Are you looking for some birding apps to take along with you for your Christmas Bird Counts or as you travel for the holidays? Well, there are several apps that are running sales or have been recently updated.
Peterson Birds of North America – ($14.99 App Store link)
There is a lot of information packed into the app from other Peterson branded publications like their hummingbird guide, gull guide and molt guide.
Some of the newer features available include checklists with abundances (from eBird of course) that you can download to the app. These are available for all the hotspots in eBird and are also available at the county level. These charts are something that no other app offers and is very helpful for figuring out which species are abundant throughout the year. Read the full Nemesis Bird review.
BirdsEye – ($19.99 App Store link)
They just released version 1.4 which adds a couple features. The most notable is when browsing through the hotspots map, hotspots with birds you have not yet seen have a different marker, letting you know that you can see something new there.
Audubon Birds ($19.99 App Store link)
I haven’t had a chance to do a full review on this app yet but it really looks great. New features include eBird integration similar to BirdsEye, which is a great addition to its ability to create multiple life lists and great photos used for the guide. This app is different from the Peterson and Sibley apps with its use of bird photography and makes a nice addition to a birders collection of apps.
The Sibley eGuide to the Birds of North America – ($29.99 App Store link)
If you are a fan of the Sibley Bird Guides, this is the app to get. You get all the information and first-class illustrations of the Sibley guides, plus a good number of songs and calls for each species. Another nice feature is the ability to compare two species. The ability to fit the entire “big Sibley” into my pocket is awesome and I definitely recommend this to any birder out there. It does offer a list making feature but it is not very complete. Update: Sibley eGuide was just updated for the iPad, read the review here.
Other good birding apps –
National Geographic’s Handheld Birds™ – National Geographic Society
birdJam HeadsUp Warblers – MightyJams
CornellLab Bird Q&A: Your birding questions answered – Tipitap Inc.