Please see: ABA Code of Birding Ethics
New Ways To Bird by Sandy Seth
March 28, 2010
We are lucky! In this new digital age, there are many new and exciting bird guides, and "apps" for use in the field and at home. I will be reviewing and linking to a number of them, and providing and links to other reviews and/or comparisons (this article and help guide does not necessarily represent the opinion of the Friends of the Bosque del Apache NWR)
These guides are wonderful because you can use them in traditional ways, like a regular field guide - you will see photos, range maps and details, but you can also hear bird sounds and calls; you can search in a larger variety of ways for a bird; and a great deal of additional information is packed into may of these easy to use guides. Many are created by the very same people who created the guides you probably already own - Audubon, Sibley, Peterson and so on, and others are created by the highly respected Cornell Lab of Ornithology or by the Mitch Waite Group and others. So, whether you are going to use your computer at home or in the field to look for and understand birds or whether you plan to use your telephone or iPod or iPad and go light and really portable, let's see what's out there.
The links previded below for the Birding Applications (Apps) mentioned here will take you directly to the pages where you will see pictures/views of exactly what you'll see on your iPod or mobile device, so, along with my recommendations and other provided reviews and comparisons, I hope this will help you with the New Way of Birding! Applications, as many of you know, are updated regularly, so changes and improvements which users want and birders request are often incorporated. Most of the apps below are well worth the purchase, and if you want to "carry the world" in your pocket, well, this is the path for you- (Buy all the Bird Guides you can stuff on there, and then add Mammal, Trees and Wildflowers ones as well. I am waiting for a Fossil Guide to come out!)
I have included a brief comparison of 3 great Online Bird Guides using the beautiful Cinnamon Teal as a test bird, and I know you will want to bookmark each of these free guides if you haven't already done so!
As for birding software, Thayer Birding Software is highly recommended, and has been used by many in the birding community for many years. The software is loaded and complete, and is updated as needed. birdJam, an entirely different sound and bird call oriented software has been enjoyed since 2005.
There is one revolutionary new "app" in particular you might not be able to live without, and it is a terrific accompaniment to other guides reviewed below. This one extends the bounds of regular guides and "guides you right to the birds," telling you what bird has been reported in your area or where you might be traveling (with maps.) "Using current observations being submitted by thousands of 'citizen scientists' in the United States and Canada, BirdsEye shows you what birds are being seen nearby." BirdsEye "combines the huge data stores and mapping abilities of eBird, photos from VIREO, sounds from the Cornell Lab’s Macaulay Library, and descriptions from Kenn Kaufman." We have an eBird Trail Tracker located at the Refuge, and the reports and sightings are reported on the main page of the Friends website along with eBird "Notable US eBird Sightings" (current reported sightings searchable by state) which is a very popular birding resource. (Note: BirdsEye - reviewed below - is currently available for the iPhone and iPod, but you can join ebird.org for free on the web. Also the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a wonderful free online bird guide called "All About Birds" which is discussed in detail below)
Before we get too involved with this irresistible choice, though, let's get started by checking other great guides to use after you find the birds with BirdsEye (or by being in a great birding spot such as the Bosque del Apache NWR!)
We will look at 1. Online Bird Guides; 2.Birding & Bird guide "apps" for the iPod & iPhone, iPad, the Andriod phone platform; and 3. Birding Software for the Mac and PC.
I had hoped to obtain some discounts for the Friends, but since so many of the online guides are free and the apps for the phone and iPod are available for purchase (and are inexpensive) on iTunes, there is no real way to get us discounts. Several of the developers kindly wrote me back, and I am still contacting others. I am hopeful we can get a bit of a discount from Thayer Birding Software.
First, we need to highlight the importance of the American Birding Association's Code of Birding Ethics because many of these applications are for use on portable devices (even your phone) so we need be sure that we do not use the sounds and calls to attract birds. The Code of Birding Ethics begins with the following:
"PRINCIPLES OF BIRDING ETHICS
Everyone who enjoys birds and birding must always respect wildlife, its environment, and the rights of others. In any conflict of interest between birds and birders, the welfare of the birds and their environment comes first.
Code of Birding Ethics
1. Promote the welfare of birds and their environment.
1(a) Support the protection of important bird habitat.
1(b) To avoid stressing birds or exposing them to danger, exercise restraint and caution during observation, photography, sound recording, or filming.
Limit the use of recordings and other methods of attracting birds, and never use such methods in heavily birded areas, or for attracting any species that is Threatened, Endangered, or of Special Concern, or is rare in your local area..."
http://www.aba.org
>>>go back to the top
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Online Bird Guides:
1. All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology - Online Bird Guide
This is an Excellent Online Bird Guide:
You can Find/Search by:
Most Popular Birds, Name or Shape or TaxonomyFor example, let's look for the Cinnamon Teal.
