[Project] The Birds!

[jessimckenzi]

Summary

I chose this dataset because I wanted to do something with nature, subtopic biodiversity. It's the most extensive database covering alien or nonnative avian species (birds!) in the world, and where they have spread. I found it while browsing through Data is Plural hoping for inspiration to strike. The dataset is pretty big (although it still has limitations!) and I spent a lot of time just playing around with it to see what might be interesting. There was one category that explained how the birds had been introduced to a new area, whether intentionally released, as stowaways on ships (!), or as escapees. Escaped birds! That's interesting. So I started focusing on that—which birds were the most likely to escape, whether they successful colonized the new lands, etc.

Most of the work has been deciding what and how to pare the data down. I can't map it so I've tried to focus on things that would be challenging to map anyway, like success rates (are they established? did they die out? were the extirpated?). I found that Budgerigars are one of the most frequent-to-escape birds, but they're not survivors.

Things I still want to do: edit the key to make it look nice; drop the label from the X axis; change the font of the labels; play more with styles. There are also more graphs I could make! There might be too many countries to do a stacked graph of "where birds escape", unless there's a way to lump everything other than the top 5 in "other" (?), but I could perhaps do a stacked graph of what they were supposed to be for (like the bird market, or for a zoo). Open to other ideas, as well!

The limitations of this dataset are that 1) it doesn't tell you where the birds originated, if known; 2) it doesn't say which qualify as "invasive" or what possible threat they pose (the spread of disease or the infringement on native species). It's possible I could pull this info from somewhere else to enrichen it, but not sure that's necessary for this project and its scope.

Possible headline(s): The Great Bird Escapes The Birds! The Birds

Data set(s): [The Global Avian Invasions Atlas - A database of alien bird distributions worldwide] (https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/11/28/090035)

Code repository: https://github.com/jessimckenzi/data-studio/tree/master/01-birds

Possible problems/fears/questions: Fear: This is boring! I'm worried about how to make it more interesting.

I'd like to try a second graph showing where the birds were supposed to go, aka Caged Bird Trade or Zoo.

Work so far

Checklist

This checklist must be completed before you submit your draft.

• [x] I have already spent time with my data set, opening it, exploring it, etc
• [ ] I have created a "DIARY.md" file to save links and list all of the terrible, no good problems I come across
• [X] My issue issue has [Project] in the title
• [X] My issue links to my data set(s)
• [X] My issue links to my code repository
• [X] My issue explains what I'd like to explore in the data set
• [X] My issue includes images - either inspiration or what I've done so far
• [X] I have received two comments of peer feedback on my pitch issue

[troboukis]

I like the idea of exploring this theme. I think that the analysis is excellent. I'd change the colours of the chart and the font to sth that is closer to the theme (e.g. more green, or exotic colours etc).

[SimoneLuc]

it looks good, interesting

characters to small ti read

[jessimckenzi]

Update 7/13

I played around with colors and styles in Illustrator to make a better looking stacked graph. I grabbed my colors from this website and smushed two that I thought were complimentary so I'd have enough colors for my graph https://www.canva.com/learn/website-color-schemes/

And WOW I know I worked on this late at night but playing around in Illustrator was practically the worst thing I've done all summer. It's nice to make nice-looking graphics but fussing around with non-intuitive controls to get the $*#&% y-tick labels to line up with the tick marks, and the x-tick mark labels to line up evenly with the bars was THE WORST THING EVER. This [design, design software] really isn't my strong suit and I'm nervous about how the rest of the summer will go...

Your project content: images/words/etc

Any changes in direction or topic?

Not yet

Problems/Questions

Was there a trick to converting objects to text because I ended up deleted all the objects and replacing with new text blocks?

Checklist

• [x] I have included my visuals
• [x] I have filled out the sections above
• [ ] I have been updating my DIARY.md with details about my process
• [x] I have uploaded/updated any Jupyter Notebooks or other datasets into my code repository

[jessimckenzi]

Update

Your project content: images/words/etc

I made a new graph to practice reshaping data and making stacking graphs:

Any changes in direction or topic?

No still focusing on the "Escaped Birds" theme

Problems/Questions

I tried out my new "personal style" and it's...meh. But a bigger problem is that when I export the pdf it cuts off part of the labels on the left side! Need to figure out how to not do that.

And, when I put in the rcParams code at the beginning of the Python notebook, to see how all of my practice graphs looked in that style, some/most of them stopped showing up! Why might that be?

To wrap this project up, I'd like to make the two charts look the same and make them nice in Illustrator, and to provide context for the graphs and explain some of my conclusions in words. And, I'd like to find little illustrations (open source/public domain) of any birds that I pull out for special attention.

Checklist

• [x] I have included my visuals
• [x] I have filled out the sections above
• [ ] I have been updating my DIARY.md with details about my process
• [x] I have uploaded/updated any Jupyter Notebooks or other datasets into my code repository

[linleysanders]

I love this concept, and I think it'll go really well alongside the conclusions you want to add in the final project. As we discussed in our small group, it'll be good to determine why the chart is cutting off and add an x-axis that gives a quick sense of the numbers. I am excited to see the final project!

