Best, favorite, or most desired e-guide device (1 Viewer)

[PlayFreeBird]

Ok Christmas is coming. I realize that the biggest way I could reduce the size and weight of my load is to substitute a Kindle like device for my guide books. What is your favorite (or best or most desirded) combination of e-reader (etc) and bird guide?

 

[THE_FERN]

Ok Christmas is coming. I realize that the biggest way I could reduce the size and weight of my load is to substitute a Kindle like device for my guide books. What is your favorite (or best or most desirded) combination of e-reader (etc) and bird guide?

When I travel now, I take 2 reasonably large Android smart phones (one as backup) and (usually) no paper. I did have a tablet but actually that was a bit large in the field. I either use apps or pdfs of paper guides. I take library of calls from Xeno canto. I use openstreetmap for Android (osmAnd) although others favour MapsWithMe. If I want to live dangerously/feel suicidal I might also use Google Maps for routing. I note records with ebird since I can use it off line. I use spreadsheets or text files to record incidental sightings or others that ebird is ill designed for. I use a separate Bluetooth speaker which I can place some distance away.

As for things I desire which don't exist (or at least I'm not aware of): good microphone for Android phones, proper database app which I could populate with my own tailor-made field guide info, better more flexible sightings app than ebird where it's easier to record ad hoc sightings, sightings etc for other groups and get the info out to other formats. Better software for organising and finding bird calls

 

[rosbifs]

I think the Belkin microphone is/was pretty good. I bought it for the iPhone but the dog chewed it!

The only problem with the xeno canto site and a couple of apps linked to it that I have found is connectivity. In the mountains and in places without phone reception it, and they, don't work...

One app that intrigues me is the one that recognises bird calls. I wish I had had it in Portugal last week. The differences in calls between here and Portugal are noticeable as are the call differences between here and the UK. It takes a little bit of time to get your ear in. Black Redstart definitely had a different chirp to the one I'm used too. I heard a Sylvia which I thought was Subalpine (even sounded similar to one on xeno canto - which I played) but I wasn't confident enough in 'foreign' surroundings...

When I first arrived in France I spent a long time chasing Blackcaps buried in bushes until I got used to their dialect. Where I live in the mountains even the Treecreeper has a different dialect between valleys!

 

[pppppvvvv]

There is an app on play store: bird sounds by mathieu groeneveld, which allows you to download xeno cante files for offline use.
So it's fine if you know the calls you want in advance.

 

[rosbifs]

There is an app on play store: bird sounds by mathieu groeneveld, which allows you to download xeno cante files for offline use.
So it's fine if you know the calls you want in advance.

I played the ones I wanted on a loop on the computer and recorded onto my phone...

 

[njlarsen]

I got started in the apple world rather than android. I use the ipad mini for bird apps (they also live on my iphone, but with my eyes I feel the images are too small most of the time). Relevant for the US is the Sibley app which I sometimes use in preference to the book even when at home. I have a few other apps for different places but have not gone to the extent of making PDFs from my field guides like the Fern.

Niels

 

[PlayFreeBird]

I was thinking more along the lines of an off-line device - an e-reader rather than a phone...

 

[THE_FERN]

I think the Belkin microphone is/was pretty good. I bought it for the iPhone but the dog chewed it!

The only problem with the xeno canto site and a couple of apps linked to it that I have found is connectivity. In the mountains and in places without phone reception it, and they, don't work...

Yes people have had success with iphone microphones, but I'm not clear what works for Android.

The only problem with the xeno canto...

Well you could be like me and download a library of call from there ahead of time and take it with you. I do this with computer scripts.

I think the "bird songs" app used to be able to do this but they changed it because site traffic was too great [or for some other reason]

 

[THE_FERN]

I was thinking more along the lines of an off-line device - an e-reader rather than a phone...

I use my phone "offline" in the sense of it not having a working SIM mostly...

 

[THE_FERN]

There is an app on play store: bird sounds by mathieu groeneveld, which allows you to download xeno cante files for offline use.
So it's fine if you know the calls you want in advance.

Yes this is the one I meant in my subsequent post [#9]. You used to be able to download all the representative calls for a region [what I do]

I sometimes use this app when I'm in country with access to the internet and find there're some I don't have with me.

 

[njlarsen]

I was thinking more along the lines of an off-line device - an e-reader rather than a phone...

My ipad mini does not have a sim card, period. Those items I have described having on there all work offline. Several additional items are accessed when online in hotels or lodges. If you are thinking about also reading books during flights etc, yes it also does that offline with the relevant apps.

Niels