Notable eBird Sightings Web Service API and Gadget

Gadget

API

URL	description	status	notes
http://ebird.org/data/ebird/notable/recent?subnational1Code=US-PA&subnational1Code=US-NY[ ]	returns notable sightings for the given state(s)	deployed
http://ebird.org/data/ebird/notable/recent?countryCode=US&countryCode=CA	returns notable sightings for the given country(ies)	deployed

Parameter Descriptions

Result Caching

Results are cached on the server for 30 minutes, so repeated calls to the same URL will usually result in exacted the same response. The time that the response was actually computed is provided in the header time stamp.

XML Result Format

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<response>
    <header>
        <locale country="US" language="en"/>
        <timestamp>2008-06-27T15:57:58.877-04:00</timestamp>
        <criteria>
            <property id="locID" value="L97555" description="Sapsucker Woods"/>
            <property id="daysBack" value="7"/>
        </criteria>
    </header>
    <result>
        <sighting>
            <species-id>cangoo</species-id>
            <scientific-name>Branta canadensis</scientific-name>
            <common-name>Canada Goose</common-name>
            <how-many>20</how-many>
            <num-checklists>2</num-checklists>
            <obs-dt>2008-06-27</obs-dt>
        </sighting>
        <sighting>
            <species-id>norbob</species-id>
            <scientific-name>Colinus virginianus</scientific-name>
            <common-name>Northern Bobwhite</common-name>
            <how-many>1</how-many>
            <num-checklists>1</num-checklists>
            <obs-dt>2008-06-25</obs-dt>
        </sighting>
    </result>
</response>

Enhancements for eBird gadget/data

• add observer name to data and display

Enhancements for eTT gadget/data

• Link to AAB species instead of eBird reports
• link to map showing location of sighting (using kiosk map)
• Identfiy rarities and specialties
• Multiple time frames (week, month); for these, show date last observed
• Support multiple points (via polygon)

 Enhancements targeted for sprint

• Add support for "daysBack" parameter where 0 <= days <= 7 to allow adjustable size of time frame.
  • Must regurgitate parameter in response header.
  • Validation check parameter values.
  • Default value is 1, which indicates a time period of midnight of the previous day to "now".
  • E.g., "3" would indicate midnight 3 days ago to "now". Thus the report always covers 3 x 24 hours + however far through the day we are right now.
• Explore potential to use Oracle Spatial queries to query over a polygon and include multiple locations.