All About Birds

Peterson Birds of North America for iOS a must for bird watchers

For some, bird watching is an obsession; for others, an excuse to get into the great outdoors and really look around. Whichever category you fall into, odds are you know the Peterson Field Guides that help identify the winged marvels you’ve spotted. Now information from eight of those guides has been compiled and adapted for iPhone and iPad. And even those of us who don’t know a wagtail from a warbler will be impressed by the interface and seamless transition from this most non-techie pastime to iOS.  Peterson Birds of North America is so intuitive that nothing beyond knowing how to observe, tap and type is required.

At launch, the app presents a legend explaining what each icon does, and right from there I was impressed. This app does much more than help identify birds and log their spottings. Once you get past the menu, icons representing various types of birds from around the world appear. These can be arranged in any order, and they have pictures for those who don’t know species. A touch on any brings up the traditional guide information and illustrations, along with a sighting log, Life List, maps showing migratory patterns and audio clips of the individual bird sounds.

Source: Appolicious

Birding Is Fun!: Review: Peterson Birds of North America for ...

by Birding is Fun!

Identify a species in the field looking through binoculars - of course with a field guide in hand RTP. Fast forward 77 years hours. Appweavers, Inc., led by Nigel Hall, took up the challenge of adapting the RTP field guide for use on modern smart phones and tablet devices. The question this review will attempt to answer is: "How well they managed to put a guide RTP in smartphones and make it usable in the field?"First, it is important to note that Appweavers, through a partnership with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing, is using the exact content they are present in the printed versions of guides. Slabs, text, and maps are exactly the same and are known to have ever used guides RTP, which is most of us, I think. There was no loss of information in the guide in a compact smart phone. In fact, get even more as I will later point....

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