In today’s world of smartphones and tablets there are even more
alternatives in the form of smart applications for bird identification.
One of the best was developed by birders from the Cornell
Ornithological Laboratory. Entitled iBird Explorer Pro, it has all of the
features found in a printed field guide, plus some interactive features
that are particularly useful, such as recordings of bird calls, search
algorithms, GPS maps of nearby hotspots, recent sightings, and internet
storage of your own bird sightings and life list. I have iBird Pro 7, but
there are even more advanced versions including one version called
iBird Ultimate. I also have the National Geographic Birds application,
and an interesting app named BirdsEye NA which shows interactive
maps of recent bird sightings linked by GPS to my cell phone or tablet.
In the final analysis, putting a name to the bird you are looking
at will depend upon your observational skills, your ability to connect the
location with a family of birds, and your ability to search the guides for
confirmation of your observation. As you get more and more familiar
with a particular bird you will find that you can quickly identify him in
any location and any light. You may even be able to recognize him by
sound.
Good luck! n
Photographs courtesy of
Paul Roberts
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