Bird sightings are being turned into digital data by users of eBird, a worldwide network that provides real-time, year-round visuals of the migratory patterns of bird species.

Bird sightings are being turned into digital data by users of eBird, a worldwide network that provides real-time, year-round visuals of the population patterns of bird species.

The National Audubon Society and The Cornell Lab of Ornithology launched eBird in 2002.

Tens of thousands of eBird users track and record the location and quantity of bird species using a sophisticated interactive online interface.

The data is accessible to anyone through eBird's website.

One component of eBird, called a heat map, displays the reported location and density of particular bird sightings.

These heat maps are now available for over three hundred different species.

John Fitzpatrick, Director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said the technology “takes chunks of these data and sorts through to find patterns in the noise. These programs are learning as they go, testing and refining and getting better and better.”

This method of compiling massive amounts of input provides unprecedented opportunities to expand bird watchers’ knowledge of their subject.

How do you like the idea? Can you see this working to study population patterns of other species as well?