Notable eBird Sightings Web Service API and Gadget

Gadget

API

URL	description	status	notes
http://ebird.org/data/ebird/notable/recent?subnational1Code=US-PA&subnational1Code=US-NY	returns notable sightings for the given state(s)	deployed
http://ebird.org/data/ebird/notable/recent?countryCode=US&countryCode=CA	returns notable sightings for the given country(ies)	deployed

Parameter Descriptions

parameter	required	default	value options	example value	description	status
subnational1Code	either subnational1Code or countryCode is required	n/a	Valid subnational codes are available from Subnational1Code List and Search Web Service API	US-PA		deployed
countryCode	either subnational1Code or countryCode is required	n/a	Valid country codes are available from CountryCode List and Search Web Service API	US
locale	no	en_US	Java standard locale codes	en_US	Language/locale of common names provided in the response (when translations are available)	deployed

Result Caching

Results are cached on the server for 30 minutes, so repeated calls to the same URL will usually result in exacted the same response. The time that the response was actually computed is provided in the header time stamp.

XML Result Format

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<response>
    <header>
        <locale country="US" language="en"/>
        <timestamp>2008-06-27T15:57:58.877-04:00</timestamp>
        <criteria>
            <property id="locID" value="L97555" description="Sapsucker Woods"/>
            <property id="daysBack" value="7"/>
        </criteria>
    </header>
    <result>
        <sighting>
            <species-id>cangoo</species-id>
            <scientific-name>Branta canadensis</scientific-name>
            <common-name>Canada Goose</common-name>
            <how-many>20</how-many>
            <num-checklists>2</num-checklists>
            <obs-dt>2008-06-27</obs-dt>
        </sighting>
        <sighting>
            <species-id>norbob</species-id>
            <scientific-name>Colinus virginianus</scientific-name>
            <common-name>Northern Bobwhite</common-name>
            <how-many>1</how-many>
            <num-checklists>1</num-checklists>
            <obs-dt>2008-06-25</obs-dt>
        </sighting>
    </result>
</response>

Enhancements for eBird gadget/data

add observer name to data and display

Enhancements for eTT gadget/data

Link to AAB species instead of eBird reports
link to map showing location of sighting (using kiosk map)
Identfiy rarities and specialties
Multiple time frames (week, month); for these, show date last observed
Support multiple points (via polygon)

Enhancements targeted for sprint

Add support for "daysBack" parameter where 0 <= days <= 7 to allow adjustable size of time frame.
- Must regurgitate parameter in response header.
- Validation check parameter values.
- Default value is 1, which indicates a time period of midnight of the previous day to "now".
- E.g., "3" would indicate midnight 3 days ago to "now". Thus the report always covers 3 x 24 hours + however far through the day we are right now.
Explore potential to use Oracle Spatial queries to query over a polygon and include multiple locations.