Question: Is my survey from outside of Harris County being used?

Absolutely. Surveys submitted from Montgomery, Fort Bend, Brazoria and Galveston counties are used to establish the pool of available species found in the area. If these counties were added to the map, the individual cells would be too small to see. But the data is included in the database.

Question: What happens after I press the 'submit' button on the online survey form?

The survey first goes to the webmaster, Susan Billetdeaux, who forwards it to the survey coordinator, Bob McFarlane. These two individuals are the anchor team for the small army of Citizen Scientists that conduct the Houston Bird Survey. The survey is printed out and filed alphabetically in a 3-ring binder. Then a Mapquest.com search is made to establish the exact location of the survey. This geographic data is then translated to a Harris County KeyMap location. The data are then entered into a geographically-based Excel spreadsheet data base. When all surveys have been entered the distribution maps are constructed using a unique baseline map in an Excel spreadsheet. The maps and essays are sent to the webmaster for posting to the website.

Question: How is quality assurance of the data maintained?

The Houston Bird Survey is designed to be inclusive. Anyone who can correctly identify at least one species of bird qualifies as a participant. There is only one rule for the survey: IF IN DOUBT, LEAVE IT OUT! Only correct identifications are solicited. Participants vary widely in experience and expertise. Inexperienced observers are fairly obvious, submitting short lists of common easy-to-identify birds. (Reports of black-capped chickadees are a dead giveaway)

For any survey site there are four possible outcomes. If a bird species is present, it will be detected or go undetected. Repeated surveys will usually detect the initially undetected species. If a bird species is absent, it will not be detected, or it will be 'detected' due to a misidentification.

If a truly rare species is reported, it is first checked against A Birder’s Checklist of the Upper Texas Coast, Birdlife of Houston, Galveston, and the Upper Texas Coast, Handbook of Texas Birds, or The Bird Life of Texas. An e-mail or telephone contact with the participant may resolve the issue. Very few sightings are refused (one Ivory-billed Woodpecker sighting was declined). Being rare, by its very nature the sighting contributes little to the goals of the Houston Bird Survey so erroneous sightings take care of themselves.