Why is this project important?

We want to learn more about how eagles and other scavengers use private lands in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana. We also want to leverage the amount of information we can gather specifically about Bald and Golden Eagles previously captured by Raptor View Research Institute. Re-sighting rates of previously captured birds of any species are extremely low. By setting out carcasses with cameras on them, we hope to re-sight, and therefore document the location and survival, of these eagles. Though Bald Eagles have made a huge recovery in Montana and throughout North America, Golden Eagle populations are declining for a variety of reasons. Please see the Research tab for more information on this study.

Where do the images come from?

Our study area is located in the Bitterroot Valley in western Montana.

During the winters of 2016-2018, we had 26 stations set from the town of Lolo south to the town of Sula. All of these stations were located on private land, with the generosity and cooperation of many private landowners.

What are you going to do with my classifications I provide?

Your classifications get stored in the Zooniverse's database. This data is open source and available to scientist around the globe.

All of the re-sights we have of Bald and Golden Eagles will be submitted to the Federal Bird Banding Laboratory, as part of our national database of banded birds. We will be able to map the abundance and distribution of scavenging species all across our valley. Community partners working towards private lands conservation can also use these data to demonstrate the use and importance of private lands to wildlife. We often lack empirical data about wildlife when having conversations about land-use planning, conservation easements, and community benefits of open space.

I’m having difficulty identifying Immature Bald and Golden Eagles, how do I tell them apart?

There are ID tips and additional photos when you click on one of the 5 eagle options in the table. The Field Guide tab on the right of the screen offers tips as well. If you are not sure, don't ever be afraid to classify a bird as an Unknown Eagle. In many pictures, eagles will be hunched over, partially blocked by the carcass, or you will just not be able to see much. Again, this is a great time to use the Unknown Eagle classification.

How commonly will we see Bald Eagles versus Golden Eagles in these pictures?

We have a good mix of both Bald and Golden Eagles. The ratio often depends on the dataset. We are trying to post datasets that offer a variety of habitats so you have a good chance of seeing both. In general, Bald Eagles are more numerous in the lowland, agricultural sites, while Golden Eagles are found most often in more upland and coniferous forest sites.

How common are the different mammal species? I’m not familiar with wildlife from western Montana and I’m curious how common some of the mammalian species listed will be in the pictures.

When we started this project, we had no idea how commonly we would detect some of the Montana scavengers. From the pictures we have looked through, the most common hooved animals are deer. We have only a handful of sites with elk, and only one or two moose in the whole dataset. For the "canids", or dogs, coyotes are by far the most common species, followed by foxes and domestic dogs. You may rarely see a wolf in these datasets, though we have picked them up at four sites. Please review the ID guide for Canids in the Field Guide on the right of our screen. For the felids, or cats, the most common species you will see is the bobcat. We have one site with consistent Mountain Lion visitation, and just a handful of domestic cats. Finally, we have seen a few American Marten at our sites. Striped Skunks may be present throughout.

What should I do if I can’t identify the animals or the birds in the photograph?

Embrace the UNKNOWN!! You will likely see many pictures showing just part of an eagle, an eagle’s back, or a large blurry bird that you’re pretty sure is an eagle. If you cannot clearly see any of the defining characteristics to identify a Bald or Golden Eagle, please liberally use the Unknown Eagle classification. Even the experts will find many unidentifiable eagles in this dataset. And since each image is reviewed by 15 people, even if you can’t identify an eagle, someone else might be able to. So don’t stress out when confronted with the back of a brownish eagle- choose Unknown Eagle and move on!

I’m frustrated because there are so many pictures where I can’t tell what eagle species it is. For example, the bird is hunched over, and/or the wings are tucked.

We can’t emphasize enough that there will be MANY pictures in this dataset where you will not be able to determine the species- the bird is hunched over, the wings are tucked, the view is bad. That is what the Unknown Eagle category is for. Simply knowing that an eagle of any species is in the picture really helps us narrow the images we need to examine for our research purposes. And it is likely that a different picture of the same eagle will illuminate its identity; because of the 30-second intervals on our cameras, we usually have at least five pictures of any given eagle. That means that even if you can’t identify the species in one picture, at some point it likely changed positions and someone will be able to identify it in another picture. If you find yourself spending more than a few minutes puzzling over an eagle, it is better to just choose Unknown Eagle and move on to processing a new picture.

There is more than one eagle and I'm not sure what to mark?

This photo is an example of how to categorize multiple eagles, including one that is marked.

First, these are all Bald Eagles. Select Adult Bald Eagle at the top of the table. Then choose the options that apply to both adults. For the bird on the carcass, choose “I can see a metal leg band” and “I can see a colored leg band”. For the adult in the background choose “I can’t tell/I can’t see”, because its legs are not visible. Then click “2” for the number of individuals and finish by clicking “Identify”.
Next, choose Immature Bald Eagle from the table. The immature on the lower left is clearly unmarked in all ways, so the appropriate choice is “I can see both legs and they don’t have bands”. The dark immature in the lower right is tricky. The legs are not clearly visible, so choosing “I can’t tell/I can’t see” is just fine. Also, calling this one an “Unknown Eagle” is perfectly acceptable because it does resemble a Golden Eagle.
Remember, each photo is reviewed multiple times by different users. Don’t worry too much if you’re unsure, we can always go back and look at a photo that is in dispute.

Do I need to tag everything in the pictures, even animals that are not eagles?

YES!!! Though the focus of this project is on eagles, a secondary goal is to learn more about and document other scavenging species using private lands in western Montana. We also are interested in documenting the progression of scavengers at a carcass. So please classify everything you see, including those ubiquitous magpies and ravens. If everyone skips over images that do not have an eagle, these pictures are not counted as completed in our dataset, and we can’t move on to the next batch.

Should I worry about animals or birds in the background?

If they are easy to identify, then feel free to classify. But we really want your to focus on identifying animals that are near. Don’t worry about animals that are far and difficult to identify. If you just can’t help it, use the “unknown animal” button for objects that are far away.

What sort of timer do you have your motion-cameras set on?

Our cameras are set to take a picture 24 hours a day, whenever motion occurs, but with 30 seconds between pictures when there is constant motion. This setting allows us to minimize pictures of the species that are at carcasses constantly- magpies and ravens- but to still get multiple pictures of any visiting eagle; the eagles generally feed for at least 5 minutes, and sometimes up to 30.

Can I return to a photo to correct a mistake?

What’s Done is Done!! Once you hit the “Done” button, Zooniverse does not let you go back and fix anything. So if you forgot to classify a magpie, or realize you made a mistake, there’s nothing you can do. Mistakes happen to all of us. If so, hit that DONE button, and move on!

Lost? Just hit Classify

Sometimes after adding a comment or browsing through Zooniverse pages, you may find yourself unsure of how to navigate back to classifying images. For any Zooniverse project, you can always hit the Classify button at the top of the page, and it will take you back to the project photos you were working on.

What if I identify something incorrectly, will that skew your data?

Each image is classified by 15 people. So your individual mistake is not the end of the world. BUT, to help you make sure you’ve classified everything in the image correctly, please check either the classification table or the bottom of the image to see if your classifications are highlighted in yellow.

What if I see something in a photo that I want to ask a biologist about?

If you see something that you have a specific question about you can hit the Done & Talk button to enter a hashtag and comment associated with that photo. You can also head to the talk forum to ask any questions. We will do our best to reply and we encourage other citizen scientists to join in on the conversation!

Thanks For Your Help And Enthusiasm!