iPhone Apps (1 Viewer)

Does anyone have any preference for any birding application for their iPhone or iPod Touch?

Tell me about your experiences?

I am gathering information for a presentation.

Thanks

I’ve down-loaded 8 birding apps on my iPhone 4 so far (not counting Angry Birds ), including 5 field guides (Sibley Birds, iBirdPro, Audubon USA, NG Handheld Birds & North European Birds). The 3 other apps are BirdTunes & ChirpUSA (N. American bird songs) & BirdsEye (a bird “finder”). Of the 4 North American field guides, the iSibley is the best overall & the iAudubon (by far) the worst, though all have their strengths & weaknesses. The Sibley range maps, for instance, though not bad, are not as good as those in iBirdPro. All 4 of the American field guide apps include sound files, Sibley leading the pack with a very comprehensive set of songs & calls, all carefully labeled with locality & (often) function as well. I haven’t had an occasion to use the North European field guide app in the field, but I’ve looked it over & have liked what I've seen.

Of the 2 bird song apps, BirdTunes is much superior to Chirp, its library of bird songs & calls being comparable in size, quality & documentation to the Sibley’s, & is the one I tend to use most often in the field because of various convenience features which it has & the Sibley lacks. I haven’t played enough with BirdsEye--the bird finder app--to give it a fair trial, but my initial impression (FWIW) is not favorable.

As far as I’m concerned, the great feature of these apps--the field guides & the specialized song/call apps--are the sound files. These have no equivalent in paper field guides & are extremely useful in the field, both for reference & for luring birds in for closer views. When it comes to the core function of the traditional field guide--the identification of birds in the field--however, the apps are less successful & screen technology in particular will have to improve a lot before I’ll be tempted to leave the paper versions behind.

Anyway, I hope this helps. But to really evaluate these apps you’ll need to download them yourself & put them through their paces. And, of course, I don’t have an iPod (though I intend to get one in the near future) so don’t know how the apps perform on the much larger screen of that device.

fugl said:

I don’t have an iPod (though I intend to get one in the near future) so don’t know how the apps perform on the much larger screen of that device.

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I think you mean iPad? So easy to mistype!

I'm glad someone's started this thread. I was certainly thinking along the lines of apps with sounds in them until I realised I could upload my CDs through iTunes. I'm not sure how usable this will be in the field (and it doesn't half give me a lot of tracks!) I'll give it a whirl and report back.

StarainBoy said:

I think you mean iPad? So easy to mistype!.

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Actually, it’s a mistake I sometimes make in speech too--thanks for the correction. I sure wish Apple hadn’t chosen such similar names for the 2 products!

I’ll be interested in hearing how your CD project works out.

My Bird Observations - bird list maintenance app

Thanks and another question

Thanks for the critique. I am preparing some information to present to my local Audubon society and wanted some other opinions.

My favorites are:

Sibley Field Guide for a field guide and list management. I tried one of the Peterson's guides to the Birds of Prey and didn't think it matched up to the Sibley. I also reviewed the Audubon and couldn't bring myself to purchase it just based on the illustrations. (I don't like the hardback guide either however.) I haven't tried the National Geographic.

Bird Tunes for bird songs. The user friendly organization is great and it has so many different sources providing you with regional variations. I like the game on Bird Chirp!

Bird's Eye is great for finding a location if you have internet connection. I am using an I touch. It isn't a phone and must have a wireless connection to down load information. For example: Yesterday we were driving from Northern Florida into the Orlando area and we had a couple of hours. We headed for a spot on the coast to find some shore birds but I could load current information on the road.

For internet sources of Information--Bird Forum is a great place to find great information and help. THANKS again.

Another app that I would like to see further developed is the Refuge Birds. It only includes a few refuges but is the only site I found that lists birds you are liking to see by season.


QUESTION:

Has anyone found an on-line site or app that contains bird listed by location and then by season for North America? The national park service or the national refuges should try something like this?

