This page gives procedures and examples for contributors to the NBHC (National Birding Hotline Cooperative) Rare Bird Alert distribution mailing lists.
Birders like to share information on significant, rare, or interesting birds they see, by reporting to local or regional hotline compilers. These compilers summarize the information on a regular basis (most often weekly) and distribute it by phone, printed text, e-mail, etc. The information is contributed by volunteers, often is compiled under the sponsorship or supervision of a bird club or Audubon chapter or society, and is free to the public. The NBHC e-mail mailing lists provide a central collection and distribution point for such birding hotlines or "rare bird alerts;" these lists are also free and supported by the hard work of a network of volunteers.
Disclaimers: The "National Birding Hotline Cooperative" is just a shorthand name for this voluntary network. It could not exist without the volunteers who donate their time, and the support of many academic and non-profit organizations which allow the use of their facilities without charge. It has no legal existence, has never held a meeting, doesn't charge dues, and cannot be responsible for any errors, lost data, or any problems whatsoever that may arise, based on the use of the information it offers. Anyone who posts or contributes information risks public visibility of their e-mail address, and this cannot be prevented by the list or list owners.
The NBHC lists are a loosely-related group of mirrored e-mail lists on the server LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU. See the NBHC home page for a complete description of the NBHC and the mailing lists in this family. Information on subscribing to NBHC lists is given there and also is available at the BIRDCHAT Home Page.
The NBHC lists which distribute Rare Bird Alerts are BIRDEAST, BIRDWEST and BIRDCNTR; coverage is divided into three geographic regions. There is a "range map" and list of the NBHC area. Lines were drawn in a way that tried to balance the number of messages on each list. You can subscribe to any number of lists as desired.
If you subscribe to any of the three lists, you receive all messages mailed (or "posted") to that list; there is no way to select a subset (for example, RBA's for California only). In many states and regions, there is a birders' mailing list which offers such a local service. Check with birders in your local area for more information.
IMPORTANT. The "RBA" lists are for alerts only. They are not for discussion and therefore only people who contribute hotlines are allowed to post. If you want to belong to a list which allows questions, discussions, trip reports, etc., there are many other lists you can join.
To discover whether any particular hotline is already being contributed to NBHC, please check the most recent archives of NBHC transcripts at the University of Arizona server. The RBA's contributed may very weekly or daily, and it's impossible to keep a complete list; some appear sporadically, although most are quite regular and some have been posted every week since 1990.
The archives are also a convenient way to find the latest RBA phone numbers, which also change frequently. The standard compilation of RBA phone numbers is maintained by the ABA or American Birding Association.
Compiler, author, contributor, transcriber??
in 1990, most of the RBAs posted on the BIRDEAST, BIRDWEST, and BIRDCNTR lists were posted by people who did not actually compile the information, but who called a taped hotline written by someone else, and typed (transcribed) it into an e-mail message for posting on the NBHC. Earlier editions of this document were titled "Transcribers' Guidelines." With e-mail more common now, many hotlines are contributed directly by the person who also compiles the information. I use the general term "Contributors" in recognition of the fact that many different methods have evolved for providing electronic rare bird information to the NBHC lists.
A list of the NBHC family of lists, and more complete instructions for subscription management, can be found at the NBHC home page.
Send a message to
listserv@listserv.arizona.edu
No subject is needed. The text of the message should be
sub BIRDxxxx Your Name
(replace xxxx with East, West or Cntr; replace Your Name with your real name).
For example: send e-mail to listserv@listserv.arizona.edu which says:
sub BIRDCHAT Harry Potter
The list server extracts your mailing address from the email and returns a message with further instructions. Be sure to save the first messages you get from the server for future reference (e.g. in case you want to sign off).
IMPORTANT:
You cannot post a transcript or an RBA text to BIRDEAST, BIRDWEST, OR BIRDCNTR unless (a) you subscribe, and (b) you submit a request to the listowner and are given posting permission.
The founders of the NBHC lists (in 1990) were Chuck Williamson and Norm Saunders.
