Private citizens in California have discovered and used the Tricolored Blackbird Portal, developed and maintained by the Information Center for the Environment, to:
- Report observations of color-banded birds to document surprising movements, and
- Access information that helped them to take actions that may benefit the species.
The Portal both provides information and enables the input of data, thus helping to enlist a virtually unlimited number of "citizen scientists" who may, sometimes unknowingly, make observations that are quite significant.
In December, 2008 the Portal was used by a city councilwoman from Leona Valley, CA (NW LA County) to record an observation of a bird that was color-banded by ICE staff in 2007. This is significant both because it illustrates the use of the Portal by a private citizen but also because this is the first time a bird banded in the Central Valley has been seen in southern California. As more than 77,000 tricolors have been banded over 7+ decades, this is quite surprising. Once informed of the significance of her observation, the city councilwoman put a link to the Portal on the Leona Valley Town Council website (http://leonavalleytowncouncil.org/default.aspx).
