Did you know there are more than 450000 eBird Hotspots globally? This page contains everything you need to know about exploring and contributing information to these locations. 


What is an eBird Hotspot?

Hotspots are collaborative birding locations suggested by eBird users. Hotspots allow multiple birders to enter data into the same shared location, creating aggregated results available through eBird's "Explore" tools. 


global map of eBird hotspots colored by species richness


What is the difference between an eBird Hotspot and Personal Location?

eBird Hotspots are communal locations that are visible to everyone, while personal locations are only accessible to a limited number of people. 


eBird Hotspots

  • On Maps: Indicated by a large pin with a flame icon
  • On Checklists: Location names appear as blue links
  • Creation: Must be suggested and approved by a volunteer eBird Hotspot Admin
  • Management: Can only be moved or renamed by an eBird Hotspot Admin
  • Use: Can be used by anyone during the location selection process


Personal Locations

  • On Maps: Indicated by a small pin with no icon
  • On Checklists: Location names are black, unlinked text
  • Creation: Can be created by anyone during the checklist submission process
  • Management: Can be moved, merged, and renamed by the location creator
  • Use: Can only be used by the location creator and anyone with a shared checklist from that location


For more information about the differences between eBird Hotspots and personal locations, visit: When should I use a Hotspot instead of a personal location?

Explore Hotspots

There are three primary ways to explore eBird Hotspots. 


1. On the eBird.org website, open the Explore page and click "Explore Hotspots" 

2. Search for any county, state, or country using "Explore Regions" then tap Hotspots from the navigation menu.

3. Explore eBird Hotspots on your mobile device using eBird Mobile Explore.


eBird Hotspots and Regional Explore pages share many of the same features, including species lists, illustrated checklists, recent visits, and Top eBirders. Visit Explore Regions in eBird for additional descriptions of these shared features. 

Iconic Birds

Iconic Birds on eBird Hotspot pages highlight which species are most special for a given location, relative to the surrounding region (usually the equivalent of a county or a state/province), based on frequency. This helps visitors quickly understand what makes each Hotspot special. If you're looking for a particular species, consider starting with the Hotspots that show it as Iconic. 


Iconic Birds can include species that are common and easy to observe at the location, but they also may include species that are extremely rare and don’t occur every year.


Iconic Birds typically fall into three categories:

  • Localized species (regular at the Hotspot, uncommon elsewhere in the region) → indicate a hotspot has unique habitat
  • Rare vagrants (unpredictable and infrequent, but still meet criteria for inclusion) → indicate a site might be known regular occurrence of certain rarities
  • Common species (reported more often at the Hotspot than other sites) → suggest a generally reliable birding place

The Iconic Birds bar charts and frequency values can help to indicate which category applies to a particular species or site.


lake cochise iconic birds


Above: Willcox--Lake Cochise and Twin Lakes Golf Course is an alkaline lake with extensive shoreline and one of the only permanent water bodies in Cochise County, Arizona-US. Most Iconic Birds here are water-associated species, suggesting this is one of the best places to find waterbirds during summer months. Thin bars on the chart and high frequencies indicate that the top Iconic Birds are recurring rarities—species unusual enough to attract crowds and generate many reports, but so rare they haven't been recorded anywhere else in the county.


How are Iconic Birds selected?

Iconic Birds are calculated both for individual months and for all months combined, using complete checklists from the last 10 years only. Iconic birds compare the frequency at the hotspot to the frequency for the parent region.


Parent Region

For Iconic Birds calculations, the parent region (AKA surrounding region) is the finest-scale geopolitical subdivision that encompasses the Hotspot. 

For regions in eBird that have counties or their equivalents within each state/province, the parent region is the county. 

Where the smallest level of subdivision is the state/province level, that becomes the parent region. For example, Uganda's four administrative regions have no counties, so all Iconic Birds are calculated relative to their administrative region's average frequency (e.g., for Royal Mile the parent region is Western Uganda).

