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[walker_percy]

I am not befuddled and this regards an app, not a book, so I'll post this in Meet and Greet. God help me if I am in the wrong place; I'm sure I'll hear about it.

I'm gathering that the National Geographic app, while expensive at $9.99, is very good. Anyone use a bird watching app for his or her smartphone? I need a recommendation for an app for my 9 year old (who can easily navigate the hardcopy NatGeo guide and the Roger Torey Peterson guide, so probably no need to baby-fy). Birdcalls a plus.

[biomancer]

WP, I recall we had a discussion about this on the Birding Thread a while back, but I'm sure new apps and updates have come out since then.  I think both Nat Geo and iBird got favorable reviews.  I still haven't uploaded either onto my phone but would like to do so.

I'm also recalling that the bird experts on the thread (Barred_Owl in particular, I think), strongly recommended using headphones for the calls, or at least not playing them out where the birds are, because a bird responding to the recorded call may put itself in danger of predation.

[professor_pat]

I looked a bit for the earlier thread on this question, but it'll take further searching, so I'll just tell you about the one I have. I use iBird Pro on both my iPad and my iPod Touch. It's almost certainly the most expensive app I'm likely to ever download at around $65, but I haven't the slightest regret.

In addition to replacing dozens of field-guide books (since it covers the whole US and several other countries), you can also do some things you'll never be able to do with a paper guide: search by a number of characteristics including song pattern. The newest update also includes sonograms, so I'm one happy birder.

[msparticularity]

I am, at this moment, downloading iBird Pro for Android--on sale for $9.95 this month! The Apple version is apparently on sale for $19.95 right now, too.

[barred_owl]

WP, I recall we had a discussion about this on the Birding Thread a while back, but I'm sure new apps and updates have come out since then.  I think both Nat Geo and iBird got favorable reviews.  I still haven't uploaded either onto my phone but would like to do so.

I'm also recalling that the bird experts on the thread (Barred_Owl in particular, I think), strongly recommended using headphones for the calls, or at least not playing them out where the birds are, because a bird responding to the recorded call may put itself in danger of predation.

Thanks for including the comment about playback, Biomancer.  Unless you're doing some sort of research, playback of bird songs or calls should not be broadcast in the field. 

Otherwise, have fun, WP! I only have a dumb phone, so no birding app's for me just yet.  Maybe someday...

[infopri]

I'm not a birder, but I really like iBird.  I have iBird Explorer North, which currently goes for $4.99.  I've been pretty happy with it, but I'm not doing any serious bird identification.