Obviously incorrect reports on eBird

[Mike Bickerdike]

Difficult to say obviously wrong… but probably wrong: the same two visitors from the US report a Wandering Tattler at Ambury farm, and a Pomarine Skua from the ferry from Auckland. Both seem highly unlikely and are reported with no comment or photos, but of course they now crop up on eBird alerts.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S202941549
https://ebird.org/checklist/S203065440

I guess this is a frequent issue with visitors who don’t realise how unlikely a sighting is?

[tom.b]

Likely Southern Black-backed Gulls recorded as Great Black-backed Gulls, in Christchurch.


https://ebird.org/checklist/S203326124

[RussCannings]

Difficult to say obviously wrong… but probably wrong: the same two visitors from the US report a Wandering Tattler at Ambury farm, and a Pomarine Skua from the ferry from Auckland. Both seem highly unlikely and are reported with no comment or photos, but of course they now crop up on eBird alerts.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S202941549
https://ebird.org/checklist/S203065440

I guess this is a frequent issue with visitors who don’t realise how unlikely a sighting is?

Thanks Mike, there was a Pom around there recently so will get someone to look at that. Wandering unlikely yes, perhaps one of the GT Tattlers that summer there (or something else).

Thanks again all for submitting here.

[Mike Bickerdike]

30 blue duck sitting on a lake, reported by tourist, where none previously recorded...
https://ebird.org/checklist/S203639479

[Samsperdy]

Clearly a joke of some kind.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S204573641

[Mike Bickerdike]

9 curlew sandpipers at Miranda, spotted by American tourist https://ebird.org/checklist/S206044975

[paradoxdinokipi]

Aus Shelduck, Terek Sand, PGP and Stints all reported at Mangere by the same person and without any comments!

https://ebird.org/checklist/S206038507
https://ebird.org/checklist/S205965584

[Brendan T]

I followed that up the next day on the very off chance it was correctly reported since I felt like a walk anyway - I couldn't sight any of those birds that were reported.

[Nick Allen]

Re https://ebird.org/checklist/S206044975 I do like the idea of a heuristic godwit - one that can solve it's own problems by trial and error, though wonder why the observer thought the other 5999 at Miranda were not able to do this. Anyway it's good to know that one individual doesn't just copy what all the other godwits are doing there and can act as a trend-setter.

Nobody seems to have commented on the distance travelled by the submitter for the Radio Mast list https://ebird.org/checklist/S206038507. 2 miles would take the submitter from the radio mast west & northwards along the coastal track to outside the Ambury Park boundaries, or almost to Ihumātao or about half way to the airport. So where did they bird? Shame we can't see the tracks recorded on eBird. I suspect that at least some of the observations were made away from the Radio Mast area, as the area there isn't quite big enough to account for the distance travelled.

I'm not sure why this topic is *Obviously* incorrect reports on eBird. Is anything that is reported re bird occurrence/behaviour *obviously* incorrect? From experience birds are unpredictable at times, and putting observations under this heading is disrespectful to the observers/submitters, who just might be correct. Presumedly or possibly might be a better term than obviously and feel less like a kangaroo court.

[paradoxdinokipi]

I'd wager rather than there being a track it's just someone guesstimating and inputting it on the web browser, which is also probably how they submitted Terek Sandpiper on the list without adding any comments (unless there's a way to get around them on the app version aswell!), I'd also agree that at least the lists that I sent, aren't 'obviously incorrect' as all these species could technically be found at Mangere, I just wanted to put it up for community consensus and hopefully for an eBird reviewer to reach out to the guy about their sightings.