Sibley Birds 2nd Edition

Sibley’s drawing is always the best. That’s what makes this app unbeatable among all birding apps. Compare feature is also very useful. One suggestion is, with all those smart search criteria, please add a basic browse or quick search by family option. For example, I want to compare Ovenbird and Northern Waterthrush calls. Currently there is no quick search criteria that can bring them up together. But they are close relatives in Wood Warblers family. I have to scroll down the whole list and see through many unrelated species (the little dots on the right did help scrolling faster but they too small and not precise enough). So please provide a way to get to a bird family quickly and allow us comparing similar species easier. Thanks.

I love the app and Sibley guides are the best. I find the scrolling to be kind of jerky and slow. Can the developers find this? It should be more smooth. I have an iPhone XS MAX.

The new app is leaps and bounds better than the old app. Range maps are improved, new species are added, the similar species feature is terrific. The use of the overly dark “first printing” colors from the second edition book is puzzling when the second printing rectified this. Some of the range maps seem to have been mixed up in the translation to the app (see Key West Quail Dove, which at present shows the species occurring only in California) and the app seems to crash pretty frequently on my IPhone 7 Plus. I very much hope that the developer can correct these bugs. This is still by far the best mobile guide to North American birds even with these issues, though.

ask user to change the rating

First off, congrats David on finally getting the developers to update your app. As a walk leader, this is my number one tool for showing people what they are looking at and listening to. I can’t remember how many times people say’Wow’ when I open the app and use it to help the process of bird ID. I’m happy to see that the app and your guide are going to continue. Unfortunately, someone dropped the ball and the developers don’t get the importance of the issues. If you are going to publish a reference guide, inaccurate data are NOT MINOR LAUNCH ERRORS! I’m encouraged by the developer’s promise of an update to correct the situation but will remain skeptical until I see the changes. As it stands now, the 2nd edition app is untrustworthy and unusable. To all who are grousing about paying for the update - get real. Do you think all these people did this for free? Are you working for free?

Complaints about having to pay for new 2nd Ed material are completely misplaced. Benefitting from the intellectual work that went into this edition both by the author and programmers means paying for the service. I wasn’t sure about the frequency flags (red, green, yellow) but they are immensely helpful in new locations. Helped me quickly ID to species several times on a recent trip to California, with its 751 spp. Color issues are completely resolved. This guide is an immense achievement, made even more useful in the field by the new search functionality. There’s a tremendous amount of information at your fingertips here. If you don’t want to pay for it, don’t. But it’s worth many times this price.