The present list managers are:
BIRDEAST: Laurie Larson. llarson@princeton.edu (Backup: Chuck Otte, Steve Sosensky)
BIRDCNTR: Chuck Otte. otte2@cox.net or cotte@ksu.edu (Backup: Laurie Larson, Steve Sosensky)
BIRDWEST: Steve Sosensky. steve@sosensky.com (Backup: Laurie Larson, Chuck Otte)
If you decide to contribute the text of a hotline and you are not the originator of the message yourself, it's nice to let the originator or compiler know what you're doing. The news that their hotline will be posted on the Internet is often very pleasing to the compiler and he or she may be able to help you get the text quickly. However, hotlines are typically public information, not copyrighted; if that is the case, you normally don't need formal permission to legally transcribe and post them - as far as we know (see disclaimer below).
Your text or transcription, once posted, is not copyrighted unless you explicitly state that it is. Internet etiquette dictates that anyone who forwards it farther after the NBHC posting must not modify it without clearly indicating they've done so - whether or not you copyright it. But if they don't follow this etiquette, you have little or no legal recourse. Be warned.
If the compiler asks you, the transcriber, to "censor" or modify the contents of the hotline, try to negotiate with him or her to do it themselves. Your job is just to copy public information from one medium to another, not make decisions about content (unless you are both compiler and transcriber).
If the transcriber asks you, the compiler, to modify the contents, it's up to you whether you want to do so. You're the author. The transcriber should normally not change the contents of a hotline without your knowledge unless additions or deletions are clearly marked as such.
(Disclaimers: I'm not a lawyer; internet legal status is an evolving area, and I can't promise that the preceding advice is worth the electrons it is written with. The NBHC has no real legal existence, and therefore cannot be liable for anything.)
Remember when you volunteer that timeliness is important in a Rare Bird Alert (the more quickly your text is available, the more useful it will be) and that you are promising to meet a deadline (usually once a week, sometimes more often). You may want to arrange a backup for your vacations or emergencies. Your backup should check with the listowner or assistant listowner, to make sure they have posting authorization.
Once you choose a hotline, the task is to get the text into electronic form and into a mail message that you can send to the list address. The software there will redistribute it to all Birdxxxx list subscribers.
The exact process will depend on the technology available to you. In the simplest case, you are the compiler of the RBA and already have a text document that you can send. Or, a transcript is e-mailed directly to you by the compiler. Ask if this is possible. If your compiler doesn't use a computer, you may be able to record the hotline on a telephone answering machine and then type it in from a "dictaphone" with a foot pedal attached to a tape recorder. Or you could arrange to receive a fax from the hotline compiler and then type it in to your e-mail software or word processor.
If you use a microcomputer, you probably also use word processing software which creates pleasantly formatted documents. Your software may also allow use of special accents and diacritical marks used in languages other than English. If so, you will need to get rid of all that. You will need to use special commands to save your file as "text only", or ASCII. The Listserv mailing list will only accept ASCII; it will not understand the formatting codes and special language symbols used by the word processor, and will display garbage instead. ASCII is the "least common denominator" for text, and can be read by anyone no matter what their mail software or operating system.
Your ASCII text file is most likely to be readable on a wide variety of devices if it has lines no more than 70 characters in length (non-proportional, "Courier" typeface). It probably should have "hard returns" (carriage-return, linefeed) at the end of each line although this may depend on the settings of your mail software. (Line wrapping is a black art, since it may take place in the client, the server, the browser, etc. Trial and error may be needed). Blank lines (rather than tab indents) are best for separating paragraphs.
Never "attach" word processor files or encoded files to mail messages; they are not allowed on the mailing list and will be rejected. Do not use MIME or HTML, various fonts, italics, "smart quotes," or any other formatting whatsoever. Your goal is a file that is completely readable on a teletype or similar "dumb" terminal if necessary. You want nothing but the text.
If you have a problem, contact the list owners. But please try to make an effort to understand enough about your software to know what kind of output it can create and whether it contains non-ASCII codes. The list owners have been around computers a while but aren't programmers, and can't advise about every word processor, mail system, or file transfer protocol ever invented. You may need to seek advice from your system's mail or network administrator.
A "standard" format exists for hotline texts on the NBHC. This serves several purposes. First, it is easier for readers to scan a number of hotlines quickly if they are standardized. Second, standard format makes automated retrieval possible.
The "Birds Mentioned" section in the standard format provides keywords for indexing purposes. Use it if you want to. The list is transcriber-determined: it can be complete, limited to highlights, or omitted altogether; alphabetic or in 'checklist' order.