A few regions like Aruba have no further subdivisions. Iconic Birds for these Hotspots use the entire country as the parent region.

Another example: House Bunting has recently colonized Europe from north Africa. One of the best places to see it in Spain is Algeciras--La Bajadilla, where House Bunting is among the top Iconic Birds.

Spain has two levels of subdivision: autonomies (equivalent to states/provinces) and provinces (counties). Iconic Birds are therefore calculated relative to the province level. The parent region for Algeciras--La Bajadilla is the province of Cádiz. 


House Bunting is observed 744x more frequently at Algeciras--La Bajadilla than at the average location in Cádiz. It is clearly a specialty for this Hotspot! 


Multiple Years

Iconic Birds must be reported in at least 30% of years with available data in the past 10 years. For example, if a Hotspot has:

  • Complete checklists from all of the last 10 years, a species must be reported in at least 3 of those years (3/10 = 30%)
  • 4 years of data in the past 10 years, a species must be reported in at least 2 years (2/4 = 50%)
  • 3 years of data in the past 10 years, a species only has to be reported for 1 year (1/3 = 33%)
  • Only 1 year of data in the past 10 years, any species could be Iconic! (1/1 = 100%)


One-time rarities only appear in Iconic Birds if the hotspot has been visited in 3 or fewer of the last 10 years. See low data scenarios below. 


Frequency

Iconic Species are selected and sorted based on observation frequency. Frequency is calculated by dividing the number of observations of that species on complete checklists by the total number of complete checklists for the selected time period.


That value is compared against the average frequency of that species for the entire parent region. Only species with a Hotspot-specific frequency greater than 1x the average regional frequency are displayed on Iconic Birds and the higher the value, the more the species is unique to that Hotspot.


Lower frequency values mean a species is not particularly unique to the Hotspot and can typically be found at a number of other Hotspots in the region.


How often are Iconic Birds updated?

Iconic Birds are calculated upon creation for each new Hotspot, and then refreshed:

  • At least once per year (typically after the annual taxonomy update)
  • After significant Hotspot changes (e.g., location moves or merges)


The Iconic Birds section is empty. Why?

You might encounter this message:


“No iconic species yet! Submit complete checklists to reveal what makes this place unique. Select a different time period or location.”


Even if you know there are complete checklists for the selected time period, anything submitted AFTER the most recent Iconic Birds refresh will not appear until the next update.


This message also appears when no complete checklists have been submitted for the chosen month—either because the hotspot is inaccessible during that time or rarely visited at all.


In most of these situations, “All Months” will be more interesting than the individual month data. Tap Iconic Birds from the Hotspot navigation menu to see the full list species from other seasons.


Low data scenarios

Areas with few checklists should be always interpreted with caution. Signs of low data include:

  • Extreme frequency scores
  • Gaps (gray areas) in the bar charts
  • All species have similar bar heights
  • 20 or fewer complete checklists for the time period
  • Data from only one observer


You should not expect highly accurate Iconic Species information from these locations.


While less reliable, Iconic Birds can still reveal useful emerging patterns. For example, Ulsan--Myeongdeok Lake Park in Ulsan, South Korea has only two checklists for May, but still gives a good idea of some interesting species to keep an eye out for—like Blue-and-white Flycatcher and Dollarbird.


Consider this stakeout hotspot for a Swallow-tailed Kite in West Virginia, US. It shows several low-data indicators: an incomplete bar chart (mostly gray areas; whereas the blue areas, such as for Horned Lark in late August, indicate weeks with complete checklists but no reports of the species) with similar bar heights for all species.


Swallow-tailed Kite is 889x more frequent there than the regional average because it was a first record for the county, and all checklists at that location were submitted during the brief period it was present, with no data from other years.


Given its extreme rarity, Swallow-tailed Kite would likely disappear from the Iconic Birds for this location once three years of data accumulate.


iconic birds for a stakeout hotspot


Looking for more? Find additional information about eBird Hotspots at eBird Hotspot FAQs.