How to back up your birding records

In short: download your own records from each app you use (in eBird: My eBird, then Download My Data), keep three copies on two kinds of storage with one away from home, and download a fresh copy at least once a year. A printed copy is a good extra.

If your birding lives in an app, the app holds your records, and often the only complete copy of them. Most days that's fine. But phones get lost, passwords get forgotten, and apps change over the years. A copy of your own doesn't take long to make, and it protects years of mornings outdoors.

Key facts

• In eBird, Download My Data (in My eBird) gives you a spreadsheet of all your personal eBird records.
• iNaturalist lets anyone with an account export observations as a CSV spreadsheet, at inaturalist.org/observations/export.
• Birds saved in Merlin are not part of public eBird output, and eBird's help describes no way to download them.
• The 3-2-1 rule (US-CERT, 2012): 3 copies of a file, on 2 kinds of storage, with 1 kept away from home.
• The Library of Congress suggests checking your files at least once a year, and making new copies every five years.

Facts checked: September 30, 2026.

What to back up, at a glance

Step 1: download your own records

eBird

eBird lets you download every record you've submitted. Sign in on a computer, open My eBird, and choose "Download My Data" (on a phone, eBird's help says to tap "Manage" first). Then ask for your observations. eBird emails you a link to a .zip file holding a spreadsheet of all your own sightings.

Our step-by-step guide shows each screen: how to download your eBird data.

Three things to know:

• Only want part of it? eBird's Sightings Lists page can show your records for one region, place, date or species, and has a download button for just those.
• Photos and sound recordings aren't in the file. eBird's help page explains how to request those separately. Keep your original photo files on your own devices too.
• Keep the file exactly as it arrives. If you want to look inside it with a spreadsheet program, open a copy, not the original.

iNaturalist

iNaturalist has an export tool at inaturalist.org/observations/export. You can also reach it from the Explore page: choose Filters, then Download. Filter to your own observations, and you get a spreadsheet in CSV format.

Merlin

Merlin can save the birds you identify to a life list in the app. eBird's help page on Merlin says those saved birds are not part of public eBird output, and it doesn't describe a way to download them (we checked on September 30, 2026). If Merlin is where your list lives, also keep it somewhere you control: enter the birds in eBird, or type them into a spreadsheet.

Other apps

Look in the app's settings or help pages for the words "export" or "download". If an app has no export at all, it's worth knowing that now, rather than later.

Paper notebooks

Photograph or scan every page. Better still, type the list up: our guide on turning a paper list into a spreadsheet shows a simple layout.

Step 2: keep copies in more than one place

One copy on one computer isn't a backup. The Library of Congress suggests at least two copies of important personal files ("more copies are better"), stored as far apart as is practical.

A well-known rule of thumb is 3-2-1, from a US-CERT guide to backups:

• 3 copies of the file: the original and two backups.
• 2 kinds of storage, such as your computer's drive and a USB stick.
• 1 copy away from home.

For a birder, that could look like this:

1. The file on your computer.
2. A copy on a USB stick or an external drive.
3. A copy away from home: in a cloud storage account you already use, or on a drive kept at a relative's house.

Name each file with the date, for example "ebird-my-data-2026-10-01.zip". Then you always know which copy is newest, and you can keep older ones too.

Step 3: refresh it regularly

• After every big trip or busy season, download a fresh copy.
• At least once a year, even if nothing much happened. The Library of Congress suggests checking your files once a year to make sure they still open.
• Every few years, copy them to newer storage. The Library suggests making new copies every five years, or sooner if needed, to avoid losing data.

Open each new copy once to check it's complete. A backup you've never opened is only a hope.

Tell someone where your copies are. A family member or a birding friend should know where to find the files and the notebooks. Your records can outlast any one computer, but only if someone knows they exist.

An easy habit: do it on January 1, when your year list starts over. (Not sure what a year list is? See life list vs year list.)

Step 4: keep a copy on paper

Files need a working computer, the right program and a password you remember. Paper needs none of those. A printed copy of your life list, kept with your other important papers, is the one backup that doesn't depend on any device.

It can be as simple as a printout of your spreadsheet. A Birdfolio book is another way to do it: every species on your life list, with the date and place you first saw it, bound as a hardcover.

To be clear, a book doesn't replace your data file. You'll still want the file to keep adding to your list. Keep both: the file for your records, the book for your shelf.

A quick checklist

• Download your eBird and iNaturalist data.
• Copy any birds that live only in Merlin or another app without an export.
• Photograph or type up any paper notebooks.
• Save three copies, one of them away from home.
• Name the files with today's date.
• Set a yearly reminder to refresh them.

If you'd like to see what a printed life list can look like, page through a Birdfolio.

Birdfolio is not affiliated with eBird, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology or iNaturalist.