Let's Search by name and shape on All About Birds. We see a silhouette of a generic duck, and by clicking on that, we are taken to a page with a list of ducks with small photos where we see the Cinnamon Teal which takes us to the first Cinnamon Teal page which is full of information and other choices to click on. (I have chosen selected quotes from several of the sections merely as examples. If a section is blank below, I chose not to include it, but the complete information will be online)* Identification (includes general description, descriptions of Adult male -Breeding and Alternate and Eclipse plumage, Female and Immature, field marks, variations, similar and related species, and excellent range maps. At the base of each range map is a link to eBird sightings (see article on eBird and apps)
* Life History (lots of "Cool Facts:" like: "The female Cinnamon Teal often places her nest below matted, dead stems of vegetation so it is completely concealed on all sides and from above. She approaches the nest through tunnels in the vegetation.")
* Habitat
* Food ("Seeds and aquatic vegetation, aquatic and semi-terrestrial insects, snails, and zooplankton."),
* Nesting with nest description,("A depression on the ground, near water. Lined with grasses and down.") placement of nest, egg size, egg description, Condition at Hatching, ("Covered in yellow down with a gray-brown eyestripe. Able to leave nest soon after hatching.")
* Behavior ("Feeds mainly on surface. Dabbles with just bill in water or tips up with entire head underwater.")
* Conservation (Least Concern)
* Sounds -Listen to Calls ("Female gives loud, evenly spaced quacks. Male makes series of "chuk" notes."Courtesy of Macaulay Library, Cornell Lab of Ornithology.)
* Video
This is a highly recommended and user friendly guide, filled with information.
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2. WhatBird.com - Mitch Waite Group - Online Bird Guide
Very Good Online Bird Guide (Cons: it's a tiny bit less user friendly than Cornell's All About Birds until you get to the bird you are looking for, then there is terrific and detailed information with photos and great illustrations- )
Search Options:
Name, Shape (general shape or wing shape or bill shape), Location, Call or Song, Habitat, Size, Color, Family and MoreOnce on the Cinnamon Teal page, we have (I have chosen selected quotes from several of the sections merely as examples. If a section is blank below, I chose not to include it, but the complete information will be online)
* Species Overview (description and what follows below:)
Range and Habitat ("Cinnamon Teal: Breeds in western U.S. near Great Salt Lake, Malheur Basin, San Luis Valley, and Cariboo-Chilcotin parklands and winters in Mexico and Central America. Preferred habitats include marshes and shallow ponds.")
There are a number of photos(including a slide show-like feature with often excellent photos of birds -stationary and in flight) and there are wonderful illustrations,
Songs and Calls - Voice Sound and Text
Good Range maps
Interesting Facts (for example:"A group of cinnamon teal are collectively known as a "seasoning" of teal.)
Related Birds
Conservation Status
* Identification
Illustrations detailing:
This is an excellent portion with terrific drawings and detail under 3 separate drawings of Body, Head, In Flight, under which are details such as: flight pattern, wingspan range, wing shape, weight, and detailed color - Primaries, back breast, underparts, nape, forehead, crown, and so on.
* Behavior
* General
* Range and Habitat
"Cinnamon Teal: Breeds in western U.S. near Great Salt Lake, Malheur Basin, San Luis Valley, and Cariboo-Chilcotin parklands and winters in Mexico and Central America. Preferred habitats include marshes and shallow ponds."
Breeding and Nesting
"Cinnamon Teal: Nine to twelve white or pink buff eggs are laid in a shallow cup of grass lined with down. Nest is built by the female and usually hidden in tall vegetation 100 feet or more from water. Incubation ranges from 21 to 25 days and is carried out by the female. Young fly in about 49 days."
Foraging and Feeding
Vocalization
Similar Species
Breeding Location (includes Breeding Type: "Monogamous, Solitary nester" Breeding Population, Egg Color, Incubation Days, Nest Material and more
* Variations
Male and Female with illustrationsWhatbird.com, a web based field guide, according the Whatbird: "was developed as a free resource for the birding community. It quickly became one of the top destinations on the Internet for bird identification. Users of the Web site contributed comments, corrected facts, requested missing information, and added photographs. After three years, the WhatBird.com database contained identification information for all bird species in North America and was continually improving."
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3. Audubon Online Bird Guide - Green Mountain Digital
This online guide to North American Birds is very easy to use and is one of the top recommendations, tying for second with iBird, reviewed just above. Like the other online guides, it is free. To date, they have completed Birds, Trees, Mammals, Butterflies, Insects and Spiders, Reptiles and Amphibians, Seashells, Seaside Creatures and Wildflowers, and are expanding daily. The guides are easy to use, and all follow the same format, so that if you are used to using one of them, the others are simple and fun. If you purchase the apps which can be used on the iPod, iPhone, and iPad (and will probably be available for other platforms as well - see below) which range from $4.99 to $19.99 each, you can carry the world in your pocket! But, as mentioned, the online versions are free.
