News & updates

The first major update for Birding Compass is out: country pages now include regional species observation data.

You can now compare states, provinces and other regions directly on the country map. See how many target species each region has, explore how this changes throughout the year, and view the full species list for any region. Just like on the world map, you can switch between map and list views and use the month, frequency and taxonomy filters to narrow down what you're looking for. If you've uploaded your eBird life list, the regional results are personalized to the bird species you haven't seen yet.

This was the first major feature I wanted to add after launching Birding Compass. Country-level comparisons are useful for finding interesting birdwatching destinations, but some countries are huge and geographically diverse, and birdlife can vary enormously from one part of a country to another. Regional data should make Birding Compass much more useful for taking an interesting country and starting to plan an actual birding trip.

eBird data coverage for regions varies between countries, but most should be well covered, with relatively few regions having no data available. Finding suitable geographic boundary data was more challenging. In some cases, eBird regions do not correspond to current administrative subdivisions, so quite a bit of manual work was necessary to construct the corresponding regions. Natural Earth's Admin 1 dataset served as the main source for geographic boundaries, supplemented with other sources where regions were missing or did not match. The level of detail of the map boundaries may therefore vary between countries. If you notice any mistakes or missing regions, please contact me.

The update also brings more species images (selection work is continuing, but it is a slow and largely manual process), a number of smaller improvements to the maps and the site, and changes to how Birding Compass stores and processes its data to improve performance as the amount of regional data grows.

The next major feature I want to add will likely be a “Trip Planner.” You specify a list of target species and, optionally, a destination or month, and Birding Compass will help find the best locations or route for your birdwatching trip.

Birding Compass began as a personal project to make exploring birding destinations easier. Look around the map, see what species are there for you to discover, and start wondering what a trip to that faraway place might look like.

The first version lets you explore species at the country level, filter results by time of year or taxonomy, and upload an eBird life list for personalized results.

I am planning to add more features over time. The first major addition will be support for species data at the province or state level, making Birding Compass much more useful for finding actual birding destinations rather than looking at countries as a whole. I have a few more ideas beyond that which should also benefit from more detailed species distribution data.

There will probably be some bugs and rough edges in the beginning. This is my first project of this kind, and yes, I used AI (Codex) to help me build it and learn along the way. I hope Birding Compass can grow into a genuinely useful tool for birders planning trips or simply exploring where they might want to go next.

If you encounter a problem, have an idea, or just want to share some feedback, please send me a message. I'd be happy to hear from you.