Who Else Wants The Best Bird ID App For Their Phone?

The process of identifying birds has advanced significantly since the era of John James Audubon. For one thing, we can use technology to view our feathered friends and do not have to shoot them to get our hands on them for identification. Nevertheless the questions of how you can tell what species a bird is are quite similar. Birds still have the same parts!

For decades people relied upon hands on identification. Then there were some line sketches and detailed descriptions. The descriptions that contemporary ornithologist Peter Dunne has compiled are very much like those sent by the historic ornithologists and artists. He has also written an original bird identification guide with no pictures.

Early bird artists foreshadowed the picture and painting approach to identify birds, birders like Wilson, Bartram and Audubon were explorers and hunters too. With Roger Tory Peterson the pictorial identification process really blossomed. After that we have now seen Kaufmann and Stokes and Sibley as well as Zim produce some fine pictorial bird identification publications.

But to keep pace with today’s technology to aid with bird identification, specialized applications are being used with Smartphones and hand held computers. This has the effect of bringing online identification into the field with the naturalists and into the classrooms all over the world. A few of the recognized ones are described for your consideration.

IBird, What Bird and a new IPhone bird identification plan are among the latest. Are they the greatest? Are they all the exact same? Were there any pioneer techie bird identification programs that individuals still use and like? That is what we shall see. Some of the applications being discussed among birders include Audubon Birds, National Geographic Hand-Held Birds, BirdsEye, Peterson Guides and Chirp! Bird Songs USA Plus.

The standard Peterson Field Guidebooks for Bird identification have launched into the field of technology for identification via iPhone or iPad applications. Birder’s World magazine gave excellent ratings in October 2009. Many customer requests have been integrated into Peterson’s upgraded ID apps. The Backyard Birds version was discussed on NPR in January 2010 and in Audubon magazine in July 2009 in its first edition. You can easily download this from iTunes not only is it relatively cheap, you get super sharp bird images plus their sounds are included to help you identify the birds you see and hear. That is going well beyond what the paperback version can do. It has about 180 bird species which are seen often in suburbs and urban areas.

One particular bird identification program covers all of the birds of North America in one application with the same Peterson Field Guidebooks format for identification is called iBird. Functioning like like a search engine the iBird takes you through more than 1000 bird species with a minimal amount of information you gathered during the field to help you identify the bird you saw.

The query remains although, do you wish to take your $300 techie gizmo out into the swamp to go birding? Possibly. It is going to be lighter in weight than the bird identification field guide you normally carry. But what if your battery dies through the trip? You’ll rely on your memory and your field notes as you have throughout the past. Plus you must keep in mind to make use of a powerful and sure waterproof container or bag to protect your telephone or other gadget. Have fun birding now throughout the 21st century.

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