Glossary

Atlas code:

alpha-numeric coding indicating breeding evidence. Different coding systems exist, and are country-specific. Look to your local guideline how to use it.

Basic list:

list in which only the species compulsory for the protocol are counted. See protocols for more information.

Biogeographical area:

a geographical region with similar characteristics in term of native species.

Casual observation:

an observation by itself, that is not connected to any other observation, as in a list, for example.

Complete list:

list in which all species detected are identified and recorded.

Data:

All quantitative information collected about a topic that can later be analysed; in this case, a group of records.

EBCC:

European Birds Census Council (www.ebcc.info).

Extended list:

list in which all compulsory species for the protocol are counted along with other related species. See protocols for more information.

Format:

the way objects are arranged in space. In computing it may refer to 1. the design of a document (ie. font size, colour, margins...), 2. a command to prepare a support (ie. hard drive, pen, SD card...) to hold data, or 3. the way a document is saved on a computer (ie. a picture, a text, a table...). In the last case, each document is assigned an extension indicating its format (ie. .jpg for pictures, .txt for texts, .xls for tables...) that will appear at the end of the name (ie. Madagascar.jpg).

Interface:

in this case, the way the information is shown to the user through a web site (Web interface) or a phone application (Mobile interface).

Kanton:

Country-specific administrative defined area (ie. Kreis, province, comarca, county).

Municipality:

Country-specific administrative defined area.

Locality:

Physical place where a survey takes place. It may represent a transect, a point or a polygon, depending on the study.

Observation:

The act of noticing something. In biolovision, it equates to Sighting and Record, when it is reported.

Observation list:

a timed and structured way to enter your observation for a given date and location.

Partial list:

A list in which not all species detected are recorded.

Place:

A group of localities. Sometimes it may be equivalent to a locality, for example, if the study only contains one transect per square. On the contrary, in studies when a square contains several point counts, each point count corresponds to a locality and the square with all the points correspond to a place.

Protocol:

standardised way of collecting data. Different protocols follow different methodologies, and are country-specific.

Rarity Comittee:

an independent group of ornithologists evaluating if exceptional observations could be considered for scientific studies. See Rarity Committees in Europe at www.aerc.eu.

Record:

A written account. In biolovision, a written form of an observation, each individual piece of data.

Registered user:

someone using any of our software being logged in. To log in, one must register first.

Restricted list:

A list in which only the compulsory species for the specified survey are counted. See protocols for more information.

Shapefile:

Format to store, import and export geometrical data (.shp). It corresponds to each layer of a GIS project. Elements in the shapefile (points, vectors and polygons) can be visualised and modified with GIS software.

Sighting:

The event of seeing something; in this case, an individual or group of individuals.

Species list:

a relation of all species available for a given region from which you can select when entering observations.

Supersite:

A survey area that contains many localities and needs to be defied beforehand.

Synoptic map:

A map representing a summary (i.e. number of species, observations per year...)

Unregistered user:

someone using any of our software before logging in.