PatchBird
Explorer
A complementary approach to structured bird monitoring
PatchBird Explorer extends the core PatchBird methodology beyond fixed local survey sites. It is designed for situations where repeated monitoring of the same location is not feasible — such as during travel, fieldwork away from home, or visits to remote and under-surveyed areas.
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While PatchBird Surveys focus on temporal consistency at fixed locations, PatchBird Explorer focuses on spatial coverage. The two approaches address different ecological questions and are intended to complement, not replace, one another.
Different questions, different answers
Bird monitoring can serve multiple purposes, but no single method can answer all questions equally well.
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PatchBird Surveys ask:
How are bird communities changing over time at the same place? -
PatchBird Explorer asks:
What birds occur across landscapes that are rarely surveyed, and where are the gaps in our knowledge?
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Explorer surveys are therefore not designed to detect fine-scale population trends at individual sites. Instead, they help broaden spatial coverage, improve baseline knowledge, and document bird presence and relative abundance in places that would otherwise remain poorly represented in large datasets.
When PatchBird Explorer is most useful
PatchBird Explorer is particularly valuable when birding takes place outside a regular home patch. This includes travel-based birding, roadside stops, visits to agricultural landscapes, uplands, transitional habitats, or remote areas where repeat visits are unlikely.
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In such contexts, insisting on long-term site fidelity would exclude a large amount of potentially valuable information. PatchBird Explorer provides a structured way to turn brief or opportunistic visits into scientifically meaningful observations.
Methodological consistency
Although PatchBird Explorer differs in purpose from PatchBird Surveys, it uses the same 15-minute stationary count protocol. Surveys are linked to a fixed 1 × 1 km grid location, observers record all birds detected by sight or sound, and all checklists are submitted through eBird and shared with the PatchBird account.
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The key difference lies in repetition. Unlike PatchBird Surveys, repeated visits to the same grid are not required in Explorer, although they are always welcome if circumstances allow. This ensures methodological consistency across the dataset while allowing flexibility in where surveys take place.
What PatchBird Explorer data can reveal
By prioritising spatial breadth, PatchBird Explorer helps identify regions and habitats that are poorly represented in existing datasets. Over time, Explorer surveys improve baseline knowledge of bird distribution, highlight unexpected patterns in species presence or absence, and help reveal where further monitoring effort is most needed.
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When combined with fixed-site PatchBird Surveys, Explorer data provide essential spatial context, helping place local trends within a wider geographic framework.
Limits and appropriate use
PatchBird Explorer is not intended to replace long-term monitoring at fixed sites, nor is it designed to generate fine-scale population trends for individual locations. Abundance comparisons between individual Explorer sites should therefore be interpreted cautiously.
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Being explicit about these limits ensures that Explorer data are used appropriately and strengthens the scientific integrity of the overall PatchBird framework.
Who PatchBird Explorer is for
PatchBird Explorer is well suited to birders who travel frequently, enjoy exploring new areas, or are unable to commit to repeated surveys at the same location. It offers a low-barrier entry point into structured bird monitoring while still contributing data that are coherent, comparable, and analytically useful.
How Explorer fits into the wider PatchBird framework
PatchBird is built on the recognition that no single survey design can answer all ecological questions. PatchBird Surveys prioritise consistency over time, while PatchBird Explorer prioritises coverage across space.
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Together, they balance depth and breadth, allowing the PatchBird dataset to capture both long-term change and large-scale patterns.
Getting started
Participants already involved in PatchBird Surveys can contribute Explorer surveys whenever they travel or visit new areas. New participants may also choose Explorer as their primary way of contributing.
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All Explorer surveys follow the same ethical and accessibility principles outlined in the Survey Protocol.
Closing note
PatchBird Explorer is not about collecting more data for its own sake. It is about collecting the right data for the right question, and ensuring that overlooked places are not left out of our understanding of bird distribution and habitat use.