🐦 Bird Migration Java + MySQL Demo (Maven)

This Java project connects to a MySQL database and can be extended to explore bird migration patterns — potentially using real-world data from sources like eBird.

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✅ Prerequisites

• Java Development Kit (JDK) installed and on your PATH
• MySQL installed and running locally
• MySQL Workbench (optional GUI)
• Maven installed and configured
• Bash (WSL or Linux terminal)

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📁 Project Structure (Maven Standard)

bird-migration/
├── src/
│ ├── main/
│ │ ├── java/
│ │ │ └── com/craig/birdmigration/
│ │ │ └── BirdMigrationApp.java # Main Java source file
│ │ └── resources/
│ │ └── db.properties # Database credentials (not versioned)
├── target/ # Compiled classes and packaged JARs (auto-generated)
├── pom.xml # Maven project file
└── run.sh # Optional script to run Maven commands

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🔧 Setup Steps

1. Create the database in MySQL:

   CREATE DATABASE bird_migration;
   USE bird_migration;

2. Configure your database credentials:

   Create src/main/resources/db.properties (add to .gitignore):

   db.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/bird_migration
   db.user=root
   db.password=your_password_here

3. (Recommended) Use environment variables for secrets

   Instead of hardcoding credentials, export environment variables in your terminal or OS profile:

   export DB_USER=root
   export DB_PASSWORD=your_password_here
   export EBIRD_API_TOKEN=your_ebird_api_key_here

   These can be referenced in application.properties or your Java code as ${DB_USER}, ${DB_PASSWORD}, and ${EBIRD_API_TOKEN}. This approach keeps your secrets out of the codebase.

4. Build the project with Maven:

   mvn compile

5. Run the project:

   mvn spring-boot:run

   (Make sure you have the spring-boot-maven-plugin configured in your pom.xml.)

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🚀 Current Features

• Connects to local MySQL using Maven dependencies
• Reads credentials from db.properties or environment variables
• REST API exposes endpoints to:
  • Fetch birds from the database
  • Query eBird API for real-time bird data if not in local DB (e.g., /api/ebird/bird/{name})
• Saves eBird API results into the local database for caching

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🐦 eBird API Integration

• Base URL: https://api.ebird.org/v2/
• Example endpoint to get recent observations for a region:
  GET /data/obs/{regionCode}/recent
• Authentication:
  Include your API token in the header for all requests: