Birds of Northern Europe

It's hard to see why everyone doesn't give this five stars. I have at least £1000 pounds worth of bird books at home because there is no perfect guide or one reference that covers all aspects. The BWP is as close as it gets but I can't take that into the field with me. This is as close as you can get and on top of that I can hear calls too; no book can do that. I have to ask those that think this is expensive if they have ever bought a book before. If you are looking at this app you surely already have your bins, scope, goretex everything, etc. What's 15 quid on top of that to get the equivalent of £200 worth of reference books that can't go out of date, plus a box set of bird call CDs, all in a pocket-sized format (smaller than any of my field guides) that you don't have to re-wrap in parcel tape every other trip to stop it disintegrating. This is a bargain! Great update thanks.

i bought this to replace taking my RSPB field reference book with me each time I go for a walk. As an amateur bird spotter I'm no expert and found the bird groupings not always helpful in finding a specific bird. No problem, just use the the A-Z grouping instead although common names can't be relied on to find what your looking for. I couldn't find Redstart and Curlew under R or C (they're listed as Common Redstart and Eurasian Curlew which is fine if you know the full name in the first place). Ok, you can revert to a search under the name you know and you'll find what your looking for - not quite. I tried looking for Common Gull and couldn't find it anywhere until I checked a reference book for the latin name Larus Canus, typed this in the search mode and discovered it is listed as a Mew Gull (never heard of it). I had to check several reference books before I found the name Mew Gull being used for Common Gull (it's actually the American name). I don't regret buying this albeit you need a bit of knowledge to navigate through it and it certainly won't replace my RSPB field reference book.

To address the issue raised by ColinWH on the names being a bit odd: that is because you have the language set to "English (International)". If you change it (by clicking on the i symbol in the top right of the screen, then settings, then language) to the one that is just called "English" you will get the British English names of the birds, ie Common Gull, Curlew, Redstart instead of Mew Gull, Eurasian Curlew, Common Redstart. It confused me at first but is easily fixed. I've enjoyed using this so far - not a perfect substitute for a field guide but a useful thing to have on you day to day, and the ability to play back calls in the field is invaluable. It has also already been very useful on birding trips to Germany, as you can change the langage very easily so that you can tell your companions what bird you've just seen in their langauge!

I initially had a problem with the app crashing on an iPhone 3G newly-upgraded to iOS 4.0. However, this appears to be the result of issues with the upgrade rather than the app itself. I found the app was fine after I had restored the iPhone and done a couple of syncs (I also had problems syncing playlists that were previously fine). Bear this in mind if you upgrade to iOS 4.0. Tech support at Birdguides are helpful and fast to respond. From what I have seen so far of this app (and it is big - lots of data), I would say it is even better than the equivalent on the Mac and having it on the iPhone is going to be far more useful when out and about. Definitely worth the price.

Too often the bird may well have flown before I've accessed the info I need with this design. Unfortunately the search only seems to work on the bird name, not the grouping. At first I searched on warbler and it brought up several groups, I assumed all. But I noticed no chiffchaff. Search on that, brings up the Phylloscopid warblers - heading, but only the one listed. I tapped on the heading, thinking this would indicate I wanted to see them all - strangely, it said "No results". Enter the chiffchaff pages. The "up" and "down" buttons do nothing - only work on list and I had list of 1. "Concise BWP" - don't know what that stands for but it's a good, thorough account of the species. Mentions other similar - but no quick way of switching to them. It would be good to have a line with links - to others in the family, to those easily confused, quickly back to search. Notes pages would be useful too. This app is not cheap, the info. was already available. Birdguides are an experienced firm. It is a great shame and to their discredit that they neglected to spend more time thinking about the design.