The Pizzey and Knight Birds of Australia Digital Edition for iOS is a comprehensive and interactive application that combines multimedia data on over 900 Australian bird species with seven interactive modules for every aspect of mobile birding. As a universal app it runs on iPad, iPhone and iPod.

The Field Guide is new for iOS apps, displaying the full field guide pages of the book. You can browse the pages and identify a bird, play the sound, add to your list, and open the Bird Page for further detail.

The Bird Guide includes a full bird list and individual bird pages for over 900 species, with illustrations, species text, distribution maps, photographs and sounds. The bird list includes all the new species and new names.

Similar Birds selects similar birds and shows them side by side for comparison.

Identification uses location, habitat, bird shapes and plumage to shortlist possible species for identification.

My Location is an interactive map for finding your current location, generating bird lists, and locating birding sites near you.

My Lists is a personal list manager that includes a life list and sub-lists that report to your life list. You can also sync your lists to iCloud, and export and import lists using iTunes.

Birding Sites includes details of 250 birding sites from around Australia, with functions for a bird list, ‘show on map’ and a seven-day weather forecast.

The multimedia database includes • over 250 field-guide pages • over 900 individual bird pages • all the ‘new’ bird species and names • over 2500 illustrations, 4000 photos, and 700 bird sounds • completely revised and colour-coded distribution maps with seasonal status bar and endemic and red data species indicated • new rare bird maps.

As a universal app it will run on iPad, iPhone and iPod, and you can install to more than one device as long as it is your personal device and linked to your iTunes account. The price is AU$49.99.

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FIELD GUIDE INTRODUCTION

The Field Guide displays the field guide pages of the book, providing quick and easy access to a bird or family group for instant comparison and identification.

A family list facilitates quick access to any bird family, and you can swipe through the pages. On a Field Guide page you tap on a bird to identify it, and pop up a toolbar with essential functions, including:

• View similar birds
• Play the bird sound
• Open the bird page
• Add to your list
• Return to home page

BIRD GUIDE – Bird List

The Bird Guide includes a full bird list and bird pages for over 900 species.

The bird list can be text-searched for a bird name or quick-scrolled using the alphabetical index. A range of essential functions are available directly off the list:

• Tapping on a bird name will open the functions toolbar.
• Tapping a second time will open the bird page.

The toolbar gives quick access to the following essential functions:

• View similar birds
• Add to your list
• Play the bird sound
• Open the field guide page
• Return to home page

Bird List Options

Bird List Options include lists for all states and territories, english names for C&B, IOC, Clements and Birdlife, and alphabetical or taxonomic order. The name of the list and number of birds is reported above the list.

BIRD GUIDE – Bird Page

The bird page is highly functional yet easy to use. Swipe right to left to scroll through the images, swipe up to scroll through the text, tap the bird image to load the function toolbar, or tap the arrows at the top of the screen to page to the next bird.

The images include illustrations, distribution map and photos. The distribution maps are colour-coded green for resident, orange for breeding migrant, and blue for non-breeding migrant. The screen can also be rotated for a larger image.

Bird Page Toolbar

Tap on the bird image to load the function toolbar. The functions include:

• View similar birds
• Add/edit your sighting
• Play the bird sound
• Open the field guide page
• Return to home page

SIMILAR and COMPARE BIRDS

Similar birds loads a pre-selected list of birds similar to your selected species. The Identification Module can also be used to generate a list for Similar Birds.

Similar birds toolbar functions include:

• open the bird page
• play the sound
• add/edit to your list
• COMPARE the birds side by side
• Return to home page

Tap the COMPARE button and the bird pages are shown in a split screen, with full swiping and scrolling functions of the bird page. Tap the bird image to play the sound.

MY LOCATION

My Location is a powerful tool for finding your current location, generating a bird list for your location, viewing nearby birding sites, and recording GPS co-ordinates with your bird list. [Get List] on the nav bar will generate a bird list for your selected location.

The toolbar includes functions for:

• Show current location
• Drop pin for new location
• Show birding site pins
• Search for a location by name

The module uses Apple Maps and built-in GPS functionality to find your current location, or you can drop a pin for a new location. Birding site descriptions and bird lists can be loaded directly from the map.

