Sibley Birds 2nd Edition

Description

The new Sibley Birds app has arrived with comprehensive, up to date information of over 930 North American species. All the detailed artwork from David Sibley’s Guide to Birds Second Edition is included as well as thorough descriptions and distribution maps. Features include: • A new easy to navigate menu system on iPhone. • A new grid view with larger thumbnails. • Display species names in English, French, Spanish and Latin (Scientific). • Search on banding code to quickly find a species. • Over 2700 calls/songs covering most species. • Compare 2 species side by side. • Apply a location (US State or Canadian Province) to narrow down the list of birds. • When a location has been selected, a status icon will appear next to each species in that location indicating whether it is Common, Uncommon, Scarce, Rare or Vagrant. • Detailed information in the species description including location status by month. • A similar species feature which shows all related birds. • A vastly improved Smart Search with refined search criteria: Status and by month (when a location is selected), Bird habits, Bird Type, Bird Size, Body Shape, Color and Pattern. • Keep a personal list (My List) of species seen and backup to iCloud/other cloud service. • Build a custom sharable (as csv) and searchable (in Smart Search) species list using the new My Tags feature. • Sort My List taxonomically.

Reviews

Browse or search by family function

Sibley’s drawing is always the best. That’s what makes this app unbeatable among all birding apps. Compare feature is also very useful. One suggestion is, with all those smart search criteria, please add a basic browse or quick search by family option. For example, I want to compare Ovenbird and Northern Waterthrush calls. Currently there is no quick search criteria that can bring them up together. But they are close relatives in Wood Warblers family. I have to scroll down the whole list and see through many unrelated species (the little dots on the right did help scrolling faster but they too small and not precise enough). So please provide a way to get to a bird family quickly and allow us comparing similar species easier. Thanks.

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Best content, slow app, poor search

At the end of the day, the Sibley bird ID info and pictures are better than any alternative. Having it in your pocket is invaluable. That said, the app is inexplicably slow. Scrolling should be far more responsive. My phone (XS max) is faster than most computers a few years old but can’t scroll through some names and tiny pics without halting? Please fix this. The search function is also far less useful than iBird Pro. When you have no idea what a bird is, start with iBird. Then confirm with Sibley.

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Colors still off

I was excited to finally have an updated Sibley app, especially with updated range maps. I guess these colors might match the 2nd edition of the book, but they aren’t as accurate as the 1st edition of the app. Too dark. I find myself just using the old version. :( also I can’t seem to make the birds side by side when I use the compare feature, just stacked. My phone’s portrait lock is off—and it does still work on the old version. I emailed the app developers about that so maybe it will be resolved. But I’m disappointed the colors aren’t true to life. Check out Chipping Sparrow or Bewick’s Wren—in both these (and others), they’re too dark—old app version is much more accurate.

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Completely worth the upgrade

Complaints about having to pay for new 2nd Ed material are completely misplaced. Benefitting from the intellectual work that went into this edition both by the author and programmers means paying for the service. I wasn’t sure about the frequency flags (red, green, yellow) but they are immensely helpful in new locations. Helped me quickly ID to species several times on a recent trip to California, with its 751 spp. Color issues are completely resolved. This guide is an immense achievement, made even more useful in the field by the new search functionality. There’s a tremendous amount of information at your fingertips here. If you don’t want to pay for it, don’t. But it’s worth many times this price.

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California Thrasher

The app is good and works well. Better than the old app. When I was looking through the app I saw that the last song for California thrasher was actually California Towhee. Just a small fix. Still a great app. I was happy to see the yellow footed gull range map fixed.

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Best birding app

This app has always been my go-to for bird identification, and the new version is a huge improvement.

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Bummer

Apparently, I’m too late to get the discount on this new app even though I purchased the other. Haven’t used it yet, but I really feel like its a slap in the face to have to buy the new app at full price. I’ll update once I’ve spent time using the new version. So disappointed.

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Excellent - getting better

Love Sibley v. 2 for accurate ID info, abundance of field mark details incl. mass and the split screen compare feature.

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Worth the Upgrade

I wasn’t happy having to pay for the upgrade but now that I have it I am happy to invest in the up keep of this well written program. A better designed interface makes it easier to find the bird you just saw. My only complaint is on the Smart Search. It’s much better but it’s still not so smart. More detailed filters would be a big improvement. Example: Your only options are visiting a feeder, swimming and flying. How about wading birds or birds sitting in a field.

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I like the changes

Can I ask for a note taking area that displays on the written description page for each specie. I like to write field marks I notice, or ID hints in my book. My book was recently stolen along with 10 years of my notes so I would like to have this in my app vs in a book that can be lost. The “my list” function is useless to me with ebird and, honestly in the wrong area as it does not show on the page of the bird itself.

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