Comparing user features and ease of use to previously review LeafSnap
The Audubon Bird Guide App is a great free resource for identifying bird species. It does not identify birds from pictures in the way that LeafSnap does for the plant kingdom. However, thinking it over, it is much easier to catch a good solid picture of a plant (that can't move) than of a bird from a further distance that is about to fly away. If you are like me and are as much an amateur photographer as you are a bird and plant species identifier, capturing a clear, in focus, close up photo of a bird is a challenge yet to be achieved. In order for these apps to identify organisms, the picture should be very clear, so it makes sense that Audubon would not work in the same way as LeafSnap.
I used the Audubon app to identify birds this past winter season for the FeederWatch Project that I participated in for a class. It has many excellent tools to help with identification that we will talk about more as we work through identifying a bird that my Aunt has visiting her feeder. The app boasts that it can identify more than 800 species of birds across North America, and is a free and complete detailed guide for all usage levels (Audubon Bird Guide App, 2022).
Here is the picture my Aunt sent me at her feeder, so I opened up the app. A few features it presents allows you to track and record bird sightings, tracks number of birds seen, and provides alerts (notifications). You can also explore others logged bird sightings, search the field guide and identify a bird. I selected "Identify a bird" to move forward in checking out this app's features.
The next step, which I think is very important, is that it preselects your state and the month. This allows you to narrow down the birds you are most likely seeing in your area during a given time of year. Then you can start searching by size, color, type, activity, habitat, voice, wing shape, and tail shape. The app allows you to select from more than one category to hone in your most likely options. I think this is an amazing feature, that allows you flexibility in how you search and identify your viewed bird species. I chose "color" and selected "blue obviously."
At this point, I think it was easy to identify our bird as an Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea). By clicking on the bird itself we are given a very detailed guide (unlike with plant species using LeafSnap).
It has options to review the bird's descriptions, other logged sightings, and other similar birds. You can add a sighting and flag the bird to look at or record more data for later. It lists the family, a description of the birds appearance, explains and provides sounds of the birds calls (5 different calls/songs to hear from the indigo bunting), its range, conservation status, discussion, habitat, feeding behavior, diet, nesting, and eggs.
The detail provided in the Audubon Bird Guide App is impressive and covers everything you need to make a proper identification of an observed bird species. It is a one-stop-shop sort of app that keeps you from having to complete a google search to learn specific things about its behaviors, range and conservation. Although many of us would prefer to be able to just snap a pic and have the app tell us what the bird is, this extensive identification guide is much more likely to help us create an accurate identification.
Resources:
Audubon Bird Guide App. (2022, December 20). Audubon. https://www.audubon.org/app?ms=digital-acq-ppc-google-x-20190000_google_grant&gclid=Cj0KCQjwwISlBhD6ARIsAESAmp4B1YGI0kcOjXj6_SMeHtMs9bT6RjHOVRY-r8G8O-89NIDFa3nyWV0aAvorEALw_wcB
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