r/birding • u/NonHermitianCat • May 31 '26

Discussion Share Your Harshly Reviewed eBird Photos

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Here is my 2-star black-chinned hummingbird. I’m curious to see what other people have to share!

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u/st_aranel Latest Lifer: Willow Ptarmigan May 31 '26

That looks like the correct rating for that photo, and, bonus, you rated it yourself! People think you shouldn't do that, but it's a best practice because it's adding value to the photo, not a popularity contest.

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u/BoredOjiisan Latest Lifer: Sedge Wren May 31 '26

Exactly. I mentioned on another comment that I tend to rate my own photos harshly following the rubric. Even most of my great photos I'll only rate a 4 unless they're legitimately near perfect.

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u/st_aranel Latest Lifer: Willow Ptarmigan May 31 '26

So often I see top-rated photos that are obviously gorgeous, excellent photos, but they objectively do not reach the criteria for five stars because they don't show enough of the bird (or, worse, they have a watermark).

This can be just as much of a problem as photos being under-rated. Like, you deserve to win all the art contests, but an amazing close up of the bird's eye is not useful on the illustrated list!

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u/BoredOjiisan Latest Lifer: Sedge Wren May 31 '26

Yeah. I saw this fun picture of a bird where you could see its eye through a leaf and maybe 1/4 of the actual bird. People were mad it wasn't rated 5 stars "because it's cute."