Birdwatcher's Diary
iPhone • iPad • iPod Touch |
|
Whether you are participating in a Christmas or summer bird count, doing a birdathon or “big day”, a veteran “lister”, or are just looking for an easy way to record and review your daily bird sightings, Birdwatcher’s Diary™ for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android (phones and tablets) is the perfect birdwatcher's field companion! Fast and easy to use, yet also extremely powerful, Birdwatcher’s Diary will enrich your birding experience. In seconds, you can make a note of birds you see or hear, including time and exact location (both automatically recorded), with additional field notes if you wish. Later, you can review the sightings as a list or on a map, upload your sightings to eBird, and much, much more. And Stevens Creek Software donates 50% of the proceeds from this software to support the conservation, research and education work of local bird organizations!
Planning to do a Christmas bird count? Read our list of tips on how best to use the software to make the count as painless as possible.
Watch the video for an introduction to the basic features of Birdwatcher's Diary:
Here's a summary of the features of Birdwatcher's Diary:
- A simple tap marks a species as seen and records the location and time of the sighting. If you are counting birds, further taps increment the count, with a built-in calculator available for large increments.
- Enhanced Intelliscroll™ switches between one- and two-letter alphabet tabs for superfast scrolling to the desired species; no need to scroll through 100 names starting with "S".
- Upload your sightings to eBird directly from the software.
- iPad version (sold separately) includes full support for both portrait and landscape orientations, as well as the use of a Bluetooth keyboard for selecting species from the list, marking them as seen and entering counts and notes.
- Sightings can be marked as visual or "heard only".
- Coordinates (latitude & longitude, with altitude optional) can be recorded automatically for every bird (GPS-equipped unit recommended) or only for specific sightings.
- Recording of information (time, coordinates) for multiple sightings of the same species is optional (default records information only for the first sighting).
- Built-in, user-configurable "phrase list" makes adding notes to your sightings ("Breeding plumage", "Juvenile", etc.) a simple matter of tapping and not typing.
- Sort birds by Last Name, First Name, Bird Banding Code, Time Seen, or Taxonomic Order.
- Quickly switch between viewing all birds, only those seen or heard, or only those not seen or heard. View sightings at all locations or only the current location.
- Add "trip notes" to each day's sightings.
- Save and recall daily sightings directly on the iOS or Android device.
- Save and recall daily sightings in the "cloud" using Dropbox™, enabling easy sharing of sightings among multiple devices (e.g., an iPhone and an iPad, or an iPhone and an Android tablet).
- Create "life lists" of all your recorded sightings, or filtered life lists restricted by country, state, county, birding location, date, or by words or phrases in the trip notes (e.g., "Audubon trip") or the sighting notes (e.g., "Photographed").
- Output data via ftp (iOS only), email, clipboard (iOS only), file sharing via iTunes (iOS only), SD Card (Android only), or to Dropbox using standard (eBird, Google Maps) or custom formats.
- Import your existing eBird sightings (iOS only).
- Share individual sightings or your entire trip report with your birding listserve, via Facebook, or Twitter, complete with an automatically-generated sighting map (iOS only).
- View sightings on a map on the device, or upload the information and create your own custom Google Map to view from a desktop.
- Preconfigured with U.S., U.K., and Mexican bird lists, but easily loaded with any custom list, with the ability to add (or delete) birds from the list. Input master lists from simple text files. Many country and all 50 state lists available for downloading; others on request.
- Country lists include standard English and local names for species (as well as scientific name), both for English-speaking countries (e.g., in the U.K., Loons are called "Divers") and non-English speaking (e.g., Mexico list includes names in English and Spanish, Swedish list includes names in English and Swedish, etc.).
- Built-in tool for updating checklists and archives of past sightings for renames, splits, and lumps (iOS only).
- By installing (or simply entering) new lists, software can be used for sightings of anything - birds, reptiles, mammals, etc.
- Supports all characters, not just the Latin alphabet, so species names, user notes, etc. can be entered in European languages with various accent marks, Greek, Cyrilic, Japanese, etc.
Sample user comments:
"I use this awesome iPhone app nearly every day and upload my sightings to eBird." – Fred Crotte
"I find it basically effortless to use in the field and love it. It is also great to directly send a report to your local listserv from the app, which allows for your comments, list, and a link to the Google map. Very cool." – John A.
"BWD is the most powerful listing app I've used. The filtering capabilities seem especially well-suited to bird surveys and big days." – The Birders Library
"We did a Big Day –I used the app to keep track through 5 different locations –it worked great right through uploading to eBird. Love it!"– Lois S.
"BWD had been indispensable while scouting for our upcoming Birdathon. I'll use it during the event and then provide a map to our sponsors and donors to show them our route with each species' location seen. They love that!" – Laurie F.
"I find Birdwatcher’s Diary easy to use and frankly fun. You will enjoy using this app and seeing not only your lists, but also the sightings maps." – Nancy J.
"I use Birdwatcher's Diary on my iPhone to record all my sightings, including GPS coordinates for most of the birds I see. KILLER APP!! I then directly upload the list into eBird. Easy and fast!" - Brooke M.
"I very much like the way that BD for Android is organized around recording a day's birding. If you are an eBirder, you can record your sightings by eBird location, and yet still see your entire day's list." - Kent F.
- View some screen shots: iOS • Android
- Read the complete manual online: iOS • Android
- View the current checklists available for download
- Download the iOS manual as an eBook (ePub format*)
* You can read the manual using the free iBooks app on an iPhone or iPad. To read it on a desktop computer (Mac or PC), the best free app we have found is the Sony eBook reader
- Read about our other software for iPhone, Android, PalmOS, Mac, and Windows
- Check out some of the birds of Stevens Creek
- Take a look at our "Audubon Moments" videos
About Stevens Creek Software:
Stevens Creek Software has been developing software for Windows, Macintosh, Palm, iOS, and Android since 1988. We have been a leading developer of software for the Palm platform, and are now one of the leading developers of software for iOS, with ten different titles on the market. We are also longtime birders.
Stevens Creek Software
P.O. Box 2126
Cupertino, CA 95015
Click "Recommend" to let your Facebook friends know about Birdwatcher's Diary: