Overview
This map series was created as part of my advanced GIS course final project. I used bird feeder visitation data from Project FeederWatch to develop a map series showing the spatial distribution of observations in each major U.S. metro area. The main tools used for this project were ArcGIS Pro and Python, specifically arcpy.
2020 U.S. Census Urban Areas
To represent urban spaces for our exploration, we will use the 2020 U.S. Census designated urban boundaries. The definition used by the Census is “an urban area will comprise a densely settled core of census blocks that meet minimum housing unit density and/or population density requirements”. The U.S. Census and Esri maintain an ArcGIS Feature Service for this layer, which can be queried at: USA Census Urban Areas.
FeederWatch Bird Observation Data
To represent bird species occurence for our exploration, we will use the 2021-2023 dataset from Project FeederWatch. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology maintains raw data downloads available in .csv format at https://feederwatch.org/explore/raw-dataset-requests/. Data for this project were downloaded directly from the “checklist data 2021-2023” link under RAW DATA ACCESS.
Setup & Configuration
- Import Modules & Set Environmental Settings
- Loading & Filtering U.S. Urban Areas
- Loading & Filtering Bird Observation Data
Geoprocessing
- Reprojection & Feature Layers
- Cluster & Outlier Detection
- Standard Deviational Ellipse Development
Map Generation
- Mapping Folder & Layer Configuration
- Iterative Map Production
Final Result
Here is the resulting product, a PDF map series with consistent styling and symbology. The full notebook, which outlines the complete methods and steps performed, can be found in this GitHub repo. I am excited to build upon this workflow to develop automated techniques of map creation for other projects as well.