Filed under: Multimedia, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
This iPhone app is truly for the birds
Peterson's famous Field Guide to Backyard Birds [App Store link] has come to the iPhone/iPod touch, and in many ways it is a natural fit with the iPhone multimedia features. The field guide, which is a 92 MB download (!), contains hundreds of bird species, as well as the sounds of their calls, and of course illustrations and information about each bird.I gave the app a try in my Arizona backyard. First, you enter the first two digits of your zip code, then you are provided a list of birds that should be local to your area. The quail that were sitting on my back wall were on the list, as well as the pesky road runner that peeks in the window every so often. I also learned that the roadrunner is part of the cuckoo family. Who knew?
The guide has some quizzes that can test your knowledge of our feathered friends, and tests to see if you can identify bird calls. You can also zoom in on the bird illustrations to see more details.
Some users have reported bugs and crashes of the app, but in my testing it was quite stable and I can't report any problems. The developer does have a note on the App Store web page saying a new version will be coming out soon with bug fixes and new features.
I think the app needs a search mode so you can type in the name of a desired bird. The information about each bird is pretty thin, and when the lists of local birds is displayed it doesn't seem to be in any order that I can fathom. I'd also like to see the program work in landscape mode.
Even with those criticisms, I found the app useful and informative. The app is $2.99US. Birders will also want to take a look at iBird Explorer Plus [App Store link]. It is pricey at $19.99US but it has a far more expansive catalog of birds, and does allow for searches.
Gallery: Peterson Guide to Backyard Birds
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jash Sayani said 12:52PM on 2-09-2009
I have an iPhone and a Mac but no birds......
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Dimplemonkey said 1:08PM on 2-09-2009
I thought this app was going to be like a version of Shazaam for the birds. Basically, let the iPhone hear the birds and then identify them. Perhaps that's a future addition? That would be pretty cool.
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Peter said 1:40PM on 2-09-2009
Now that would be cool.
nature said 5:21PM on 2-10-2009
I'd love to identify a bird by its call but trying to identify a bird from its song or call like Shazam is almost impossible. It's even harder than converting human speech. First there are no existing digital recordings to compare it to like Shazam has for detecting music or comparing what you hum into the mic. Second birds have two voice boxes according to Wikipedia and therefore the call or sounds change all the time in volume and in frequency. Third birds have dialects depending on there location, a sparrow in one part of a city has a different song than one in another part of the city. Last the iPhone mic is not sensitive or directional enough to pick out a bird call from the background noise. Still we can dream.
Albenheimer said 1:28PM on 2-09-2009
how are these apps picked for inclusion on TUAW? I'm thinking payoffs....since me and a bunch of my iphone developer friends can NEVER get our apps on here...
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sporobolus said 1:40PM on 2-09-2009
i was excited to hear about this Peterson Guide because the printed books have a great reputation, but after reading several reviews, it became clear that i would be really disappointed by this app; you might say "$3 what they heck", but wasting my time with a mediocre app isn't worth it for me
i looked into the various iBird versions ... the article above must have been put together hastily, else it would have mentioned that iBird Backyard, the most limited of the series, lists more species than Peterson's Field Guide app (145 vs 122) and is only $5; the application's features are stronger too; -- i would recommend it over Peterson for casual use; the $20 version mentioned above is an order of magnitude more comprehensive than the Peterson, at 891 species; there does seem to be a culture of excellence with the iBird products, something sadly missing from the Peterson attempt
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JD said 3:55PM on 2-09-2009
iBird Explorer Plus is really a remarkable app. It's the first book I would actually consider buying for the iPhone, even at $20, because the whole point is that you never know when you might encounter a new bird, and in general you won't have your physical bird books with you. Now if only the iPhone had a 10x optical zoom so you could use it as binoculars...
nature said 8:44PM on 2-10-2009
I agree with sporobolus iBird Backyard is a much better deal than Peterson.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?id=297644126
$4.99
Peterson is a $2.99 backyard bird guide with 122 birds while iBird Backyard is a $4.99 backyard bird guide with 145 birds. Peterson has the ability to search by ZIP code. iBird has a search engine with 13 attributes letting you find a bird by color, location, shape, size, habitat etc. That gives you a lot more ability to ID a bird. Peterson has drawings from his book, iBird has not just drawings but multiple photographs of every bird. The one thing Peterson has that is missing from iBird is the favorites feature.
But the reviewer was not combing the app store looking to compare birding apps, as there are even more of them he could have reviewed. He just found this one and did a hands on review, so I think some of the comments here are unfair to him.
plexxer said 1:55PM on 2-09-2009
Do they sell an expurgated version?
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Mike said 2:27PM on 2-09-2009
The EXPURGATED version of "Olsen's Standard Book of British Birds"?!?!?!?!?
robseth said 2:51PM on 2-09-2009
Do they anything by Edmund Welles, the well known Dutch author?
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alansky said 3:48PM on 2-09-2009
There another iPhone app called Bird Songs that includes about 100 high-quality bird song ecordings. It lacks some of the features of the Peterson guide, but it only costs $0.99.
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RHenley said 3:53PM on 2-09-2009
And how does the reviewed app compare to this one:
iBird Explorer “West” $9.99
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=299569075&mt=8
http://www.ibirdexplorer.com/
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sporobolus said 4:02PM on 2-09-2009
RHenly, my comments above go to your question; West is just a $10 regional version of iBird, more birds than the backyard version, but fewer than the full version; i live in the west, but i often watch birds when i travel, so i bought the full version
nature said 9:05PM on 2-10-2009
According to the apps store iBird West has 711 birds while iBird Plus has 891. West is $10 and Plus is $20. So you get almost every bird of north America for half the price. Seems like a great deal to me.
dparent said 5:12PM on 2-09-2009
Stan Tekiela's "Birds of (your state) series is very good, it's a CD and (gasp) book combo. As an alternative to these apps mentioned. I'm just sayin!
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samuel said 6:04PM on 2-09-2009
I tell you what would be good for this app, if you could connect it to a local community that would have sightings recorded to a main database, or just utilise an existing online hobby database.. then combined with GPS your app would know where it was an list all the birds seen.. I think people who like birds like things like that.
Playing the bird calls would then attract them to you.
Taking a picture of an egg would return what bird it belonged to.
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Terry P said 6:55PM on 2-09-2009
Has the 101 ways to start a fight app been released by Apple yet?
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Bob said 9:09PM on 2-09-2009
I made my own 'Bird Watcher' web page. Check it out at: http://drrjv.com/birds.html
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Mike said 11:38AM on 2-10-2009
I'd love to see an app like this for flowers and plants.
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