Ornithological Society – Recording Scheme

The recording scheme started in 1940. Miscellaneous field records sent in by members, but not suitable for publication as Short News in Notornis were summarized and published once a year under the heading Classified Summarised Notes. This scheme was stopped in the 1960s, but was reactivated in the 1970s, before ceasing again in 2006, with the last records being for June 2004. Today, Regional Recorders still collate bird sightings, but these are no longer published in the Classified Summarised Notes. Increasing use is being made of the eBird website to log bird sightings electronically. This website was founded in 2002 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audobon Society to capture basic information on abundance and distribution and has a section for New Zealand bird records.

Diverse observations of bird numbers, foods eaten, dates when first and last songs of passerines heard each year, movements and migrations of seabirds, waders and cuckoos, flocking and roosting patterns, causes of mortality and location of seabird colonies.

New Zealand wide

many including Firth of Thames and Raglan

The recording scheme started in 1940 but stopped in the 1960s. The scheme was reactivated in the 1970s.

volunteer observations

data collected by many volunteers, therefore varying identification skills and positional accuracy. However members are checked for identification skills? Gap in data collection in the 1960s.

report cards, summarised in Notornis, electronic, maps

Data is used in resource consents, planning documents

Freely available

Ongoing