In ropensci/rebird: R Client for the eBird Database of Bird Observations

A programmatic interface to the eBird database. Find out more about eBird at their website.

Installation

You can install the stable version from CRAN

install.packages("rebird")

Or the development version from Github

install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("ropensci/rebird")

Then load the package into the R session

library("rebird")

Usage

The eBird API server requires users to provide an API key, which is linked to your eBird user account. You can pass it to the 'key' argument in rebird functions, but we highly recommend storing it as an environment variable called EBIRD_KEY in your .Renviron file. If you don't have a key, you can obtain one from https://ebird.org/api/keygen.

You can keep your .Renviron file in your global R home directory (R.home()), your user's home directory (Sys.getenv("HOME")), or your current working directory (getwd()). Remember that .Renviron is loaded once when you start R, so if you add your API key to the file you will have to restart your R session. See ?Startup for more information on R's startup files.

Furthermore, functions now use species codes, rather than scientific names, for species-specific requests. We've made the switch easy by providing the species_code function, which converts a scientific name to its species code:

species_code('sula variegata')

The species_code function can be called within other rebird functions, or the species code can be specified directly.

eBird Taxonomy

The eBird taxonomy is internally stored in rebird and can be called using

rebird::tax

While the internal taxonomy is kept up to date with each package release, it could be outdated if a new taxonomy is made available before the package is updated. You can obtain the latest eBird taxonomy by

new_tax <- ebirdtaxonomy()

Sightings at location determined by latitude/longitude

Search for bird occurrences by latitude and longitude point

ebirdgeo(species = species_code('spinus tristis'), lat = 42, lng = -76)

Recent observations at a region

Search for bird occurrences by region and species name

ebirdregion(loc = 'US', species = 'btbwar')

Recent observations at hotspots

Search for bird occurrences by a given hotspot

ebirdregion(loc = 'L99381')

Nearest observations of a species

Search for a species' occurrences near a given latitude and longitude

nearestobs(species_code('branta canadensis'), 42, -76)

Recent notable sightings

Search for notable sightings at a given latitude and longitude

ebirdnotable(lat = 42, lng = -70)

or a region

ebirdnotable(locID = 'US-NY-109')

Historic Observations

Obtain a list of species reported on a specific date in a given region

ebirdhistorical(loc = 'US-VA-003', date = '2019-02-14',max = 10)

or a hotspot

ebirdhistorical(loc = 'L196159', date = '2019-02-14', fieldSet = 'full')

Information on a given region or hotspot

Obtain detailed information on any valid eBird region

ebirdregioninfo("CA-BC-GV")

or hotspot

ebirdregioninfo("L196159")

Obtain a list of eBird species codes for all species recorded in a region

ebirdregionspecies("GB-ENG-LND")

or a hotspot

ebirdregionspecies("L5803024")

Obtain a list of all subregions within an eBird region

ebirdsubregionlist("subnational1","US")

Checklist Feed

Obtain a list of checklists submitted on a given date at a region or hotspot

ebirdchecklistfeed(loc = "L207391", date = "2020-03-24", max = 5)

View Checklist

Obtain all information on a specific checklist

ebirdchecklist("S139153079")

Hotspots in a region or nearby coordinates

Obtain a list of hotspots within a region

ebirdhotspotlist("CA-NS-HL")

or within a radius of up to 50 kilometers, from a given set of coordinates.

ebirdhotspotlist(lat = 30, lng = -90, dist = 10)

ropensci/rebird documentation built on March 29, 2024, 12:38 p.m.