iPhone Bird Guide Comparison

Digital cameras, digital photo frames, eBook readers, it seems like the whole world is going digital these days. And now digital field guides are here. You can think of these as traditional field guides on steroids, yet even smaller.

You still get the regular stuff found in field guides: illustrations, range maps, basic identification and natural history information. But the format also allows for much more. You can play a bird’s song from within the field guide. Or access information that otherwise would have required cracking open another book or doing an internet search.

Probably the best thing about the medium is that it allows you to search for a bird in so many more ways. For instance, if you don’t know the name of a bird you want to look up, you don’t have to go looking through the accounts as you do in a printed guide. Just input some characteristics in the search function, and the guide will narrow down the possibilities for you.

There are now several digital field guides available to birders, mostly for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

• Audubon Birds
  (iTunes)
• iBird Explorer
  (iTunes)
• National Geographic’s Handheld Birds
  (iTunes)
• Peterson iPhone Bird Field Guide
  (iTunes)
• The Sibley eGuide to the Birds of North America
  (iTunes)

Normally, I would create a table to compare their features, but the folks at iBird have already done it: Comparison Table of iPhone Bird Apps

Keep in mind that one of the competing companies produced this table. However, I have no reason to believe that anything was misrepresented, and everything looks correct and up-to-date as of right now.

So which one belongs on your iPhone? I’ve only had first hand experience with iBird (full version), Sibley (full), and Audubon (free version). But the app websites and reviews in iTunes have been very helpful in gauging their usefulness.

First off, I think the Peterson ones can be eliminated due to the lack of a single, comprehensive app. They have separate apps for backyard birds, raptors, and warblers. So unless you’re looking for something on just one of these groups, then you should look further.

The National Geographic app looks to be a pretty straightforward port of their field guide, with the addition of sounds, more textual information, and a basic search function. But it just doesn’t seem to have the navigation and search capabilities that you would want.

The Audubon app seems to have the same sort of information on each bird, except this one uses photographs for the illustrations. A search engine is included, allowing you to search for birds based on several characteristics. This is more promising.

iBird has the usual information for each bird (and quite a bit more), and goes beyond the other apps by utilizing both paintings and photographs. But you’ll really notice the difference in the search function – iBird has 33 different criteria that you can use to search on.

[Update: Sibley added on Feb 18, 2010] This is an excellent digital version of the Sibley Guide, which is my favorite North American field guide. It’s just about the perfect amalgamation of the “big” Sibley and the smaller regional guides. You get (just about) all of the illustrations from the former, along with the extensive text and updated maps of the latter. It also comes with an extensive collection of bird sounds and some rudimentary searching and filtering capabilities.

Based on what I’ve seen, I think it’s clear that iBird is the way to go. It has more species, illustrations per species (on average), information, and ways to find what you’re looking for.

Until Sibley was released, iBird was the clear frontrunner among bird apps. But now it’s a very close race. Here’s a brief comparison of important features:

• Illustrations – I much prefer Sibley’s paintings, and it illustrates a vastly greater selection of plumages for each species. However, iBird also includes some fantastic photos, and quick access to many more on Flickr.
• Sounds – Sibley includes a greater selection of sounds for each species. They both allow you to easily compare vocalizations. With Sibley, you can compare any two species, while iBird gives a selection of similar sounds for each bird.
• Information – iBird includes MUCH more information on life history, conservation, and other interesting facts. The text in Sibley deals almost exclusively with identification and voice. This information is also present in iBird, but the Sibley text does a better job at highlighting the most important field marks.
• User Interface – It’s no contest – iBird’s interface and navigation is vastly superior. It’s searching and filtering is also much more robust than the Sibley app. Sibley does have one unique feature, though, and it’s a good one. You can compare portraits, sounds, and range maps of any two species on the same screen.
• Lists – They both allow you to save notes for each species. Sibley allows you to see and interrogate your list easier. But honestly, I wouldn’t use either to keep a life list.

Basically, they both have something to offer in every category. Right now, I can’t universally recommend one over the other. Strangely enough, I think it might come down to whether or not you already have the Sibley guides in printed form. I think Sibley is the best field guide for North America, and everyone who watches birds here needs a copy. So if you are looking for a digital field guide, and you do not already have the Sibley guides, then I would steer you toward the Sibley app. On the other hand, if you do already have them, the app doesn’t give you anything extra that iBird doesn’t also do. So in that case, I’d go with iBird for the more extensive information, photos, and searching capabilities.

Ultimately, the best app will be the one that improves most upon its shortcomings. iBird needs to expand its collection of sounds and (especially) illustrate more variations in appearance. The Sibley app could greatly improve upon its searching/filtering and interface, as well as include some information beyond that found in the print guides.

But I wouldn’t wait too long to see which one that will be. I’ve found that having a digital field guide with me at all times has been incredibly handy and just plain (dare I say it) cool.

If you want a more in-depth look at these apps, here are some full reviews:

• Review of iBird Explorer
• Review of The Sibley eGuide – Coming soon

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 at 12:33 am.
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