In recent weeks we have been working to make it easier for us to add new location/regions and authorities for you to record your lists against. The main difference that users will notice is the new location selector within "View All Lists" and "Create New List". Instead of a short list of locations, plus a separate drop-down of UK counties, we have now introduced a hierarchical tree linking all potential listing locations to one another. The "location tree" will include anything from the scale of the world, down to the scale of individual sites (coming soon). Locations can be selected either by:
- Browsing through the tree and clicking the required location, or
- Typing the name (or part of the name) of the required location into the adjacent box, or
- Selecting (or typing part of the name of) a location from the 'popular locations' box
We have taken the advantage of the new location tree to introduce a few new listing locations. The "North and Middle America" location takes the American Ornithologists' Union checklist as its authority, whilst the "Continental North America" location, and subdivisions of this (Canada, Continental USA, Lower 48 USA), use the American Birding Association checklist.
.jpg "Black-and-white Warbler (Mniotilta varia)")
.jpg "Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas)")
.jpg "Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla)")
.jpg "Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)")
We have also taken the opportunity to bring all of the existing authorities up to date, and have introduced new authorities for Ireland and the Channel Islands.
The range of locations currently included is not complete. To save on clutter, we intend to populate the tree gradually, and largely following the requests of BUBO Listers. Only locations that anyone wishes to record a list against will be included. Therefore, if you wish to add a list for a location that is not currently included then please get in touch with us and let us know as much information about the location as possible (e.g. name, where it is, description of boundaries). We'll try to add it as soon as possible. Some of our immediate plans based on listers requests are to add South America, Australia, India, Iceland, Connecticut, etc. When we have completed several of these large regions and countries we will then introduce individual site lists.
We have also decided to make the "View All Lists" functionality available via the home page to anyone, not just to registered users. Given that BUBO Listing is designed to be entirely transparent, we felt that this was in keeping with our ethos and might also attract more users to get involved.
As always, please send us your thoughts and ideas for potential improvements. In particular, as we are making a number of changes to the way BUBO Listing works, please let us know as soon as possible if you find any apparent bugs that might have crept in. Finally, don't forget to let us know if there are any new locations you wish to record lists against.