eGuide to Birds of East Africa app for iPhone and iPad
Developer: mydigitalearth.com
First release : 18 Dec 2012
App size: 492.17 Mb
**Now a universal app - designed for iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch**
The eGuide to Birds of East Africa is an interactive companion to Terry Stevenson and John Fanshawes Birds of East Africa field guide – the essential guide for birdwatchers visiting this spectacular region. It covers Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. This application has specific features that will enhance your birding experience.
FEATURES:
Hi-res images, distribution maps and detailed text descriptions of over 1300 bird species including breeding species and regular visitors.
These images can be expanded to fill the entire width of the screen in portrait and landscape.
Audible calls for more than 1000 bird species
“Bird Compare” that allows you to compare two birds on the same screen.
A personal bird list that stores your bird sightings saved to the device that can then be exported through email.
View the Bird Index by Common or Scientific bird names either alphabetically or taxonomically.
*Uninstalling the program will result in the loss of your list, it is recommended that you keep your own master list separate from the program.
Latest reviews of eGuide to Birds of East Africa app for iPhone and iPad
Beautiful book ruined by terrible application development. No ability to search birds by color, size, shape or location. Offers “Text Only” searching, and then does not provide simple navigation within the “found set” of birds. No broadsheets to see a group of birds so comparison can only be done AFTER manually finding the compare set. No support for gestures, and you can’t flip through the pages like a real book. Hard to believe that a real book can be better than an app….but in this case you’re better with the real book. We deserve a free upgrade to the User Interface.
The main advantage over the book is the inclusion of bird sounds, which is a huge help, but Considering this is the same developer as the sibley guide to NA, you think a few of the minor, yet ultra important features would have carried over. Thumbnail pictures next to the bird names in taxonomic index for one, and the ability to narrow the list to within the province/country in which you are located. Being in northern TZ, I dont need every bird whos range barely steps into Rwanda and Uganda and not at all into Tanzania... Still, better to have this than nothing!
If you are a birder heading to East Africa, this is a must have app. It combines the most current field guide with an extensive set of recordings. This is the only set of recordings that I have found. I have many field guides on my iPad and prefer the my digital earth format over all others. The only negative is that the guide was not updated to the latest Clements / eBird 2012 taxonomy.
I waited and waited for this app and had no hesitation paying handsomely for it, but am disappointed to find that there are only two index facilities, neither of which are user friendly for someone with a passion for birding but limited knowledge of taxonomy or name. I use a bird book regularly while on safari, and find it much easier to identify birds from a page of images rather than a taxonomic list. This app would benefit hugely from that, and/or a dichotomous key like that of ibird pro. If such an improvement was made I would recommend this to many enthusiasts! As it is I will stick to the book.
Generally a good app for an initial edition. Good to have image, map, description on one screen. Improvements: thumbnail view of bird on menu screen as all other bird apps have; if possible, map showing resident, breeding, migrant, etc.; (see maps on Natl Geog North Am app); icon showing if bird is already on a list. On my ipad, I cant go from a bird on a list directly to the birds image page the way I can from the list on my ipod. Update names to current listing. I recommend this app but also strongly recommend getting the book version.