[julialedur]

I love the colors, I think they really fit the topic you're addressing!

As improvements, I'd suggest:

• making the texts bigger
• adding a label to the x-axis
• Aligning the subtitles title

[jessimckenzi]

The Birds

Since 500 AD there have been at least 2,330 recorded instances of birds escaping from captivity or human control. I wanted to see what they escaped from, be it a zoo or the caged bird trade, and how successful they were in their new habitats.

Details

Published website version: TK

Data set(s): [The Global Avian Invasions Atlas - A database of alien bird distributions worldwide] (https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/11/28/090035)

Code repository: https://github.com/jessimckenzi/data-studio/tree/master/01-birds

What did you find to be the most difficult part of this project?

Finding something noteworthy to latch onto. There was a lot of info to parse.

Are you satisfied with what you produced? Is there anything you would like to change or improve?

I like it—I would have liked to graph bird escapes over time, but just didn't have the time (or the skills to do it in the time allotted)

Checklist

• [x] I have included my visuals
• [ ] I have posted my project to my project website
• [ ] I have been updating my DIARY.md with details about my process
• [ ] I have uploaded/updated any Jupyter Notebooks or other datasets into my code repository

[jsoma]

• Bold the name of the bird in the annotation
• Slightly bigger title, you could also make a subtitle out of the second half of the second title. If you do that push the subtitle down a liiiittle bit from where it is in the first graphic.
• Put a little bullet at the end of your annotation lines (and at the beginning, maybe?). lines that just end in the middle of a random spot are kind of a bummer. You could also have them end when they touch the bar instead of going inside, and in that case you wouldn't need the dot. Or make them always end at the center right of the bar, coming from the right (your lowest would be the only one that needed a redrawn line)
• Maybe light light light dashed or dotted vertical grid instead of the tick marks, but maybe not
• Walk over to the art department of your news organization and get them to use Illustrator to trace images of the birds, creating black-and-white vector art which you will use to decorate your longform piece about escaped birds

[playfairbot]

Greetings! I'm a little robot, beep beep boop boop.

You need some feedback, let me summon @mattrehbein, @ElinaMak, @nickospi for you

It looks like we need to fix up your your update a little bit! Edit it by clicking the pencil in the top right-hand corner. It requires:

• New, updated content for your project
• The checklist (be sure you're using the template!)

Maybe you just didn't use the template? If not, edit your comment, cut and paste the template in, and then fill it out.

[nickospi]

• I think you could put the name of the species inside the bar (maybe in white) in order to avoid having this long label on your y axis.
• definitely use bigger fonts on your title/subtitle and personally I am not into small letters for titles, but that's a matter of taste.
• speaking of taste, love your color palette.
• I like the facts annotations, but you could think of another way to add it there. Certainly use less text, and maybe do everything like the middle of the second chart, in which you have vertically stacked the text. I also think this would look better with a right alignment, but I might be wrong.
• I think I would also begin this article with a pie-chart (sorry Soma), or sth showing the absolute numbers of the recorded escapes you have there.
• interesting topic btw!

[mattrehbein]

Graphs look great, and it's a really cool and interesting topic. Really the only critique I would offer is it might make the info more digestible if there was a clearer hierarchy in the order in which the birds are listed. I'm sorry I don't have a specific recommendation there; maybe for the second chart could stack them in order of which did the best after escape?

I love the multi-layers of info in each bar. Also I'm sure you've already thought of this, but small images of each bird would be really helpful, as I'm not familiar enough with a number of the birds you have listed to be able to picture them. But I have no idea how to add images yet!

[jessimckenzi]

Final

Project visuals/text

Details

Headline: A Brief History of Escaped Birds

Published website version: https://jessimckenzi.github.io/birds/

Code repository: https://github.com/jessimckenzi/data-studio/blob/master/01-birds/birds.ipynb

Final data set(s): The Global Avian Invasions Atlas about: https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201741 data: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/11/28/090035

What did you find to be the most difficult part of this project?

Deciding which subset of the database to focus on

Are you satisfied with what you produced? Is there anything you would like to change or improve?

I'm pretty satisfied, for a first project! I still would have liked to have some kind of visual that showed escapes over time, but the irregular way of recording time in this database made that too large a task for the time allotted.

• [x] I have included my visuals
• [x] I have posted my project to my project website
• [ ] I have been updating my DIARY.md with details about my process
• [x] I have uploaded/updated any Jupyter Notebooks or other datasets into my code repository

[sarahslo]

i think my favorite chart here is 'a destiny avoided' because i can look at it quickly and get the story. you have succeeded in sticking with a dataset and teaching me something and that is a success.

why did you feel you had to keep all the data together tho? you worked so hard on the colors. but you could have separated the data into established/breeding & unsuccessful/died out. they are different parts of the same thing really, just nuance.

edit, edit, edit. take the data apart and then put it back together in a way that tells the story. you are very advanced here with how you've approached this. next, edit edit edit. (i don't know what extirpated means, is there a more reader-friendly word here?)