Here are two birdwatcher apps that will help hobbyists identify feathered friends in the field, by both physical description and call or song.
North American Birds Sounds (4/5 stars, currently priced at 99 cents)
Presenting a North American Birds Sounds compilation app with high quality sounds and songs of birds found in North America!
Featuring the Acorn Woodpecker, American Golden Plover, American White Ibis, Ashy Storm Petrel, Blackpoll Warbler, Black Rosy Finch, Brewers Blackbird, Bullocks Oriole, Coopers Hawk, Gray Kingbird, Lesser Nighthawk, Little Gull, Mourning Dove, Roseate Spoonbill, Seaside Sparrow, Spragues Pipit, Tropical Kingbird, White Breasted Nuthatch, Wild Turkey, Xantus Hummingbird, Yellow Headed Blackbird and many more birds!
Bird Sounds can be played by tapping on a bird picture. All sounds can be saved as Ringtones, Notifications and Alarms by long pressing on a bird and selecting the relevant option.
Birds can be grouped by family or alphabetical order (with and without headings) using the Birds Sounds settings.
A Birdwatching checklist is included allowing you to tick off birds you have seen. Tapping on a bird on the checklist screen allows you to view more information about the bird on Wikipedia or perform an image search via Google images.
Mini games are also included helping you to learn the different birds found in this app: Guess the Picture, Guess the Sound and Guess the Name.
There are no ads present in this app.
Permissions are required for saving birds sounds. All images and sounds used are royalty free.
Audubon Bird Guide: California (5/5 stars, currently free)
The best field guide for birding! Nothing beats Audubon mobile field guides! With over 1 million downloads, they are the most trusted authoritative field guide collection in California—now for FREE! The award-winning Audubon Birds of California, the go-to mobile field guide resource, has been completely updated to the latest standards. Now with bird descriptions and data from America’s premier avian expert, Kenn Kaufman.
Also offers “Find Birds with eBird” powered by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology; 521 total species; advanced gallery view for easy comparison and search; field mark call outs; and NatureShare – a social community of birders who observe, identify, and share their observations and photos in the mobile app and online.
Key Features:
• Identify 521 species with in-depth descriptions including information on appearance, habitat, behavior, and more
• Over 3,200 images from the world-renown VIREO, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University’s world-wide collection of bird photography.
• Eight hours of the most exceptional, highest quality bird sounds.
• Robust seasonal and migratory range maps.
• Browse species in a gallery view and filter by shape, region and color, aiding quick identification.
• Find Birds with eBird – the ability to locate birds seen recently around you, drawing on the continuously updated database from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and eBird.
• Create a Personal Nature Account – post, keep lists, and share sightings with friends and followers on NatureShare and Facebook or via email with an easy and user-friendly interface.
What People are Saying:
“Now every birder can have the equivalent of a rare bird alert and comprehensive field guide wrapped into a single mobile app.” – Gary Langham, vice president and chief scientist for Audubon
“Instead of the hefty field guides, the apps give the nature photographer a very portable and lightweight library of natural history information.” – Jim Clark, Outdoor Photographer Magazine
AppPicker (“Best of” Lists, Jan 2013): “Audubon Birds…largely regarded as the best bird watching app…” 2011 APPY Award Finalist
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