Data Entry FAQs

You can edit information by selecting the Manage Account button at the top of the data entry pages. Currently you cannot edit your User Name, but that is only visible to you. As long as you have it written down somewhere safe so that you don’t forget it, it is not important if there is a typo in the user name.

Data entry is restricted to registered FeederWatch participants. When you sign up online you will be assigned an ID number immediately and can access data entry automatically. When you sign up by mail or phone you will be assigned an ID number that will be activated in 2-3 weeks, and we will mail you the number in your instructional kit.

If you are renewing your FeederWatch membership, we will find your existing ID number and match it up using your name and e-mail address.

No matter how you sign up, you can start counting birds immediately following our online instructions, and enter data at any time later in the season. You never have to miss a count day just because your ID number isn’t ready. If you have questions about your ID number, click on the “Request Help” button on the Your Data home page and then click on the “contact us” link in the box that comes up.

Your user name and password are saved on your computer unless you sign out or remove cookies from your computer. You do not have to sign out when you finish submitting FeederWatch data, but doing so will prevent anyone else who might use the same computer from accessing the server in your name. We highly recommend that you sign out if you are using a public computer, such as one in a library. You can sign out of the server by clicking the “Sign Out” link in the top right corner of pages in the Your Data section of our website.

Please note that if you choose to sign out after a session, you will be prompted to enter your user name and password on your next visit to the site.

If you get a message saying your ID is already attached to an account, you most likely have several user names and you are signed in with a user name that is not attached to your FeederWatch ID. Click on the “Sign Out” at the top of the page. This will send you to the Project FeederWatch home page. Click on the Your Data button to bring up a new login page, and enter the user name and password you used earlier in the season.

If you are not sure what you were logged in with, click on the user name reminder link. That will automatically send an email message to the email address in your online account with your user names, and it will indicate which user name is registered for the current season.

If you don’t remember which password goes with that user name, you will need to follow the “forgot password” link on the sign in page to reset your password. The system will send you an email message with a link for resetting your password. Note that the password reset link expires after 24 hours, so if you need to reset a password, be sure to go through the entire process.

When you use any Cornell Lab citizen science web site such as eBird or NestWatch, you remain logged in with whatever user account you used on that site unless you choose to sign out. If you come to the Your Data section of the FeederWatch site already signed in with an account you have used for FeederWatch in the past, your ID number will automatically attach to that user account.

If you come signed in with an account you haven’t used for FeederWatch in the past, you will be asked to enter your ID number. At that point, your ID number remains attached to that account for the remainder of the season.

If you are being asked to enter an ID number and your ID number is already assigned to a different account, that means that you signed out or cleared the cookie for the account you had been signed in with and then you signed in with a different online account. An ID number can only be attached to one account for the season.

In the fall, all IDs are cleared out. You can change online accounts the first time you visit the Your Data section of our website each fall, but you must be signed in with the account you want to use before you visit our site.

The server saved your count date, but not your bird counts. To edit the count, select the dates on the calendar and you will see a black pop-up that reads, “0 species counted. Click here to edit.” Select the link and add your information. Be sure to select the “Save and Continue” and “Submit Count” buttons.

For Project FeederWatch, you must tally counts over two consecutive days, entering the highest number of each species seen at one time over the two days. Learn more about how to count for FeederWatch.

If you forget to record the weather conditions, you can look up historical weather conditions for your area online. Just be sure to enter the conditions recorded during daylight hours.

The bird species on your regional checklist are the most widely reported feeder birds in your FeederWatch region, according to past FeederWatch results. In the interest of keeping the lists a manageable size for most FeederWatchers, we do not include every bird that may occur in your region in winter. You can add a species to your checklist by clicking the “Add a Species” button.

When you click on the “Add a Species” button, a window comes up for you to enter the species name. As you start typing the name, a drop down list will appear. Select the species from the drop down list.

Note that the system requires the currently accepted spelling of the species name and the accepted use of punctuation characters, including hyphens, apostrophes, etc. Try entering the first 4 letters of the name, or try entering the most common part of the name. For example, if Oregon Junco didn’t come up, you could try entering “Junco.” That would bring up all juncos, and then you could choose the Oregon subspecies from the list.

If the species name does not come up at all, it may already be on your checklist, the name may have changed, or it may not have been reported by a participant before. You can search the name online to determine if the name has changed. If you still are not able to find the species, please Request Technical Support.

Note that the button to add the selected species will not activate until you select a species name from the drop down list. If you do not see a drop down list, try typing only part of the species name. The species must be selected from the list, even if what you type is exactly the same as the species name on the list.

