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Bird recording software (1 Viewer)

i have bluebird technology's birdjournal. as far as usability on a day to day basis is concerned it's spot on, quick and simple to enter sightings,

as far as site coordintes are concerned(an optional data item), it is a little unconventional as it relies on a datum at greenwich, uses entirely numbers and it can tell you exactly where you are on the planet, rather than that normally accepted method used by british birders, which relies on letters and numbers and indicates a place on a piece of paper.

the local edition which is the most basic, allows you to record birds for your country, using recognised taxonnomic lists,

the continent edition allows you to record birds for your continent and the full version allows you to record bird for anywhere in the world.

the full version also allows you to create custom lists, so you can record such things as butterflies, moths, mammals, flowers, or even planes, trains and automobiles should you so desire, plus there is a users areaa where there are downloads available where other people have already made other species lists and have downloaded them to share,

since buying it i've had one upgrade supplied, they sent me a link, i downloaded it, it upgraded then worked.
 
You may want to check out this thread.

I have tried pretty much all of the products listed above but found none really did what I wanted in a simple yet flexible manner.
 
I've been using Mapmate for years now and it's really easy to use and you can pull all sorts of data from it. There are plans for an iPhone app at some point, but I'm not sure how far that is away. It's really not expensive to buy, but if you want the updates you have to pay a subscription each year, but it's worth paying for as there are constant bug-fixes/updates and improvements for taxonomic changes etc.
I forward all my data on to the local biological records centre, bird club and whoever else wants it at the end of each year! :)
 
WP & UK Birding Checklist app

I've downloaded the WP & UK Birding Checklist app which costs a modest amount from Android Market and looks to be quite good.

The developer Duncan Watson appears to welcome questions but fails to give any contact details. Does anyone have any information?

My problem is there should be a menu but it isn't there.
 
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Another vote for Bluebird technology. I think the usability and presentation is superb and it does everything that I need it to do.
 
Thanks everyone for your input to this thread. I too have been looking for a reliable way to store sightings and produce lists. I've been surprised at the relatively few options that seem to be available. How do most people record their sightings? Are you using software or spreadsheets to keep your records? I want to get a good system from the beginning of as I have recently started birdwatching.

Thanks for your help.
 
I've been using Birdtrack since I got back into birding around 2 years ago. If you are birding in just one place then it doesn't take long to setup a 'site' and upload a list of sightings. Even less effort to bung in some casual or roving records.

The improved upload tools now allow you to quickly upload up to 5000 records with a single spreadsheet. Its been a godsend for helping me enter the backlog of sightings that I had for 2010.

There are plenty of detailed options, which I did find a bit daunting at first, but as Ive gone on, my recording has improved and I'm noting the activities, sexes, direction of flight etc and using more of the bells & whistles, which will hopefully make the data that comes out of the system more useful to the researchers who use it.

The tools also allow me to slice & dice my own data any way I like, so I can search by date, by location, by species etc - and I can export the data into Excel and manipulate it as I like, outside of the system.

I also like the ability to pick any location in the Uk and to get a list of the species seen within a tetrad over the last 5 years. Of course it relies of someone having entered that data in the first place.

I don't see the point of having a system of my own, beyond a simple spreadsheet. Data is much more useful when its shared.
 
How good is support from Bluebird technology. I'm thinking of upgrading to that from a system I wrote myself some years ago.

We did have a problem initially with Bird Journal trial version not starting, sent a report and have not had a response.

If I am to change to their software I might need some advice from them about file formats for me to create in order to upload my historical data to Bird Journal. Plus if I pay that much for software I would hope for help whenever I need it.

Anyone here ever had to ask for help? If so how was the response

Kath
 
Hi Kath!

I have been using Bird Journal for some time now to record both bird and other natural history records. When I had a problem early on using the software because I wasn't familiar with various aspects of the system I had very prompt and friendly support both by email and telephone.
 
Choice of software

Hi everyone,

A few weeks ago I was looking to replace my aging sighting software. I can't say I did a thorough wall to wall review, but ended by trialing Birder's Diary, found it did just what I wanted, and bought it with the Cornell world taxonomy.

It probably does more than I need, and I suppose it wasn't cheap, but I think it is all I'll never want. Some plus points for me:
- quick and easy input, can use either common names or scientific, and enter all the sightings for one trip with minimal keystrokes
- (slight nerd alert) with a little technical know how I could extract and manipulate a CSV file from my old software and load into BD. Very sensible handling of mis-matched names and locations
- I did contact Jeff with a couple of queries, and got a very prompt and friendly response

(Serious nerd alert) It's clearly underpinned by a properly normalised data base. So, for example, it was very easy for me to create a new Location called "The Americas" and insert it into the location hierarchy. A proper data base means things just behave as they should (it's also what is behind the perhaps confusing "conceptual overview" at the beginning of the help facility)

I'm interested in the debate between PC based software and a central service (in "the cloud" if you will). Given the ease of backing up the modest quantities of data in any birding data base, and the fact I can't see the need to have it available in the field, I chose the local option. Any central service is only as good as the company behind it. It could go belly up at any time, and you could lose the lot. I'm not referring to any particular product, but to the principle. After all, you wouldn't want it doing a "Blackberry" on you, would you? |=(| I know that there are other views ;)

Cheers,

Dave
 
You all folks are very lazy. The best recording software is:
- in the filed - a sheet of paper
- at home - regular customizable database, like Access (DBase in the past)
 
davidedric said:
Hi everyone,

I'm interested in the debate between PC based software and a central service (in "the cloud" if you will). Given the ease of backing up the modest quantities of data in any birding data base, and the fact I can't see the need to have it available in the field, I chose the local option. Any central service is only as good as the company behind it. It could go belly up at any time, and you could lose the lot. I'm not referring to any particular product, but to the principle. After all, you wouldn't want it doing a "Blackberry" on you, would you? |=(| I know that there are other views ;)

Cheers,

Dave
Click to expand...