Note that all bird lists are based on a degree-square distribution and represent what may reasonably be expected given a full range of habitats and a long period of observation. Vagrants are not included. It's a potential list to work from rather than a 'seen' list which is highly variable depending on atlassing effort.

IDENTIFICATION

The Identification Module brings together a range of simple observations to aid your identification of a bird, including:

• Distribution based on your current or selected location
• Habitat
• Shape of the bird
• Plumage

This generates a shortlist for you to make an identification. One need not use all the available selections, and if you are not sure, you may pick a number of options within any group. To further aid identification, open Similar Birds with the ID shortlist.

BIRDING SITES

The Birding Site module includes 250 birding sites from around Australia and island territories. The sites can be viewed by selecting from the list, or by using My Location to load the map with nearby birding sites.

The birding site page can be swiped for more photos and scrolled up to read the text. Selecting a locality will load the toolbar functions. These include:

• Show on map
• Load bird list for the site
• Load weather for the site
• Return to Home Page

MY LISTS

My Lists is a powerful module for keeping track of multiple bird lists. My List is the top list and is by default your Life List (the first time you see a bird). You can use My List as a list on its own, or have sub-lists report to My List.

Adding to your Lists

You can add a bird to My List from any bird List, Field Guide page or Bird Page. When adding from a bird list, you can “Add Directly” or via “Add/Edit with Sighting Details”. To "Add Directly" you simply tap the tick-box next to the bird name on the bird list. This uses the default place and date settings for the list, and your GPS location. “Add/Edit with Sighting Details” is available on the toolbar, and opens the Sighting Details page for additional details and notes.

Sighting Details

Sighting Details include the List Name, Date, Place, GPS data, View, Class of bird, No. of Birds, and your Notes. A different List and Date can be selected, Place data can be edited and previous entries are available as a drop-down, and View and Class fields support multiple selections. The GPS data recorded includes the latitude, longitude and altitude of the sighting. You can select the "Current Location" or use "Select from Map" for another location.

My Lists Manager

The My Lists manager page is for keeping track of and managing your lists. Here you create a new list and set the List Options for how the added sightings are managed. You also set a list as 'active' for adding sightings by activating the tick-box. Functions for managing your bird lists include:

• Create a new list
• Edit the List Options
• Delete a list
• Export/Import a list
• Set the list as default (tick-box) for adding to your list

List Options

When you set up a list, the List Options of Place and Date are used as a default for all records added to the list (although they can be subsequently edited for individual records). Additional List Options available include:

• Place. A place name for all records added to the list. May be left blank or edited later.
• Date. A date for all records added to the list. Used in conjunction with “Use List date”.
• Use List Date. If OFF, you get the current date and time. ON is used for creating an historical list.
• Add GPS. ON will add GPS co-ordinates to your record. Use OFF when creating a historical list.
• Report to My List. ON will add records to My List (ie reporting to your Life List).
• Allow Multiple Records. ON allows adding the same bird more than once to a list. Used for keeping a trip list of all birds seen at different times and locations. If you are keeping a strict Life List, leave OFF on My List.
• Species Count. Counts the number of species and not the number of records.

Exporting and Importing Lists

Your lists can be synced to and from iCloud. This is useful for backup and for sharing lists between devices. Lists can also be exported to iTunes for personal use. Your iPhone must be connected to your PC to do this. The exported lists are My Lists.csv and PKBirds.sqlite. My Lists.csv is a user-friendly export for your personal use. It cannot be re-imported to the app. PKBirds.sqlite is a program format file that is used for exporting and importing backup files. It can be edited, but requires a freeware SQlite program to do so.

Bird List Functions

Of course, the main reason for keeping a list is to view the contents. To Open a Bird List, tap on the the list name arrow on the My Lists page. Within a bird list, you can select a record and use the following toolbar functions:

• View the bird page
• Play the sound
• Edit the Sighting Details
• Delete the Record

Search List Functions

You can Search all lists for a specific bird name, place or date. This is useful if you would like to know how many times you have seen a species, or how many species you have seen in a specific locality or date. The Search function is available on the main My Lists page. An individual list can be searched in the same way.

Note that records "Reported to My List" from a sub-list will appear as duplicate records, as the records occur in both My List and the reporting list.

Enjoy your birding!