FAQ

What is the Birding Lists Digest?

The Digest was created to help birders find out "what's going on lately" in various regions of the U.S. with a minimum of hassle. The Digest automatically compiles all posts to dozens of birding email lists and organizes them by region, by day, and by list. Birders can view the current day's messages, or browse messages from the last 30 days. Hopefully, this system will allow birders to find information about rare bird sightings and other goings-on around the country in a timely and efficient manner.

How do I post a message to the Digest?

Messages are not posted to the Digest directly. If you want to report a sighting or post a message to a particular email list, you must follow the posting instructions for that specific list. That normally involves subscribing to the list in question. Please see the View All Lists page, where the "Official Archives" links will take you to the lists' respective home pages, where you can find more information about joining and posting.

Which email lists are included in the Digest?

There are currently 115 lists included, and more are being added all the time. You can view the directory of included lists by clicking on this link.

Below is a map of the various regions of the U.S. that the Digest covers.

Which email lists are not included in the Digest?

The Digest is likely missing many lists from around the country. If your favorite list is not included, please let me know (email address below).

Some lists are excluded due to a request from the list owner. These include:

How long are messages kept in the Digest?

Messages are kept for 30 days. The digest is not meant to be a comprehensive archive of the email lists it includes. It is intended to be a log of the current birding happenings nationwide. Almost all of the lists included in the Digest have official archives where messages are kept for much longer periods. If you would like to view older messages for a list, you can go to the official archive for that list. Links to those archives appear on the listing of email lists included in the Digest, which can be found here.

What should I do if I find a bug with the Digest, or have a question or comment?

The Digest was created by me, Dave Ranney. If you find any bugs I would love to hear about them. Suggestions for improvement or additional features are also welcome. You can email here:

Acknowledgements

The Digest is an expansion of the CA Birding Lists Digest that has been running successfully since 2002. The original CA Digest was inspired by a post to the CALBIRDS list by Steve Holzman. His ideas and suggestions, not to mention his excellent map of CA birding lists, made the Digest possible. Steve also generously provided the map of Digest regions above. Thanks to Steve for the encouragement to complete this nationwide Digest and to all other birders who have given helpful suggestions over the years.

 

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