Gone are the days of flipping through a torn-up field guide to identify birds in the wild. Now, anyone with an iPhone can easily figure out what bird they’re looking at.
MacWorld recently profiled a new birdwatching app called Birdeez, which helps iPhone users get outside and encourages U.S. birdwatchers – which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says number around 48 million – go high tech. The developers call the app “Foursquare for birds.”
Birdeez triangulates users’ location and the time of year with species migration patterns, building a customized list of birds a phone’s owner is likely to see. This helps users identify birds more quickly. They can then click a “Spot It!” button to add the bird to a personal list or share it on Twitter. Users may even be able to share the information over a Birdeez-specific network in the future.
The app joins several existing birdwatching guides, such as an Audubon Birds, iBird Explorer Pro, Peterson Birds of North America and National Geographic’s Handheld Birds, but it differs in that it works on a freemium model (these others range in price from $9.99-$19.99) and is a digitally-native option.
If you dropped your iPhone in the woods trying to capture a good photo of an interesting bird, iResQ can help with iPhone repair services that will get you back to spotting rare species in no time.