Description of App
IBIRD 5.1--the world's best-selling birding app--just got WAY better! This latest version of iBird is now compatible with the new iOS 5 and comes with a host of exciting new features which take it even further beyond all current birding apps. I'd like to tell you about just a few of the things we did to improve iBird.
- INCLUDES 283 BIRDS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND IRELAND
- 31 SEARCH ATTRIBUTES
- Audio
- CLOUD - Share Notes, Favorites, and Favorite Lists in the Apple "cloud" and never worry about backing up. Syncs favorites and notes to all devices automatically.
- NEW LANDSCAPE MODE PHOTOS - Rotate your phone or iPad and the landscape photo fills the entire screen. New photo viewer works like the Apple Gallery, swipe to move between photos, as well as zoom and pinch.
- GORGEOUS PAIRED ILLUSTRATIONS - We are beginning to combine male, female and the flight drawings into one gorgeous illustration.
- PHOTO CENTER - The Photo Center is a gallery for storing, editing and assigning your photos to specific species pages and it lets you share them on Facebook, Twitter, or email them to friends.
- IBIRD BLOG - Mitch Waite, publisher of iBird, writes the stories in the iBird Blog, covering topics relevant to nature and apps: ibirdblog.wordpress.com
- UNIVERSAL APP - iBird is now a universal app meaning it works beautifully on the iPad tablet, filling the entire screen.
- CONTENT - Photos and Illustrations all in true HD 720p resolution.
- MULTIPLE BROWSE VIEWS - You can now view species in one of four browse views: Compact, Icon, Thumbnail, and Gallery.
- SPECTROGRAM - We developed a special player control to bring a deeper insight to the inner structure of bird songs by allowing you to view the sounds frequency domain.
- SLIDESHOW - Displays our photos or illustrations randomly while playing their song or call in the background.
AWARDS and ACCOLADES for iBird:
- WINNER: 2011 BEST APP EVER AWARD FROM 148APPS.COM
- MACWORLD'S "BEST REFERENCE APP 2009: 4 ½ out of 5 mice."
- O'REILLY "BEST IPHONE BIRDWATCHING APP 2009"
- BUYER'S GUIDE TO BIRD APPS - THE TRUTH ABOUT IPHONE BIRDING APPS. FREE AT http://bit.ly/compareapps
Standard Features:
- Parameter driven search lets you identify birds quickly, so you spend more time observing and less time reading.
- Attributes are grouped into Basic, Body, Head, Flight, Song, and Pattern areas.
- Search by Shape, Size, Habitat, Color, Family, Song, Length, Weight, Flight Pattern, Wingspan, and much more.
- Taxonomic and Alphabetical Family sort options on Browse screen.
- Hand-drawn full sized color illustrations, with perching and flight views.
- Enjoy full-screen portraits you can zoom and pinch.
- Multiple professional photographs for each species showing sexes and seasons.
- Multiple professionally recorded bird calls and songs for almost every species.
- Shake your device while on a species page to automatically select a new species and play a random bird song.
- Extensive identification, behavior, and habitat information.
- UK Conservation status from RSPB and ICUN Red List shows if population is in decline or endangered.
- Full color range maps.
- Bookmark birds as Favorites for fast access.
- Use Favorites lists as life list, yard list, travel lists, etc.
- Sync Favorites lists and Notes to your desktop for backup and editing.
- Species, common, and family names in English and French (text is English).
- Lifetime FREE updates to species information.
As a standalone iPhone app, iBird does not require an Internet connection for access to the information in its database. This does mean that the application is large, so please be patient when downloading from iTunes.
Accessibility Comments
This is extremely accessible, especially when you consider the depth and breadth of information that it contains.
When you open the app for the first time, it might seem that the app is totally inaccessible. This is simply because it displays a tutorial as some form of pop-up. VoiceOver will only find this if you tap on it, which shouldn't be a problem, as it covers most of the screen. Double-tap on the close button to get rid of the tutorial, and away you go.
The only other thing worth mentioning are the two bars of buttons that appear at the bottom of the pages showing information on birds. Each of these bars contains eight buttons, which are announced by VoiceOver as tabs. Only four are visually displayed at any time. To make VoiceOver find the other four you will need to do a three-fingered swipe to the left or right when VoiceOver focus is on a button on the desired bar.