Audubon Adventures
A Quick Start Step-by-Step to the Bird Migration Explorer’s Main Features
These are the three primary ways you can use the Bird Migration Explorer. Once you’ve practiced and experimented with these features, you’ll be ready to combine features and customize your exploration for specific purposes.
Search by bird species. On the Explorer homepage, click the “Bird Species” button—either the one at the top of the page or the red one below. You’ll see a search bar with five filtering options underneath, and images of all species represented in the Explorer. Type the name of a bird in the search field, filter for species of interest, or scroll through the birds pictured and choose one by clicking it. This will launch a deep dive into where the species travels throughout the year. You can play/pause the animation and zoom in to take a closer look. In the left sidebar look for Related Stories about the species.
You can narrow your search criteria using the five buttons under the search field.
- Taxonomic Group lets you search for certain types of bird, such as hummingbirds, owls, shorebirds, and many others.
- Species by Location lets you narrow your search to birds found in a certain location by typing in a place, a zip code, or choosing the “near me” option.
- Data Technology narrows your species list by choosing one or more of the technologies used to track birds featured in the Explorer.
- Conservation Statistics lets you identify species that meet different criteria related to their conservation status.
- Conservation Challenges lets you focus on species facing specific types of challenges you are interested in investigating.
Search by location. On the homepage, click the “Locations” button—either the one at the top of the page or the red one below. You’ll see a search bar at the top and an array of “Featured Locations” below. The featured locations represent birding hotspots. You can type any location into the search field—an address, city, or zip code. Hitting enter will show you an interactive map of where tagged birds from your location traveled throughout the hemisphere. Darker colored hexagons represent higher numbers of tagged species connecting those locations.
If you hover your cursor over the map, a pop-up message tells you how many tagged birds and how many species connect your chosen location to this secondary location. Clicking on the secondary location reveals additional information: The left sidebar lists the species that connect the two places and summarizes other information such as countries your place is connected to.
Search by conservation challenge.On the homepage, click the “Conservation Challenges” button—either the one at the top or the red one to the left of the map. You’ll see an overview/introductory explanation of what the maps show, along with the individual challenges represented in the Explorer. Clicking any challenge will show you a map where that challenge is found in the Western Hemisphere, with the extent of its footprint represented by color intensity. On the left you’ll see a list of bird species exposed to that challenge. Selecting a bird activates the Species Conservation Challenges map, showing where, when, and how extensively that bird is exposed to this challenge. On the left you’ll see an explanation of the challenge you’ve selected and also a number of other conservation challenges to which this species is exposed.