Review of Peterson’s iPhone Guide to Backyard Birds

After reviewing iBird’s Backyard Bird iPhone app, Wildtones invited me to review their backyard bird guide app for the iPhone. At $1.99, compared to iBird’s $4.99, it was certainly more competitively priced, but would it be as useful as iBird…you’ll have to read the rest of this review to find out!

When you first open up the app, you’re taken to a screen where you can search for birds by zipcode, browse the entire list of birds, view your checklist (your personal list of the birds you’ve identified), or take a 10 question quiz about identifying birds. I prefer the opening screen of the Wildtones app. It’s easier to focus on what you’d like to do and then get to where you need to go.

If you choose to browse by zipcode, you’re taken to a map of the U.S. You click on one of six colored regions, and are then taken to a map of that reqion, where you can click on any of the zipcodes in that region of the country. The zipcode search on the Wildtones app is nicer than the search tool on the iBird app because it allows you to limit your bird search to a much more localized area. Searching for a bird that is native to California or Texas isn’t really that helpful because the area is so huge, and many birds will not be found in the entire state.

The browse birds feature is very similar to the iBird app. There is a little picture of each bird next to its common and scientific names. The only negative thing I have to say here is that the Wildtones list of birds in not as extensive as the iBird list. For example, there are only three hummingbirds in the Wildtones list while there are 8 in the iBird list. There is also no search function where you can type in (or select) some keywords and find a bird that way.

By far, my favorite part of the Wildtones app is the checklist feature. Everyone that has ever had the thrill of identifying a rare bird has started a list of the birds they’ve seen, the date and the location. I can’t believe the iBird app doesn’t have the feature! I started a list in a different app to keep track of the birds I’ve identified, but was thrilled to see that there was a list making feature built right into the Wildtones app.

I’m not really going to discuss the quiz feature because it is of no interest to me, but the app creators might be interested to know that the app crashed while I was taking a quiz.

PROS:

• Pocket change price ($1.99)
• Better location search
• Built in bird sighting list
• Easy to use, intuitive interface
• Beautiful bird drawings to use in identification
• Distribution maps and audio files of the birds’ calls (which were very amusing to my cats)

CONS:

• Shorter list of birds, missing some of the most fun birds to identify
• No keyword search

On the whole, I think the Wildtones app is a good choice for the casual birder, but more serious bird watchers may be annoyed by the lack of some birds in the database and the no ability to search for a bird by feather color, tail/beak type, etc. If the creators could fix the two negatives I mentioned above, the Wildtones app would blow iBird out of the water.

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My husband’s review: First, he wishes that the list of birds you see when you choose the “browse” option was alphabetical, or at least allowed you to sort the list by name. He also would have liked the distribution map to indicate what type of habitat the bird frequents, as many of the birds live in a very large territories. His favorite feature is the bird calls. He is laughing hysterically right now as he tries to imitate a turkey and an owl. He thinks if an owl and turkey mated, their offspring would make a “gobble-gobble-WHO” call.