Boucher’s Birding Blog: Apps for the Smart Birder — Which One Should You Use?

Need an app that helps you identify birds in the field? Don’t bother searching for “birds” in any app store. Unless that thrush happens to be angry, those dozens of Angry Bird apps that pop up won’t be of any use to you.

So here is my expert take on 10 iPhone birding apps — Audubon Birds, iBird Pro, National Geographic Birds, Peterson Birds, and Sibley eGuide to Birds and two newer additions, BirdsEye (North America), Merlin, the newish eBird app and the old Kindle app (all are also available on Android phones and the larger, tablet format). 

Since I last updated, I am pleased see there are now lots of local birding apps (such as Birding Trail and Birding Sites Phoenix), many new game/skill improvement/listing/hotspot apps (like Big Year Birding, the Biggest Week, Birds Near Me) and a plethora of international ones (Sasol eBirds of Southern Africa and The eGuide to the Birds of Australia/Indian Subcontinent/etc.)

For this review, I will be focusing on the things that birders need for identifying birds in the field:

• Ease of use in finding a bird via image or search text function, for all from novice birders to advance birders;
• The type (photo or painting) and number of images the app provides; 
• How easy is it to listen to a song/call through the app (and how many songs it makes available); and
• Whether the app allows you to compare similar birds and in which ways.
• All 5 of these apps offer some bonus features — but generally, I am comparing basic features that all share. Of course, some things are a matter of personal preference, such as illustrations versus photos.

All of these apps need a lot of space (and a WiFi connection) to download (~500 MB+), but then you can use them offline when in the field, which is very nice. With new smartphones having lots of space, this shouldn’t be an issue, but older ones could struggle.

Step One: Identifying a Bird

A novice birder spots a bird in the backyard and would like to identify it. First you need to narrow it down — big, small, hawk, warbler, woodpecker, whatever.

But wait! Audubon Birds is already helping you do that. You can browse by shape (duck-like, hawk-like, perching, etc.). That’s pretty nice for the novice.

Merlin treats you like a true novice — and leads you through a series of questions: location (allow GPS use), date (useful for season), size (with a series of useful images), choice of several colors, and what and where the bird was. It then creates a list of possible choices.

Hidden in National Geographic Birds is a way to something similar — filtering the search by color, size, habitat, etc. — that should help narrow your choices down. iBird has the same filter-type list, although a little more hidden under its search function, and Sibley eGuide to Birds also has a similar function under its Smart Search — though not as clever as Audubon’s!

Peterson Birds has already fallen behind the pack — it only has a family list that I have to scroll through, with icons. Hmmm…that Grey Catbird that the other apps quickly pointed to is not so easy to find with Peterson.

BirdsEye is not really set up for the novice — allowing you to either search for or scroll through birds that have been recently seen in your location (based on eBird), but you really have to know what you are looking at to find it. Likewise, the eBird app is for sending in eBird checklists, not for figuring out what bird you are looking at.

Step Two: Confirming the Bird

Next, assuming you think you might know what the bird is, how quickly can you find it to confirm? And what type of images are they, how many and (lastly, and the most subjective) how’s the quality?

Let’s graduate from the catbird to something more challenging — a Wood Thrush. It can be confused with a few other similar thrush species and has a song that can be similar to others too (that is the toughest test). And remember — in all of this testing, time is of the essence. The quicker you can get to a bird, the better!

And now for the reviews. I’ve reviewed them in alphabetical order to avoid playing favorites. Also, the apps do get updated every so often (once or twice a year), but mostly with new images and bug fixes — new feature updates are much rarer.

Merlin

While this one is free (which is a big plus if you just want to check birding out), it covers 400 of the most common species — which is most of what you can expect to see anyway if you are a novice.

Merlin uses only photos (a good selection), has a good representation of songs and calls (singing and chip notes) of each species (it is from Cornell after all!), and includes a good size map of each species showing ranges in the North American continent south to Panama using different colors for winter and summer ranges.

You are taken through a series of questions and given a list of possible birds to choose from (based, in part, records on eBird). You can also browse all the birds. It has a search input area at the top and an interesting scroll bar of different shapes of birds to choose from, which means that similar birds (think vireos and warblers) appear near each other.

I did find the bar a little annoying if my fat finger strayed onto it while scrolling up or down — I would get a big jump (especially if using my right hand! (Note to self: use left thumb for scrolling!).

A note on the birds not dealt with in this app: this app is aimed at the total beginner/novice. Many people will prefer a more comprehensive guide sooner or later. All in all, it’s a great guide for people who are just starting! Bonus Feature – did I mention it’s free?

Audubon Birds

Audubon starts up quickly and has a nifty little search box as the top of the screen. Typing in “wood t” quickly gave me Wood Thrush, and one tap took me to the bird (took about 3 seconds). Nice! I could also browse by family to get there (3 taps and some scrolling) — but quite a bit more slowly.

