About this Site

I created this site since I had a repeated need to sort bird names by taxonomic order. I also wanted a project on which to learn some web technologies. To that end I didn’t use a design platform but edited plain text to write HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP code. Linode.com offers a range of server options including an inexpensive virtual server which runs this site. I do all my work on a Macintosh, iPhone, or iPad, so I’ve done only limited, if any, testing on Windows and Linux platform. I have tested on Safari, Firefox, and Chrome on my Mac but only Safari on my iPad and iPhone. I do not have a mobile-specific website, but I used flex-box styling which should at least not lead to anything getting truncated but does not result in a nice layout on smaller screens. However, it’s still mostly useable. I might look into a mobile-specific version if there is enough interest.

Do give me feedback if you find problems, want to make a suggestion, or just to let me know how you are using the site. It is a very niche function.

Possible Uses

Aside from making a sorted list or a needs list, I’ve used this site for these purposes.

• Combining lists from multiple people to get a group trip list. Recall that duplicates may be removed. (The eBird trip report feature might make this use less interesting.)
• Combining lists from multiple locations and/or dates to get a trip-summary list. (Similar comment about eBird trip reports.)
• Spell checking a list of bird names since I’ve not seen a regular spell checker that handles them properly.
• I dumped out the titles of all my birding photos and sorted the list. This caught spelling errors I’d made and got rid of all the non-bird names. I then made a needs list from the resulting list showing me which birds I still needed a photograph of.
• Entering your name and seeing what, if any, bird you match to with fuzzy matching across the different taxonomies. Best to use a global taxonomy for more choices. I match to Merlin. I’m good with that.

Privacy

In the following paragraphs I detail data that I collect through your use of this site. None of it is personally identifiable, and I do not sell, rent, trade, or otherwise distribute the information to any other person or entity in any way.

Cookies and Site Data

I store data in your browser for later use by this site. Here is what I store:

• I do not use any cookies on this site.
• All of the text fields and option settings from the Main page are stored in your browser when you leave the page. It is all restored when you return to the Main page. I store this in what some browsers call site storage. For the technical among you, I use the Window.localStorage JavaScript API.
• Data from an unsubmitted feedback form. This allows you to leave and return to the Feedback tab without losing your feedback before you submit it. As above, this data is stored in the browser’s site storage.

Some browsers let you see this information if it exists. There’s usually a way to clear this kind of data. You’ll have to consult your browser as to how.

Logging and Feedback

I do log each visit to this site. I do this mostly for curiosity to see how much use the site is getting and collect some usage statistics to better understand how it’s used. I do not log any bird names, but I do log all the settings such as taxonomy, if fuzzy matching is enabled, and how many names appear in each of the text fields.

I collect your IP address. With this I can find out what city your internet service provider (ISP) resides in. From my observation, the city is sometimes correct and sometimes shows a nearby city. Every now and then it shows a city half way around the world. I can’t see your name or physical address. I collect this for curiosity purposes. This level of geolocation is the same as every other website in the world.

Any feedback you submit is logged. If you gave me an optional email address, that’s logged as well.

The logs are erased after review by me, but there is no set schedule—it depends on how much use the site gets and how often I think to do it. A log or feedback may be retained by me for as long as I think it useful to help improve the behavior of this site. I don’t keep logs just to keep them.

JavaScript

JavaScript enables the site to save and restore Main-page text values and settings and unsubmitted feedback. If you disable JavaScript, the site should work as normal but you may have to re-enter things more often.

Revision History

Current website version: v5.6

Version	Changes
v5.6	Everything on the Main page is saved to your browser’s local storage when you leave the page and restored when you return. I added a Clear Form button to remove stale data quickly. I did the same for the Feedback form. Updated to latest HBW-BirdLife, ABA, and IOC taxonomies. Added details about privacy, logging, cookies, etc. Added ID text to each GUI element for better accessibility. No longer crashes on purely numeric input data. Added tool tips to the Main-page options. They appear after 1.5 seconds of hovering your mouse over them. The downside is that if you use an iPad (I haven’t tested with another tablet), and you tap on an option, the “cursor” stays there acting like a hover, and the tool tip pops up. You can tap on an inactive area of the screen to dismiss it. I’m looking for a better solution. Moved the quick-start message to the top of the Main page. I don’t think this is where it will stay, but it’s there for now. Fixed a bug where some unknown inputs had some fuzzy matching applied even though the Use Fuzzy Matching option was disabled. A few UI improvements such as saving scroll position on the Main page and placing the cursor in the Feedback form when going to the Feedback page. Added a lame favicon.
v5.5	Added the Feedback tab with a feedback form. Changed the default taxonomy to eBird-Clements. Updated the ABA and AOS taxonomies to their 2023 versions. Updated the eBird-Clements taxonomy to its 2023 version. Either my methodology of generating the taxonomy entries changed (likely) or eBird added a lot of subspecies because the number of entries went up from 16,860 to 35,063.
v5.4	Added the needs-lists feature which caused many changes including new checkbox options and reorganizing the options. Added the Use Fuzzy Matching option so the user can select to use fuzzy matching or not. Was always enabled before. Added some specific cases for fuzzy matching such as mixing up European and Common in bird names. Added duplicate detection to the output since fuzzy matching can create duplicates. Used to only be done on the input. Fixed fuzzy-match counting so it’s accurate. Added the Include Taxonomy Numbers option so the user can print taxonomy numbers next to the bird names. Rewrote the Details tab for needs-list support and clarity in other areas. Added a regression test suite. While not visible to users, it should prevent me from introducing bugs to existing features going forward. Added logging of all GUI settings which should make for easier debugging. Added the script execution time at the bottom of the sort page. Updated to the 2022 taxonomies. Added an entry count to each taxonomy-info page.
v5.3	Added fuzzy matching. Added case-insensitive matching. Added output option Use Taxonomy Names. Fixed accented characters that got corrupted in the taxonomies. Added subspecies to the IOC taxonomy file. Removed duplicate entries in the AOS taxonomy file. Started adding support for custom taxonomies, but it’s not done yet.
v5.2	Added CSV support for input data. Added Keep Duplicate Lines option. Added execution time to log. Added taxonomy citations to the taxonomy info. If curly apostrophes are in the input, they match the non-curly apostrophes in the taxonomies and are passed to the output.
v5.1	Updated to the latest taxonomies for ABA, AOS, IOC, and eBird-Clements. Now allow up to 2,000,000 characters of input. Counts of input, output, and unknown names are shown. Taxonomy-info URLs are now clickable. Added a bunch of support for distributing and installing this website.
v5	Fixed logging so it works. Added this version table.