you should check into it, all the kids are doing it.

Actually, a quick check of eBird sow Alberto Hernandez had this bird at Dump Marsh in late July so it's been around.

Alberto's ani at Dump Marsh was the bird report that I saw. Another fairly recent Smooth-billed Ani report was from Bill Baggs Cape Florida SP. This is a possible continuing bird first found and reported by Elizabeth Golden, the park biologist.

Still doesn't explain why if someone took the time to enter it into eBird, they couldn't take 30 seconds to type "Smooth-billed Ani at Black Pt." on the Bird Board. As everyone has said, eBird is a tool for citizen scientists to enter data, not a means to alert birders to recent rare bird sightings.

At least the ani report from Black Point included a specific location at Black Point where the bird was seen. Not so for yesterday's Dump Marsh report. I guess anyone who wants to chase it there will have to roam around Dump Marsh aimlessly until they stumble upon it.

Your point is a good one, Toe. Many of these sightings are by visiting birders who are unaware of the TAS Bird Board. (The Black Point ani is from an AZ birder.) Even newer Miami-Dade birders seem unaware of the Bird Board so I don't know of a solution. Brian's _South Florida Rare Bird Update_ is a wealth of information and posts to the Bird Board by users would be a good reciprocation.

Kudos to Mark Hedden last year for getting the word out/keeping information flowing on the Bird Board for the Cuban Vireo.

The TAS Bird Board has been the most important resource to South Florida Birding for many years. Simply letting it fade into oblivion is like throwing away all your music records from the 50's and 60's. I think the bird board still has an important role to play, and I hope newer birders realize that.

Thanks, Robin and Toe, for your words of support. As long as I have a say in the matter, there WILL be a TAS Bird Board.

When we started this experiment back in 2000, there was no eBird, no Facebook, no WhatsApp. Now, birders have more choices as to how they obtain and share information. For the Bird Board to not just survive but to thrive, it has to evolve. For the Bird Board to evolve, we need input from the birding community. What can we do to make it better, more user-friendly, more relevant? We value your ideas, thoughts and opinions and look forward to hearing from any of you who choose to contribute to this dialogue.

Brian Rapoza
Field Trip Coordinator
Tropical Audubon Society
fieldtrips@tropicalaudubon.org

The Ani was seen along the main path between the canal and main water feature perched on a wire. It called a couple times then flew across the water. There it called again and flew toward the marina.

It really is a shame that a venerable, thoughtful platform like the Bird Board is being pushed aside by more "modern" forums. But Floridabirds is suffering the same way. And the problem is that the new ways of telling people about birds restrict themselves to a circle of friends who just happen to have signed up for the same software, or who actually are friends. I get most of my notifications about local birds from my wife, who isn't even a birder, but who happens to be a Facebook friend with
Larry. It is as if we have reverted to the old "round robin" telephone circles.

I would like to see links posted on the BirdBoard site where old fuddy-duddies like me could just tap into the needed information on Facebook or whatever without having to spend hours online in irrelevant posts trying to get the bird info. The Bird Board could become a clearinghouse, so to speak, of all the bird information activity going on in South Florida. This would be especially valuable for visiting birders, many of whom now have to go to e-bird and guess. Unfortunately, this
can't happen without a dedicated person(s).

Noah texted me earlier this afternoon, providing specifics for both the Dump Marsh ani and the Lucky Hammock Bell's Vireo. I've added this info to my Rare Bird Update. Thanks, Noah!

Thanks, Steve for your input. Now that you've identified yourself as not on Facebook, I'd like to try a little experiment. Here's the url for Florida Birding and Rarities, the Facebook group created by Larry Manfredi: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1252341111448152/. Please let me know if you can open this page by clicking on the url. (Apologies to those who are more sophisticated than me regarding Facebook and already know how this experiment will go).

The birdboard has always been a valuable resource to me. It was actually one of the factors that got me into birding.

I got Larry's Facebook page, with flamingos. Now what?

Yes, Brian. I do have a Facebook account, so I was able to sign in. I am not a total Luddite. My point, however, is this: Florida Birding and Rarities is a closed platform. You have to apply to join, and then you are inundated with not only what you want to see, but a lot of what you don't, and for out-of-towners it would be a non-starter. Why not make the Bird Board a member (with Larry's permission, of course), so anyone could seamlessly go from the Bird Board to Facebook. By providing me the link, you proved my case.

Larry can probably tell us, Steve, if what you are proposing is even possible.