Once at the Wood Thrush entry, Audubon presents me with four good photos (NOT paintings), with a range of options at the top: map; voice (more on that later); description; similar (more on that later); share and sightings. Voice is VERY important to both the novice and advanced user. Audubon offers 5 recordings for this species! Excellent! Birds don’t sing or call the same everywhere or even seasonally.

Audubon also compares the species to 11 others — a good range of choices, in mostly the same habitats — which is good. You don’t want to be misled by a grassland bird when you are in the woods. Audubon does NOT give birds with similar songs.

Another thing about Audubon I like, the great use of the eBird data (a hidden bonus feature!). You can search for Nearby Birds or search for a rare or notable bird, both of which are very useful. It can even use your GPS location! And the best part? It is now free!

BirdsEye (North America)

BirdsEye is a unique product in that it sources a most of its information directly from eBird (much more so than Audubon) specifically where birds have lately been seen in your region.

Birdseye has recently changed, and is now a global birding tool – so it’s useful for outside the ABA region (depending on the quality of data of course). I tested the North America version of it. It has a fairly simple initial interface, “browse birds” the first choice, and typing “wood t” quickly brought up the Wood Thrush (including a small photo-icon) and its associated monthly abundance graph (and a red-line for the present date).

Tap on that and you get a description of the bird. Tap on the photo and you get more and larger photos. Once in the description area, you can share the sighting, view photos people have loaded, read the Wikipedia entry, see latest local sightings (sourced from eBird, which is very nice), and lastly, hear what the bird sounds like when singing. BirdsEye also has a small audio icon at the bottom, which gives you a couple songs and calls.

Note: when you are browsing birds, there are 3 tabs at the top — an “all” tab (in this case 1045 birds), a “recent” tab (birds seen recently in your area), and birds needed for your list (if your list is up-to-date on eBird).

Apart from “browse birds” it also has an option to look at favorite locations, your world and regional list (as on eBird), local hotspot lists, and nearby notable birds (in case you want to chase down a rarity). However, for some reason (probably operator error), I could not get it to work for my life or regional list even though my eBird list is up-to-date.

Bonus feature – BirdsEye allows you to search using the USGS 4-letter alpha/banding code (e.g. BGGN for Blue-gray Gnatcatcher). While this might not seem like much, try typing “Black-and-white Warbler” with your thumbs, not so much fun! It also trains you to use the 4-letter code when using the Birdlog and eBird app; just refrain from using them in conversation — telling others you saw a HOWA, KEWA and WEWA might confuse (and probably annoy) them.

Note the price change of BirdsEye, which has undergone a restructuring. Where you used to make one payment, you now pay less, but have to pay monthly. Most regions are pretty cheap, so it shouldn’t be a concern. This might work well for areas outside the U.S., where getting songs/calls especially can be cumbersome (I get mine from the terrific resource: xeno-canto.org).

eBird Mobile App

Originally the BirdLog app, Cornell took it over, revamped it, and made it their own. The key for Cornell and the eBird project was to have a single, free and global data entry app for eBird.

If you use the web version of eBird, this app is a must. I use it a lot for eBird checklist entry — they have made it a lot more internet friendly, and are working on many nice new features, like linking to your individual eBird account and so forth. There are a number of checklist-input functions — including using recent locations, picking a hotspot from a map (you need to be online for that to work), creating your own personal location, and picking a nearby hotspot or searching for one by city or place. You can create a checklist for offline use, but you have to have created a checklist beforehand when online for this to work properly, and setting up future checklists (for trips where you’re birding beyond the reach of cell service) is also little clunky. But overall, if you keep a list, and use eBird (if not, why not?), then get this app. It’s a no-brainer.

iBird Pro & Ultimate

Next up — iBird Pro — the first birding app on the market! No muss, no fuss; either type in “wood t” or scroll alphabetically or taxonomically. Bingo, quickly to the bird in question — Wood Thrush. It’s a single (but decent) painting along with a range map, photos, sounds, similar species, field marks and other identification tips (bird specs), facts (notes), your notes, ecology, links to Flickr (more photos!), Birdpedia, etc.

There are only two vocalization choices for this species (one song and one call/chip notes, so adequate), but very importantly, iBird serves up two similar-sounding birds. Very nice! And iBird also gives the spectrogram for geeky birders who like to visualize the song. 13 similar-looking birds are listed, including some very unlikely European species.

iBird has done quite a few updates over the past year or so — like adding and updating the drawings, and added 3D force touch shortcuts for iPhone. Searching using the USGS 4-letter alpha/banding code (e.g. BGGN for Blue-gray Gnatcatcher) has also been added — just tap the button next to the search box to use it (it cycles through Common name/Band code/Latin name). However, even with all the updates, it’s basically the same app (which is nice).