Search by "Quick Guide," Family, Common Name, Advanced Search, and Zip Code Search.
Trying the Cinnamon Teal search, for comparison brought us to the main Cinnamon Teal Page with a full description, range map (which can be enlarged) photos and the following sections: (I have chosen selected quotes from several of the sections merely as examples. If a section is blank below, I chose not to include it, but the complete information will be online)
We have on this page
* Family
Ducks and Geese Family Description
* Description
("14-17" (36-43 cm). Male bright rufous with pale blue shoulder patches. Female mottled sandy brown, dusky, with pale blue shoulder patches; face plainer than female Blue-wing's, but the two are often not distinguishable in the field.")
* Voice (three calls to which you can listen along with a text description:
A soft quack; various chattering and clucking notes.
* Habitat
"Marshes, ponds, and streams bordered with reeds."
* Range
* Discussion
("A western relative of the more widespread Blue-winged Teal, this is a sociable species that travels in small, fast flocks. Males of the two species look very different, but their close relationship is revealed by the females, which are very similar and distinguishable only at close range and in good light.")
* Nesting
* Similar SpeciesYou can also report your sighting, add to your life list, look at photo albums discuss on a forum and more.
This online guide to North American Birds features 750 species of birds in 22 Orders and 74 families. The guide covers all of North America's regular breeding birds-approximately 580 species - as well as ana additional 180 or so nonbreeding species that regularly or occasionally visit North America north of Mexico
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Birding & Bird Guide Apps
Digital field guides can be invaluable to birders, and are useful in the field for many reasons - not the least of which is portability, ease of use and volume of information. You can take 8 guides (or more!) on one small and light device! Although they are mostly for Apple iPhone, iPod Touch, some are being readied for the Apple iPad and Andriod platform. One important note to remember and which is worth repeating is that usually these "apps" are updated on a regular basis, so changes and improvements which users want and birders request are often incorporated. Most of the apps below are well worth the purchase, and if you want to "carry the world" in your pocket, well, this is the path for you- (Buy all the Bird Guides you can stuff on there, and then add Mammal, Trees and Wildflowers ones as well. I am waiting for a Fossil Guide to come out!)
See an excellent Birding app comparison page here compiled by iBird (this seems a very fair comparison although presented by iBird, one of the top app developers.) It does not include BirdsEye, but currently includes Audubon, NatGeo, Sibley, Peterson and iBird. See below for each of these apps and my number 1,2 and 3 choices.
See also a great article from from The Birder's Library
Book Reviews for Birders, and More...
titled "iPhone Bird Guide Comparison"
http://www.birderslibrary.com/features/iphone-bird-guide-comparison.htm
In addition, both brief and detailed reviews can be found throughout this article.
One of my favorite applications, and I know this will be one of yours as well is:
1. The BirdsEye iPhone and iPod app. This was discussed a little at the beginning of this article, and I mentioned using it as an accompaniment to other guides or apps. BirdsEye combines "the huge data stores and mapping abilities of eBird, photos from VIREO, sounds from the Cornell Lab’s Macaulay Library, and descriptions from Kenn Kaufman."
http://www.getbirdseye.com/
"BirdsEye is the newest location technology built for bird watching in North America. This is not another field guide. Rather, BirdsEye is the world’s only mobile application that GUIDES YOU TO THE BIRDS. Using current observations being submitted by thousands of 'citizen scientists' in the United States and Canada, BirdsEye shows you what birds are being seen nearby, leads you to great places to see birds, and helps you grow your birding life list with birds you’ve never seen."
"BirdsEye is Powered by eBird
eBird at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology pulls in more than a million bird observations each month. These observations are added by thousands of birders and reviewed by local birding experts – making BirdsEye the most accurate, comprehensive bird location mobile application." $19.99
BirdsEye was a New York Times app of the Week:
Read the glowing review here:
App of the Week: Spot Spring on the Wing
By Roy Furchgott
"BirdsEye uses the database of eBird, a collaboration between the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society, which says it collects more than a million bird sightings from volunteers each month."