Search your checklist carefully. Perhaps the species is buried within a sub-grouping of species if your list is sorted taxonomically, or perhaps you are looking for “cardinal” when the species is listed alphabetically under “Northern Cardinal.” You can use your browser’s search function to find the name on your list.

Taxonomic order is an arrangement of species that reflects their evolutionary relatedness to one another. Simply put, “like” species (such as finches) can be found in “like” groups. Many field guides are arranged this way.

The warning message about a high count is designed to help ensure that you have entered the count you intended to enter. The programming that generates the message is based on counts submitted by FeederWatchers in your region. Entering a higher than normal count can generate the message, but there is no need to worry about the message so long as you are accurately entering the maximum number of a particular species seen at one time during your count, without adding any counts together.

If you receive this message, be sure to add a description of your observation, and if you have a photo, attach that as well. Learn more about “flagged” records and what happens to them.

When you are entering bird counts, please only enter a count for birds that you see. Do not enter any zeros. (On the site description form, you do have to enter zeros, but not when you enter bird counts.)

If you are registered for the current season, you can enter data from any past season you were registered for Project FeederWatch by clicking on the Enter Bird Counts button and then clicking the link on the right just above the calendar that says, “Need to enter data for a past season?”

The “Save ” button may be out of view if you have zoomed in the screen to read and select calendar dates, weather/effort information, or your bird list. If you zoom back out, the button will reappear.

You can view all data submitted to Project FeederWatch by clicking the View or Edit Your Previous Counts button on the Your Data home page. If data is missing, one of the following might be the cause.

If data is missing that you think you entered, please Request Technical Support.

You can edit any counts, even for past seasons, by clicking the View and Edit Your Previous Counts button on the Your Data home page. Then click on the drop down menu to select the season for which you wish to enter a count. Then click the “Actions” and “Edit” link below the date for the count you want to change. In the FeederWatch app, you can edit counts by tapping the Count History icon and navigating to the count you need to revise.

If you select a site and a date, the started count will be saved even if your computer crashes or you quit before submitting anything else. To finish the count, you need to edit the count you started. Follow these instructions for editing a count.

If you wish to switch a count to a different site or a different date, follow these instructions to get to the count you wish to switch. To change the count site, select the correct site from the dropdown menu. To change the date, click the “change dates” link to the right of the dates listed for the count, navigate to the correct date on the calendar, and click the correct dates. Then after you have made the changes you want to make, scroll to the bottom and click the Finish Count button, and then click the Submit button on the next screen.

If you change counting locations, you can add a new site to our map by going to the Manage/Edit Count Sites page and clicking the Create A Site button.

If your site is plotted on our map in the wrong location, you can move it by clicking the “Edit Placement” link at the bottom of the box with the site name. Then you can drag the site marker to a new location. When you have the pointer in the right location, click the red button to move the site to the new location.

Please note, only move a site if the location where you counted was not plotted correctly. Do not move a pointer if you have changed locations and are now counting from a new location. In that case, click on the red button to create a new site.

To rename a site, go to the Manage/Edit Count Sites page and click the “More” button at the bottom of the box with the site name in it. Then click on “Rename Site.”

We currently do not have a way for you to merge sites. If you have multiple sites for the same location, please Request Technical Support and ask that the sites be merged.

Only count sites that have never been used can be deleted. Sites you have used in the past have data attached to them and therefore cannot be deleted.

If you created a site by mistake and never used it, you can delete by clicking the “More” button at the bottom of the box with the site name. Then click the “delete” link.

You need to fill out your site description form every year. Scientists want to assure that participants check each item each year. Consequently, the form does not carry over from one season to the next.

If you are getting a message saying the form is incomplete, click the link in the message to go to the form. A grid of numbers on the right side of the page will show you which items still need to be completed. Note that you need to enter “0” counts for the plants if you have none in order for the plant section to be complete. (This is the opposite of how you enter bird counts, where you should never enter a zero count.)

You can fill out the form at any time; it is not required for entering data, but you will see the incomplete form message until all the questions have been answered.

While each predation event is interesting, for the purposes of this study, we are only collecting data on predation events when the identities of both the source and target species are known. Please do not report an interaction unless you are certain about the identity of both birds involved.

For this study, we are limiting displacement to when one individual bird tries to take over a resource occupied by another individual bird. Please do not report a displacement unless the source bird is actively taking over the position of the target, for example, one hawk chasing another hawk from a perch, or a shrike chasing a chickadee off a suet block.