There is now a more pro version — iBird Ultimate! It does smart searching of birds and has overlays of important field marks. Not worth the upgrade to me, but you might consider it if you are a first-time buyer.

Kindle

I have included this not because it is a true birding app, but because it can be used as a simple reader of bird field guides. Recently, however, some new print/hardcopy guides have come out with a Kindle version (like Birds of New Guinea: Second Edition), and it acts pretty much like the print version of a book — each page (or part of a page) is separate. There is some simple searching of text possible (like any Kindle book). Simple, yet functional.

The other way to use Kindle, if you have many old field guides like I do, is to create a PDF of the guide (either scan it or take photos) and send it to your phone or tablet (dropbox/box is a good option because the PDF is likely be very large) and save it to and open with the Kindle App. Once done, it sits on your phone for you can zoom in on pictures and read text, look at other birds, etc. Interestingly, it actually works pretty well! Especially when traveling to other countries, where there might be more than one field guide, old guides, etc.

National Geographic Birds

National Geographic opens quickly and an extra tap brings up the text search box, where typing “wood t” brings up Wood Thrush. The layout is neat, uncluttered, with the paintings from the paper field guide. Though small, the illustrations can be enlarged with pinch-zoom. A map and sounds icon appear below the illustrations.

Sounds are adequate, with one song and one call for this species, including the spectrogram. Comparisons with the songs of three other species are available. Under visual comparison, only one species is given, and it is an odd choice — the Brown Thrasher. It is brown, but much larger than the thrushes and a different shape, whereas the other thrushes are much closer in appearance to the Wood Thrush and much more easily confused when seen in typical thrush habitat of dark wooded understory. So points off there.

The Nat Geo app is up to version 3.5 (Dec 2013), and nothing major has been done to it for a while except fixing bugs and correcting data.

Peterson Birds

The Peterson app has gone through a major renovation. That being said, even with a new initial layout, the functionality is still pretty much the same as before. Only two taps needed to get to text search, and typing “wood” gave Wood Thrush as the top choice. A large painting, as found in the paper guide, is displayed, above icons for sounds (only one song), map, nest, ecology and family notes. The very simple similar species section shows only the American Robin — which is nothing like the Wood Thrush. You can also browse species by family icons, where it is easy to compare birds and calls by just tapping on the images, or a plain text list.

Via access through the new layout (bird search or bird browse) you can do some fancy new searches by county, share sightings, export checklists, etc. Illustrations are still the same (from the field guide), but you can now do some nice comparisons with other birds and it has a shortcut for information. Scrolling through the new layout, I found an identification guide to all the undertail patterns of warblers – quite handy! There is also a new function that displays current birds in your neighborhood (it uses eBird data). It has also gone up in price — to $14.99!

Sibley eGuide to Birds

Lastly — Sibley. Two taps (either taxonomic or alphabetic; no fussy scrolling!) to the text search and typing “wood” gets Wood Thrush and an impressive array of large Sibley illustrations for each species to scroll through. On the right are two small, neat icons for voice and a distribution map. The song/call section has six recordings, the most out of all the apps. No sonograms, but most people don’t use them anyway. Downside — Sibley doesn’t have listed similar species for each species, either visual or aural. In the initial search area, the “comp.” button will bring up both visual and aural comparisons. Sibley has the most illustrations, and for many people — especially those who prefer Sibley’s artwork over photos — this is a popular choice.

Sibley hasn’t had a major update in a while, despite a new edition of the print bird guide. But then again, why mess with something that is working so well?

A Final Word on Cost and Birding Ethics

All these apps are fairly low-cost, so price is really not an issue. As I noted, Merlin is free, but limited to 400 birds. eBird and Kindle are free. BirdsEye is also now free, but has switched to an in-app monthly purchase scheme (depending on region – North America being $2.99 per month, and global $4.99 a month).

One very good app, Audubon, is also free! National Geographic is still $9.99. And Peterson is now no longer bare-bones in features, has undergone a major update, including the price, which has gone up to $14.99.

Sibley, iBird Pro and Ultimate are usually $20 ($40 for Ultimate). But these can be purchased for a lot less if you get them on sale.

Sometimes these apps get discounted to just a few dollars, so keep an eye out for those opportunities, especially in the spring!

Important! On the front page of Sibley, there is a little reminder for all app users: “Please consider the birds and other birders before playing audio recordings in the field.” This is to remind you that playing the recording of a bird’s call, especially in breeding season, may be harmful if done near the bird in question. And may be illegal in some National Parks. And is always illegal for endangered species. And it will annoy other birders. So just don’t do it, ok?