User:Ngfio/Draft:Ornitho

This is a crude draft of a new article.

The ornitho portal is a group of online databases of observations of birds and other animals, providing amateur naturalists and scientists with real-time data about the distribution of species and their abundance. Originally launched in Switzerland, it is currently available in several European countries and is developed by the Swiss company Biolovision in collaboration with a number of ornithological institutes. Notably, the ornitho portals are used for collecting data for the European Breeding Bird Atlas 2 (EBBA2) and are one of several tools recommended for this purpose by the European Bird Census Council.

History and purpose
The portal was launched in February 2003 by by Gaëtan Delaloye with the aim of collecting bird observations in the region of Geneva, Switzerland, and allowing real time access to them via the Internet. It was expanded in May 2004 to the French-speaking part of Switzerland and then again in January 2007 to cover whole Switzerland. The number of annually submitted observations increased steadily since then. In the period 2013–2016 data for the breeding bird atlas were collected via ornitho.ch.

In spring 2016, ornitho.ch was expanded to allow the additions of observations of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and certain insects.

As of 2021, ornitho is available in several European countries. Its functioning is enabled by the Swiss company Biolovision, lead by Gaëtan Delaloye, which grants the licence to use the software and which does hosting and daily back-up of the portal data. Ornitho is supported by several large non-governmental organizations, which collaborate with one another and with Biolovision to improve the functionality of the portal.

Features
Ornitho documents the presence of species. The websites allow users to record their observations together with detailed information, e.g., precise location of sighting, photographs, sound recordings, breeding criteria. Participants can also search the database and view observations made in a given place and time.

Instead of single observations, the users can submit full observation lists in which they note all species detected in one location together with observation time. Such full observation list are more useful for scientific analyses as they provide information about the presence and absence of species and the time spend on the observations.

Observation can be submitted directly in the field, by using the NaturaList app for android smartphones. The app can be used without access to the mobile network: the observations can be first saved offline and later uploaded to ornitho.

Ornitho is a free service. The cummulative data is backed-up daily and is available on the website.

TODO: avifaunistic comissions, ringing, etc.

Austria
ornitho.at is supported by the BirdLife Österreich (de). The portal is available in English, and German. It collects only observations of birds.

France
Originally available at ornitho.fr, the French version of the portal moved to www.faune-france.org and offers additional features. Several local versions of the website, including those for overseas departments of France like French Guiana, Martinique, and Réunion are also available. The portal is supported by the Ligue for protection of birds (fr) and many other French non-governmental organizationa and is available in French and English. Users can submit observations of birds, mammals, marine mammals, reptiles, amphibians, dragonflies, butterflies, moths, orthoptera, hymenoptera, mantises, cicadas, true bugs, beetles, net-winged insects, true flies, stick insects, spiders, scorpions, fish, crayfish, snails, mussels, and branchiopoda.

Germany and Luxemburg
A single portal, available under both ornitho.de and ornitho.lu, is available for Germany and Luxemburg. It is supported by the Federation of German Avifaunists (de) and Central Ornithologique of natur&emwelt. The portal is available in English, French, and German. It collects only observations of birds.

Italy
ornitho.it is supported by LIPU, Centro Italiano Studi Ornitologici, and EBN Italia. The portal is available in Italian, English, French, and German. It collects observations of birds, bats, mammals, marine mammals, reptiles, amphibians, dragonflies, butterflies, moths, hymenoptera, orchids, true bugs, beetles, fish, crayfish, and plants.

Poland
ornitho.pl is active since May 2015 and replaced the portal Awibaza. It is supported by the Polish Society for the Protection of Birds The portal is available in Polish, English, French, and German. Users can submit observations of birds, bats, mammals, marine mammals, reptiles, amphibians, dragonflies, orthoptera, and mantises.

Spain
In Spain ornitho is available for the regions of Catalonia, ornitho.cat, and the Basque Country, ornitho.eus.

The Catalonian version is supported by the Catalan Ornithological Institute. It is available in Catalan, English, French, and Spanish. Users can submit observations of birds, bats, mammals, marine mammals, reptiles, amphibians, dragonflies, butterflies, orthoptera, orchids, cicadas, beetles, freshwater fish, crayfish, and mussels.

The Basque version is an initiative of the Aranzadi Sciences Society (eu) in conjunction with with other public administration entities and naturalist organizations. It is available in Basque, English, French, and Spanish. Users can submit observations of birds, bats, mammals, marine mammals, reptiles, amphibians, dragonflies, butterflies, moths, orthoptera, hymenoptera, orchids, beetles, spiders, mussels, and plants.

Switzerland
ornitho.ch is the official birding exchange platform in Switzerland and is supported by the Swiss Ornithological Institute, as well as the Swiss Society for Ornithology and Bird Protection "Ala", the Association for the Study and Conservation of Birds of Italian-speaking Switzerland "Ficedula", and the society "Nos Oiseaux". The portal is available in English, French, German, and Italian. Users can submit observations of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, dragonflies, butterflies, and orthoptera.

Research
https://www.vogelwarte.ch/en/projects/population-trends/state-of-birds-2017/ornitho.ch-a-wealth-of-data-for-many-purposes