Photo by Katey Nicosia / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
For the days when hauling around a tome for identifying birds just won’t do, Audubon comes to the rescue with its new
online guide to North American birds, available for $2.99 on the iPhone, Android, iPad, NOOK or Kindle through the
Audubon Birds app.
One screen pretty much holds it all, displaying information about
birding, conservation, even avian anatomy. The guide categorizes more
than 800 species by family, common name, or general shape, allowing
users to pick the most appropriate identification route.
The third display option is particularly innovative. This category directs users to the
quick guide,
offering the ability to search the stout, slim, long-legged, and
sleek-beaked contours of many birds. It presents a gallery of shapes:
There are
duck-like birds (think ducks, grebes, loons, pelicans, and swans),
perching birds (groups like larks, flycatchers, thrushes, and wrens), or my favorite,
chicken-like marsh birds (encompassing rails, coots, jacanas, and gallinules). Others include those cut like
sandpipers, birds with the arrow-like anatomy of
swallows, and those that feature the same, watchful upright stance as a
hawk.