Personally I like to be on both sides of that debate. I am using a local db with now close to 20000 records and I am also a strong believer in a system like Ebird that allows my observations to be pooled with everybody else's and thereby allows us all to have strong database of bird distribution and one that can be used to answer questions like "how quickly have collared dove spread in north america".

As someone who has purchased a commercial system you probably already have thought about the fact that operating systems evolve and therefore you may need an update to your program, and you therefore hope that the providers you are in already will still be in business by then. As Ebird is supported by Cornell etc, your chance of that to stay in business is probably about equally good.

Actually, one solution that might have been better but which is local in geographical sense: the Danish Ornithological Society developed a country wide database with a web based entry and analysis system, but as part of the system you could also download a program that held a local copy of your own data on your own PC. As it is 9 years since I moved from Denmark I do not know how the system works now.

Niels
 
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You can download your data from ebird back to you PC. I made sure this was possible before invested many hours converting my records across (20,000 here as well!)

The downloaded file is csv, and has all the fields you'd need in order to move it to pretty much any other database should you wish, or should ebird cease to be.
 
davidedric said:
A few weeks ago I was looking to replace my aging sighting software. I can't say I did a thorough wall to wall review, but ended by trialing Birder's Diary, found it did just what I wanted, and bought it with the Cornell world taxonomy.

It probably does more than I need, and I suppose it wasn't cheap, but I think it is all I'll never want. Some plus points for me:
- quick and easy input, can use either common names or scientific, and enter all the sightings for one trip with minimal keystrokes
- (slight nerd alert) with a little technical know how I could extract and manipulate a CSV file from my old software and load into BD. Very sensible handling of mis-matched names and locations
- I did contact Jeff with a couple of queries, and got a very prompt and friendly response

(Serious nerd alert) It's clearly underpinned by a properly normalised data base. So, for example, it was very easy for me to create a new Location called "The Americas" and insert it into the location hierarchy. A proper data base means things just behave as they should (it's also what is behind the perhaps confusing "conceptual overview" at the beginning of the help facility)
Click to expand...

A decisive advantage of Birder's Diary for me is the ability to create ones own taxonomies (or to copy & modify any of the existing ones). I use this feature regularly for all kinds of sightings not recordable on standard checklists: hybrids & intergrades, escaped domestics, "non-established" exotics, birds not IDable to species level (white-headed gull sps, Setophaga sps), color morphs, subordinate taxa of various kinds (subspecies, subspecies "groups", whatever).
 
davidedric said:
Hi everyone,

A few weeks ago I was looking to replace my aging sighting software. I can't say I did a thorough wall to wall review, but ended by trialing Birder's Diary, found it did just what I wanted, and bought it with the Cornell world taxonomy.

It probably does more than I need, and I suppose it wasn't cheap, but I think it is all I'll never want. Some plus points for me:
- quick and easy input, can use either common names or scientific, and enter all the sightings for one trip with minimal keystrokes
- (slight nerd alert) with a little technical know how I could extract and manipulate a CSV file from my old software and load into BD. Very sensible handling of mis-matched names and locations
- I did contact Jeff with a couple of queries, and got a very prompt and friendly response

(Serious nerd alert) It's clearly underpinned by a properly normalised data base. So, for example, it was very easy for me to create a new Location called "The Americas" and insert it into the location hierarchy. A proper data base means things just behave as they should (it's also what is behind the perhaps confusing "conceptual overview" at the beginning of the help facility)

I'm interested in the debate between PC based software and a central service (in "the cloud" if you will). Given the ease of backing up the modest quantities of data in any birding data base, and the fact I can't see the need to have it available in the field, I chose the local option. Any central service is only as good as the company behind it. It could go belly up at any time, and you could lose the lot. I'm not referring to any particular product, but to the principle. After all, you wouldn't want it doing a "Blackberry" on you, would you? |=(| I know that there are other views ;)

Cheers,

Dave
Click to expand...

It is easy to get your data off ebird, I do regularly, and the advantage is that that your sightings can help other birders and scientists too. The only reason I can really see not to use ebird is not liking the ways you can enter data - particularly, not being able to enter sightings more precisely than just the general "hotspot".
 
That seemed to stir a debate, a bit unexpected but I am very new here.

I must confess that I hadn't thought that my modest collection would be of any interest to anyone else (I suspect it wouldn't) but I can certainly see the point. Is there any quality control? Or maybe sheer volume gives you the stats that you need.

I suppose the Rolls-Royce (not sure of the US equivalent) solution would be a system with both local and central components, so that we could have the best of both worlds, but I can't see anyway of managing it even if it existed (I have worked professionally on similar, non-birding systems).

On a minor point. Microsoft may be the Great Satan, but their backward compatibility record is pretty darn good, so I think it will outlast me.

Non-nerds stop here.

After thirty odd years in IT, to me this whole cloud/internet thing is just another spin of the client/server wheel. It may be the last, but I don't think so!

I think that's me done.

Dave
 
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