Hi, I think you're referring to my app Refuge Bird Lists. I have never gotten any feedback about it and so I haven't added any since the initial release. I got the info from Bird Checklists of the United States

I have used the Bird checklist of the US from the USGS and it is great for finding a full checklist of birds by season for the national wildlife refuges. I just wish they had it available in a down-loadable app. Another great site is the ebird.org website from Cornell. This one is connected to the BirdEye app somehow but I can't get the current information.

Hi
Downloading your bird song CDs onto your itunes is a great idea. I'll use this in my presentation. You wouldn't have to purchase any new equipment.

One problem I could see is trying to find a particular bird. It would have no search capabilities or index.

buckskin hawk said:

I have used the Bird checklist of the US from the USGS and it is great for finding a full checklist of birds by season for the national wildlife refuges. I just wish they had it available in a down-loadable app. Another great site is the ebird.org website from Cornell. This one is connected to the BirdEye app somehow but I can't get the current information.

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It's a lot of work and no one likes to pay. My paid app My Bird Observations is only 2.99 and creates ebird loadable lists. But I still get the feedback that some people feel this is an exorbitant amount.

chincoteague brider said:

It's a lot of work and no one likes to pay. My paid app My Bird Observations is only 2.99 and creates ebird loadable lists. But I still get the feedback that some people feel this is an exorbitant amount.

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I would be willing to pay that much for one. I think I'll check into My Bird Observations. Thanks for the tip.

buckskin hawk said:

Hi
Downloading your bird song CDs onto your itunes is a great idea. I'll use this in my presentation. You wouldn't have to purchase any new equipment.

One problem I could see is trying to find a particular bird. It would have no search capabilities or index.

Click to expand...

It is a tad overwhelming. There is a rudimentary search capability on iTunes and it's not easy to find. You have to pull down the list of tracks to get to it. Then you can search by name.

ITunes and bird songs

StarainBoy said:

It is a tad overwhelming. There is a rudimentary search capability on iTunes and it's not easy to find. You have to pull down the list of tracks to get to it. Then you can search by name.

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I see! It is like each bird is a song and the collection of similar sounding birds is a track.

Do you have speakers or do you use ear phones? I have seen some with speakers and they use them to call out the birds.

It's not even that organised. Each bird is a track and the tracks are in taxonomic order. You have to type in what you think the bird is, or what sort it is, eg. thrush, to narrow down the list of tracks. Unless you're familiar with the taxonomy when it'd probably be quicker to scroll to the likely species.

So far I've only used the built-in speaker.

Any Other Problems with iPhone Bird Apps?

It seems like there are 4 different types of apps:

1. Bird Identification
2. Bird Sounds
3. Bird Location
4. Bird Lists

There is some overlap as well.

While I understand these apps are good, they all have their weaknesses. If you had to point out where you've had some issues and what they're not the best at, what would you say?

Any of the types of apps would be interesting to know about.

I am preparing a presentation for a class of mine as well, and I am really interested in what you experienced (and less experienced!) birders have to say!

Thanks Bird Forum!

Issues with aps

The only issue that I have had is when the app isn't fully down loaded onto your device and requires an internet connection. Of course in the field you most likely won't have an internet connection which renders the app useless.

Some of the apps such as the one for the refuges are very underdeveloped. The app only contained less than a dozen refuges. Some of the apps don't have a review to read -- I guess someone has to be the first purchaser.

I have used my Sibleys App several times and it is great. I need to get faster at typing in the names of the birds so that I can get them all recorded. For example: We were out with a group of Girl Scouts teaching them about birding and they loved my app. We came upon a patch of berries that were filled with several birds. Getting them all recorded quickly was a problem.

I wonder if when I do the Big Day May count if I can keep up with recording everything using an app. I don't think I can type that fast or that accurately. I will probably use the voice recorder and then transcribe it to list latter. It would be nice if someone developed a voice recognition list maker for this application.

If you saw 5 cardinals, 3 red-winged blackbirds, 10 meadowlarks another cardinal, 2 Savannah sparrows, 4 lark sparrows and 2 more Savannahs as you were driving down the street, how long would it take you to make the entries? It would take me at least 5 minutes which by that time my fellow birders would have spotted another group.

Anyone have a good way to record population studies such as the Christmas Bird Count using an app?