http://www.birdguides.com/birdwatch Birdwatch•October 2017 65
The best tips, advice and more
66
The long and
short of it
Find out all about the biggest and
smallest wingspans.67
Be patient
If you’re waiting for a bird
to reappear, it’s best to exercise
caution.68
Q&A
Our crack team of
experts answers your burning
birding questions.70
News
Top Western Palearctic
lister breaks the 850-species
barrier.70
Listcheck
Northern Shrike has
been promoted to full species
level by the IOC.71
Food, glorious
food
Why now is the ideal time to start
restocking those feeders.EXPERT
ADVICE
(^) THIS MONTH’S EXPERT PANEL
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BONUS
ONLINE
CONTENT
CHRIS HARBARD
After many years at
the RSPB, Chris is now
a tour leader, writer
and editor, dividing his
time between Britain
and the USA.
EXPERT ADVICE HOW TO
DAVID CALLAHAN
Prior to joining
Birdwatch as staff
writer, David trained
as a taxonomist at
the Natural History
Museum.
❯
YOU can tailor your news from
BirdGuides using Filters and Alerts.
The former are available to both
Pro and Ultimate users, and can be
set up for the main sightings page
on the website and smartphone
app. App push noti cations work
around your Filter settings. Alerts
are available to Ultimate users, and
can be set up for Email and Text
Alerts.
First, log in to your account and
click on the ‘Welcome [your name]’
message at the top of the page. In
the drop-down menu, select either
‘Manage My Filters’ or ‘Manage My
Alerts’.
Setting up Filters
You can choose to ‘Add New
Species Filter’ or ‘Add New Rarity
Filter’. The rst allows you to set
up Filters for particular species,
while the rarity option equates to
any bird classed of that rarity or
rarer; for example, if you check
‘Scarce’, you would receive reports
Set up Alerts and Filters
of scarce, rarer and mega species.
If adding a Species Filter, choose
whether you want to receive rst
or all reports of the species, then
enter the species’ name and select
a location. Decide if you want to
allow push noti cations, then click
Save Filter. A Rarity Filter is much
the same; the only difference is
that you select the level of rarity
rather than entering a species’
name.
Check the ‘I want to see
untwitchable reports’ box if you
want to hear about news that we
deem ‘untwitchable’.
You can set up as many Filters
as you like. Adding and removing
them is also simple, making them
quick and easy to edit – even in
the eld.
Setting up alerts
The process of setting up an Alert
is similar to the above, with a few
key differences.
On the Manage My Alerts page,
ANDY STODDART
is Vice-Chair of the
Rarities Committee
with many years’
birding experience, and
the author of several
books and ID papers.
DOMINIC MITCHELL
is Birdwatch’s founder
and Managing Editor,
and author and editor
of several bird books.
He has been birding for
more than 40 years.
Email Alerts are depicted by
an @ sign, while Text Alerts are
represented by a phone icon.
Alerts are de ned by ‘triggers’,
which work in the same way as
Filters, allowing you to choose rst
or all reports, a species or rarity
level and nally a location. One
addition is the ‘No Reports’ option,
which allows you to lter out news
of species you don’t want to hear
about. So, if you’re on Shetland
and want to receive texts for
local and rarer species, but don’t
want to use up credits on
the inevitable multitude
of Yellow-browed Warbler
messages, you can lter
these out by selecting ‘No
Reports’.
Give your Alert a
memorable name, so you
can easily identify it. For
example, if going to Scilly
this autumn, you could set
up a Text Alert called ‘Scilly
Texts’.
You can switch individual Alerts
on or off by ticking or unticking the
checkbox marked ‘Enabled’ to the
right of the Alert name, giving you
a greater level of control over what
news you receive at any given time.
In addition, you can choose
which days of the week (and even
what times of day) you want to
receive alerts. ■
- Go to http://www.birdguides.com for
the fully illustrated version of this
How to.
GINNY REID is a
spokesperson for the
RSPCA. She also has
extensive experience
working with other
animal welfare
charities.HOW TO...
JOSH JONES is well
known as BirdGuides’
News Team Manager.
He has been
obsessed by all
things birdy since he
was a toddler.1710 p65-71 Expert advice v4.indd 65 14/09/2017 17:42:52