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Compare iPhone Birding Apps

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iBird Explorer PRO 2.3

Audubon Birds 1.3.1

National Geographic's Handheld Birds 1.3

The Sibley eGuide to Birds of North America 1.0

Peterson's Field Guide to Backyard Birds 2.0 (0)
IMPORTANT STUFF iBird Audubon Nat Geo Sibley Peterson
Developer Mitch Waite Group Green Mountain Digital National Geographic Society mydigitalearth Wildtones
Number of updates 8 3 3 0 3
Number of species 924 750 867 811 180
Geographical range North America North America North America North America Backyard
Hawaii included? Yes No No No No
Includes Drawings? Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Includes Photos? Yes Yes No No No
Includes Drawings and Photos? Yes No No No No
Includes Search Engine? Yes Yes Yes Yes (3) No
Size of database 393 MB 325 MB 84.4 MB 288 MB 92.1 MB
Launch date Apr 25, 2009 Oct 11, 2009 May 4, 2009 Feb 8, 2010 Dec 12, 2008
Price $29.99 $19.99 $14.99 $29.99 $2.99
CUSTOMER FEEDBACK iBird Audubon Nat Geo Sibley Peterson
App store stars 4.5 3.5 3 None 3
App store Reviews (all versions) 332 121 29 None 353
IDENTIFICATION BENEFITS iBird Audubon Nat Geo Sibley Peterson
Automatically shrinks list while typing bird name (1) Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Search engine? Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Number of searchable attributes 34 7 none 4 1
Taxonomic search? Yes Yes Yes No No
Band Code search? Yes No No No No
Latin name search? Yes No No No No
SEARCH ENGINE FEATURES iBird Audubon Nat Geo Sibley Peterson
Search by:
Shape Yes Yes No No No
Size Yes No No Yes No
Zip code No Yes No No Yes
State or province Yes No No Yes No
Region No Yes No No No
Habitat Yes Yes No No No
Primary color Yes Yes No Yes No
Secondary color Yes No No No No
Backyard feeder Yes No No No No
Family Yes No No No No
Length, weight, wingspan Yes No No No No
Search by month? Yes No No No No
Search by song? Yes No No No No
Flight pattern Yes No No No No
Bill shape and length Yes No No No No
Head, breast, belly and back pattern Yes No No No No
Crown, forehead, cere, throat, nape, eye color Yes No No No No
ARTWORK & PHOTOS iBird Audubon Nat Geo Sibley Peterson
Multiple photos per species? Yes Yes No No No
Multiple illustrations per species? Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Mulltiple songs per species? Yes Yes No Yes No
Zoomable Images? Yes Yes No No Yes
Zoom range 200% 200% none none 300%
IDENTIFICATION AIDS iBird Audubon Nat Geo Sibley Peterson
Range maps? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Similar birds? Yes Yes No No No
Similar song links? Yes No No No No
Conservation details? Yes No No No No
Family descriptions? Yes No No No No
Flickr? Yes No No No No
Wikipedia? Yes No No No No
Interesting/Cool Facts Yes No No No Yes
Depth of database High High Medium Low NA
MISCELLANEOUS iBird Audubon Nat Geo Sibley Peterson
Compare 2 Birds No No No Yes No
Camera No Yes No No No
Gallery No Yes No No No
Favorites/checklist Yes Yes No No Yes
Species notes/life list Yes Yes No Yes No
Online backup Yes Yes No No No
Embedded help Yes No No No No
NAVIGATION iBird Audubon Nat Geo Sibley Peterson
Sequence pages (2) Yes Yes No Yes No
Sequence images Yes Yes No Yes No
Sequence range maps Yes No No Yes No
Sequence songs Yes No No No No
Sequence everything Yes No No Yes No
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESS iBird Audubon Nat Geo Sibley Peterson
Strengths Search engine, zoomable images, large amount of data per species, has both photos and drawings. Nice photos from Vireo, good species details, , multiple song vocalizations. Good species information, consistancy of artwork. Large number of drawings per species, excellent Sibely art, large number of bird calls, compare 2 birds. Low cost, quizzes.
Weakness Needs more female and juvenile illustrations, needs improved life list features. No illustrations, complex UI, life list feature shows promise but does not work correctly with web site Only app with no search engine, can't zoom images, no photos, weak UI. Illustrations can't be zoomed abd are not full screen size, weak search engine and UI. No search engine (search by ZIP dysfunctional), poor UI, illustraions show paint streaks when zoomed.
NOTES
(0) Peterson only included for feature comparison
(1) Only Audubon lacks this important feature
(2) Rotate through species pages with one click
(3) Uses broad categories, such as All water birds, Sparrow size, etc.
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