iNaturalist as a Tool to Study the Impact of Time of Day on Shorebird Observations

As citizen science platforms, such as iNaturalist, become more popular and data becomes available, they can be a useful tool for research purposes. In this paper we study the effects of time day on amount shorebird observations made by scientists. “Research grade” from iNaturalist was used, collected Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge in Palo Alto, California, United States. We focused following species, namely American Avocet, Black-Necked Stilt, Greater Lesser Yellowlegs, Sandpipers, Killdeer, Coot. analyze at refuge year 2000, present our findings. Shorebird are mostly during day, fairly uniform across days month, with winter months fewer summer. addition, majority were 2020 2021, coinciding COVID pandemic. observed that scientists likely to record larger, conspicuous shorebirds.