iNaturalist as a Tool to Study the Impact of Time of Day on Shorebird Observations

Abstract

As citizen science platforms, such as iNaturalist, become more popular and more data becomes available, they can be a useful tool for research purposes. In this paper we study the effects of the time of day on the amount of shorebird observations made by citizen scientists. “Research grade” data from iNaturalist was used, and the data was collected from the Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge in Palo Alto, California, United States. We focused on the following shorebird species, namely American Avocet, Black-Necked Stilt, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Sandpipers, Killdeer, and American Coot. We analyze the data collected at this refuge from the year 2000, and present our findings. Shorebird observations are made mostly during the day, and fairly uniform across days of the month, with more observations made during winter months and fewer made during the summer. In addition, the majority of observations were made during 2020 and 2021, coinciding with the COVID pandemic. We observed that citizen scientists were more likely to record observations of larger, more conspicuous shorebirds.