Reviews of birding software

Birds of the Western Palearctic app for iOS Josh Jones takes a look at what could prove to be the app release of the year for birders worldwide. Swarovski dG In a class of its own, Swarovski's new groundbreaking digital identification guide represents a unique fusion of optics with technology, Merlin Bird ID app Mike Alibone takes an in-depth look at how image-recognition technology is revolutionising bird identification on your smartphone. Collins Bird Guide app Collins Bird Guide has finally been transformed into an app - and it's a serious good piece of software, says Josh Jones.

Bird Tick List app Rebecca Armstrong tests out this new app that allows users to create lists on their iPhones to update on the go. Birdsnap app This image-based field guide to North American birds claims to to use automatically find visually similar species from photos uploaded by Submit your sighting Have you seen something interesting?

Latest Issue. On Sale: 23 December Buy Now. However, the search function is simple, consisting of questions like where and when you saw the bird, its color, size, and what it was doing. With this information, the app will show you the most common birds that fit your description, so you may find the species of the bird you saw.

It will also draw results from the millions of sightings registered by the eBird citizen-scientist project. National Geographic Birds is a much larger database usable by any birder, novice or expert. However, it is the best birding app for individuals with some mid-range experience in the field of birdwatching. You can either search for birds via the integrated search engine or search by location, size, or color. This way, you can identify birds that you have spotted outside.

The search engine is user-friendly, as the list of suggestions gets updated as you add more letters in the query. While the photographs are quite small, pinch zoom will allow you to make them bigger.

All 7 cameras we review have amazing AutoFocus, which is a must when trying to capture photos of small, speedy targets. It comes with an index where you can select a bird, and then the app sends you to its page. If you want to make things quicker, you can also use the search engine. Once you find the bird you were looking for, you can view illustrations of the bird and maps of the areas it populates.

The app contains illustrations instead of pictures, which provides a lot more details on the anatomy of the bird. Search Advanced search New posts. Search forums. Log in. Install the app. Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more. JavaScript is disabled.

For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. The Demise of Birding Software. Thread starter dixonge Start date Mar 16, I guess this has been going on for awhile, but I just now discovered that it seems as if most of the birding software out there, especially for the Mac desktop, has disappeared.

Either the creator has died, or the web site is gone, or the software has been discontinued, or - for the few remaining, the interface appears to have been designed before the turn of the century. I guess that helps me narrow things down. Basically I will end up using either eBird or iNaturalist. Or maybe both. My desire to keep my own records on my own hard drive that I can access without an internet connection is evidently no longer realistic. I hold out hope that I have missed some rare app, but I know that's just a pipe dream Andrew Whitehouse Professor of Listening Staff member.

Scythebill is still good:. Lerxst Well-known member. Andrew Whitehouse said:. Click to expand Lerxst said:. Yeah, that's why I built Scythebill - I wanted software that worked on the desktop, no dependency on an external provider. Hoping that Scythebill isn't what you're describing as "ugly" or "painful to navigate" - it's not flashy software, but I literally designed it so a self-proclaimed computer illiterate not going to name them here!

Just out of the gate, I do find it a bit painful to navigate.