847 birds in the latest update.... read moreAnd a Review from Birder's World:
BirdsEye: New eBird-based iPhone app finds local birds and hotspots...read here________________________________________________
2. iBird Explorer Pro- www.ibird.com
Birds In The Hand LLC
iTunesiBird Explorer Pro is "an exciting new interactive guide to all bird species of Nroth America...illustrations, photos, bird calls, a powerful search engine and comprehensive facts to help you identify and enjoy birds" It "puts the equivalent of over 4,000 pages of expert birding information in your pocket." no internet connection required. Available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. $29.99
Mitch Waite Group
An e-mail I received from Mitch Waite, states that iBird will be coming to Andriod in a few days, and I imagine he is working on the application for the Apple iPad also.See Reviews of IBird Explorer Pro.
Also named Macworld's Best reference App of 2009
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3. Sibley
The Sibley eGuide to the Birds of North America -MyDigitalEarth.com
Sibley, as always, is an excellent guide, and is shaping up to be a great app although many reviewers say the illustrations are too small, birds are shown perched and in flight from above and below. Included are very major seasonal, age, and sexual variation along with detailed coverage of subspecies and regional variation. Maps show range for winter and summer and migration and rare occurrence, and there are, as in the other apps, bird songs and calls as well. Now for iPod and iPhone, coming (probably) for iPad. Available for some PDA mobile devices, and coming soon for Andriod. Sibley Guide - iTunes $29.99
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Audubon Birds - AudubonGuides - Green Mountain Digital
iTunes
One of the exciting things about the Audubon Guides is that they are in the process of fitting what seems like Every one of their guides into an application which can be used on the iPod, iPhone, and iPad (and will probably have them available for other platforms as well)- to date, in the app department, they have competed Birds, Wildlfowers, Mammals, Trees and more, and are expanding daily. the Muilti-Subject guide, which is also available, is, in my opinion, just a taster and therefore too incomplete, and I advise buying the full guide for each specific subject. The guides are easy to use, and all follow the same format, so that if you are used to using one of them, the others are simple and fun. Soon, you will be able to carry the world in your pocket! (Audubon Bird Guide app is approx $19.99 to date, Audubon Birds of California is $6.99, Guide to Mammals $9.99, Wildflowers $9.99)
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National Geographic's Handheld Birds - http://www.handheldbirds.com/
$14.99 Based on the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, and very highly rated by customers, this user friendly app and guide to all 867 birds of North America has good content and is being updated regularly. Searching for a specific bird is easy and there are high quality images with good range maps along with informative descriptions and sounds. The ability to compare birds is simple and quick.
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Peterson Field Guide To Backyard Birds - WildTones.com
Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Prey
$2.99 each for iPhone and iPod Touch
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BirdsEye - getbirdseye.com$19.99 Please read the Review of BirdsEye just above. Top recommendation!
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Birding Software
1. Thayer Birding Software:
A standby for Birders- Mac and Windows. This is such strong, powerful and popular software available for both platforms that it is hard to recommend anything else.Electronic Field Guide that sings
Export songs and photos to iPod
Multiple color photos for each bird
Identify unknown birds
Side-by-side comparisons
Hundreds of fun quizzes
Includes The Birder's Handbook
Click to Compare Thayer Birding with others
Gold Edition includes:
2,850 Photos
708 Songs
551 Videos – including 493 new action videos
837 Abundance Maps
Thousands of variations of over 700 quizzes
957 Range Maps - including 695 new detailed Maps
957 birds seen in the U.S. or Canada - including accidental and extinct species
November 2008 additions to the ABA check
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Guide To Birds of NA 3.9.8
Number of Species: 927
Number of Photos 2,819
Songs 717
Videos 90
Abundance Maps 837
for more Thayer click here:______________________________________
http://www.birdjam.com/
Very popular iPod and iPhone software.Bird Songs and Bird Id through bird sounds and songs accompanied with photos. This is a great product, and BirdJam is works well on your iPod or iPhone. They also sell an iPod pre-loaded with the software!
You will need the Stokes CDs and you can purchase those on the BirdJam site. For example Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs, Western Region: 4 CDs is $34.98. birdJam Maker Software, Western North America is $59.
birdJam updates and adds great items regularly.
According to BirdJam: "Simplicity, speed, satisfaction. birdJam delivers the finest bird song collections with definitive photographs on an Apple iPod or iPhone. With the flick of your finger, you'll have instant access to the highest quality, essential information for bird song identification. It is fun, fast, affordable.
Since 2005, thousands of novice to expert birders have geared up with birdJam. Select a pre-loaded iPod with indispensable accessories, or purchase software only. Learn bird songs at home (we'll show you how!), then confirm the birds you hear in the field. Did we mention proven, portable and powerful? "Again we'd like to reinforce the ABA Birder's Code of Ethics because BirdJam has an emphasis on bird songs and calls.
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OTHER
Identiflyer
The Identiflyer is a handheld gadget that will play bird and frog sounds -- without a computer. A large selection of bird songs are available on cards you may purchase separately. You might want to replace the identiflyer with an iPod and birding apps mentioned above