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I'm starting to get into birding. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good app to keep track of what birds you (and maybe others?) have seen? I'm thinking b

I'm starting to get into birding. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good app to keep track of what birds you (and maybe others?) have seen? I'm thinking both for journaling / logging purposes so you know what you've seen before, and to know where good places to go are to see certain species.

cos2pi 7y ago
Give eBird [0] a try, also from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. [0] https://ebird.org/home https://ebird.org/home
noahth 7y ago
Someone's already given the biggest answer (eBird), but a good supplementary app for help with identification is the Audubon app. You can do checklists in Audubon too, but eBird is better for that, plus has the bonus of submitting your lists for science.
fxleach 7y ago
Not a journaling/checklist kind of app but if you need help identifying a bird and can snap a picture of it there is an app called iNaturalist. It has a really good ID system, and if it can't give you any suggestions other people using the app will be able to suggest an ID. It's also not limited to birds.
ses4j 7y ago
eBird. It is the defacto site worldwide for logging bird sightings. It is free, the app is simple and powerful, and you are contributing to science every time you use it. (It is a product of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and they and other scientists around the world use the data heavily for many purposes). Also, it has lots of tools that help you learn the birds (and birders) in your area - localized histograms of sighting frequency, custom lists of birds you haven't reported yet, lists of nearby hotspots... As far as identifying, get a field guide (Petersen's, Sibley's are good in the US). There are good forums with talented people helping if you submit pictures on reddit.com/r/whatsthisbird or on Facebook "What's this Bird?" group.
- mongol 7y ago
  Ebird may have larger reach than any other but species sightings databases are usually mainly local / national. There are more records stored in these local databases than in Ebird. So I would answer, "it depends where you live".

cos2pi 7y ago

Give eBird [0] a try, also from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. [0] https://ebird.org/home https://ebird.org/home

noahth 7y ago

Someone's already given the biggest answer (eBird), but a good supplementary app for help with identification is the Audubon app. You can do checklists in Audubon too, but eBird is better for that, plus has the bonus of submitting your lists for science.

fxleach 7y ago

Not a journaling/checklist kind of app but if you need help identifying a bird and can snap a picture of it there is an app called iNaturalist. It has a really good ID system, and if it can't give you any suggestions other people using the app will be able to suggest an ID. It's also not limited to birds.

ses4j 7y ago

eBird. It is the defacto site worldwide for logging bird sightings. It is free, the app is simple and powerful, and you are contributing to science every time you use it. (It is a product of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and they and other scientists around the world use the data heavily for many purposes). Also, it has lots of tools that help you learn the birds (and birders) in your area - localized histograms of sighting frequency, custom lists of birds you haven't reported yet, lists of nearby hotspots... As far as identifying, get a field guide (Petersen's, Sibley's are good in the US). There are good forums with talented people helping if you submit pictures on reddit.com/r/whatsthisbird or on Facebook "What's this Bird?" group.

mongol 7y ago
Ebird may have larger reach than any other but species sightings databases are usually mainly local / national. There are more records stored in these local databases than in Ebird. So I would answer, "it depends where you live".