IMPORTANT:
Standard format is not required, and hotlines are not rejected if they are not in standard format. If you do not use it, just make sure your name, your network/e-mail address, and identification of the hotline (location, phone) are included somewhere in the text in a consistent manner.
Normal editorial practices apply. For example, if you add or delete anything, show that with [square brackets.] It is helpful to put species names in UPPER CASE for ease of reading. If you are providing a summary or condensation instead of an exact transcript, say so.
When you have the RBA text in electronic form, send it as electronic mail to the appropriate list address. Make sure your message is a plain ASCII text file, and is not being encoded in any way by your word processor or mail software.
Include a subject indicating that it is a hotline, and the place and date. For example:
Subject: RBA, NJ Mar. 23 1994
SUBJECT: NM Hotline 1/18/95
E-Mail addresses for the lists are as follows:
BIRDEAST: birdeast@listserv.arizona.edu
BIRDCNTR: birdcntr@listserv.arizona.edu
BIRDWEST: birdwest@listserv.arizona.edu
Normally you will NOT receive any reply if your mail is accepted, but only if it is bounced. If that happens, it might be because you are not a subscriber to the list you are sending to. You may only post a message if you are a subscriber. If you are using a different account (user ID, login) than that under which you subscribed, you will not be recognized or permitted to post.
If you feel better with an acknowledgement that your mail has been received, you can set the option
set BIRDxxxx ACK (For more about option settings, see the Contributor's homepage).
Different mail software and file transfer protocols are in use at each networked location. In this document it's impossible to give details of use and troubleshooting for each different system. If there are parts of the mailing procedure that are not clear to you, if you get strange error messages, or if your mail doesn't go through, you can contact the listowners and they will try to help. But in the end you will probably need to consult a computer support specialist or network/system administrator at your site for help.
There are 4 "- tags" and 4 "* lines" which are the only required lines in the "BIRDSERV" format for hotline transcripts. The lines marked "-" must be placed in the transcript exactly as shown INCLUDING SPACES. The lines marked "* " should be replaced with local ID codes and coded dates. If uncertain how to formulate a local code contact a list owner.
Historically, this was a first attempt at a standardized markup for bird sightings reports; it has formed the basis for a number of later efforts.
- RBA * State * City or region name * Date * NBHC Code - Birds mentioned - Transcript - End transcript
- RBA * Arizona [Full state namel] * Tucson [Full city/region name] * Mar. 4, 1994 [Full date] * AZTU9403.04 [This can become a standardized text file name for 8.3 filesystems. STATE AZ, LOCATION TU, YEAR 94, MONTH 03, DAY 04 The second report on a given day would be AZTU9403.04A etc] - Species mentioned [This line can be used to start keyword capture. Keywords are species names in AOU format]
- Transcript [This starts the TEXT BLOCK; signals keyword capture off, text capture on. In this section the hotline text resides.] [The following header is optional but often used as part of the text because it provides much useful information in a convenient place. Not all elements need to be included.] hotline: date: phone number: to report: compiler: coverage: transcriber: [text of transcript follows] - End transcript [End of file..]
- RBA * California * San Francisco Bay Area * June 29, 1994 * CASF9406.29 - Birds mentioned Blue-winged Teal Northern Parula - Transcript hotline: Northern California Update date: June 29, 1994 number: (510) 524-5592 to report: (510) 528-0288 or (510) 524-5592 coverage: Northern CA, also Southern CA as merits compiled: 10:33am, June 29, 1994 transcriber: Joe Morlan e-mail: joe.morlan at hieagle.com This is a Rare Bird Update for 10:33am, Wednesday, June 29, 1994, sponsored by Golden Gate Audubon Society. In Marin County, a singing male NORTHERN PARULA was found at Inverness Ridge on Sunday. It was 1/4 mile down the trail towards Tomales Bay from the PRNS staff housing on Mt. Vision Road. Also in Marin County, the male BLUE-WINGED TEAL was still at the Las Gallinas Sewer Ponds in San Rafael yesterday. - End transcript
National Birding Hotline Cooperative
Hotline Contributor's Guidelines
Questions, suggestions, and contributions to this documentation:
Laurie Larson llarson@princeton.edu
Updated 12/24/08