Review: Wild About Birds (app)

This a nice little app for the beginning birder or for kids. The interface is very simple and intuitive. The $1.99 app comes with 40 basic backyard birds. It is expandable with 99¢ upgrades for every 20+ bonus birds by habitat.

Each species has a couple nice photos, usually of the male and female. Juveniles and variable plumage details are not dealt with in this app as it is meant to be simple for beginners. My favorite feature of this app is the built-in identification skills game. Touch the bird photo on the key field characteristics and see if you're right.

Once you've seen the species, you can "add" it to your interactive scrapbook and even share it with your friends on Facebook. You can play the bird call/song, pull up a description of its range (not a map), read some fun facts about the bird, and have the app tell you the key characteristics of the bird identification.

While this may not be "the" birding field guide app for the avid birder, it is an attractive and simple app to engage beginners and fuel their interest in birds and bird identification.

This app was developed by WildTones who provided me a review copy of this app.