OnLocation(sm) is a virtual birding trip
to a real birding location.
Each month The Virtual Birder(sm) will
select an interesting location and produce
an interactive experience that partially recreates
what it's like to bird there.
There'll be the sights and sounds of
the location and of course there will be birds.
Try your skill at identifying birds and compete for the top
score. Top daily and overall scores are posted.
It's not all competitive. There's a sighting board, so let
people know what you find. Having trouble identifying
a bird? Drop into the chat session and see if one of your
fellow on-line birders can help out.
Frequently Asked Questions and Tips
- The images take too long to load, is there anything I can do?
- Click on the lowest segment in the resize bar to right of the image.
That will set the quickest image load time.
- The images look like I'm near sighted or looking through
out of focus binoculars?
- This is due to photo compression. You can reduce this by clicking
on one of the upper segments of the resize bar to the right of the image
(at the cost of a longer image load time).
- Why are there so many images without birds?
- The virtual trip has 2 purposes. The first is to present the birds you
are likely to see at a particular location. The second is to give a sense
of what the location itself is like. The second purpose necessitates
more views than we have birds to populate or that you would find birds in.
- Is there a way to skip the views without birds?
- The map is designed to allow you to quickly find most of the birds
in a particular location.
Birds are concentrated around the clickable locations on the map.
Clicking on one of these locations will usually take you to a view with birds
and usually to an area where turning or moving will also take you to
more birds. When it doesn't, it will usually take you to an interesting
or significant view of the location (like the entrance).