Sibley Birds 2nd Edition App Reviews

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Nice app, good for quick birding. It’s nice to be able to have a book in your pocket, and the ability to keep track of a life list while you’re out birding. The ability to narrow down results based on location and time of year is a really nice touch!

New interface and extra species are an improvement. The v1 interface seemed antiquated compared to more modern applications so v2 has some much needed improvements. The seasonal frequency for your state is a nice touch if it is accurate. The extra species and up to date sequence are great but it would be nice if the choice to see/hide rarities was sticky and didn’t get forgotten each you go into the main menu. I can hide them with smart search and I’m trying to decide if that will allow me to hide them more permanently. The concerns raised about the illustration colors are a huge issue. After all of the complaints about the first printing of the second edition I’m stunned to see the app appears to have replicated it. I’m guessing things were too far in development and a hopefully free fix will come eventually? The map problems also seem fixable. I’m guessing there will be lots of bad reviews in the meantime. This is a great app that allows you to have a guide always at hand and I’m hoping the developers fix some of the issues soon so I can give it the 5 stars it should earn.

Absolutely fantastic. This is an outstanding app. The book, the Sibley guide to birds, is perhaps the best guide to North American birds. The app is even better than the book: easier to read, bigger maps, species comparisons, quick search. My favorite app for birds by a long measure.

Update broke sound clips. First update in two years completely broke sound clips in the species profiles. Awesome.

Wrong.. It is wrong to charge existing customers $10 for this “upgrade” when we have been users of this app for a long time now. Not to mention purchasing the hard copies as well. Do not delete your earlier app! This new version has too many issues that need to be addressed which I’m sure they will get to but it isn’t ready for prime time yet. Colors are off again as well as the range maps. And no eBird integration? Really? And no way to port my data and notes over from the earlier app? *Updating my review to thank the developer for the quick update to correct some of the issues that were brought up. And I’m assuming we will be seeing more incremental updates as we go along. Just a suggestion, how about making some Sibley stickers for iMessage? Sibley’s artwork is terrific and it’d be fun to be able to use some of them in your messages.

Update fixed issues.. Looks like the update fixed the color issue and range map issues. Great and comprehensive guide to North American birds. More species added, more plumages depicted than other guides. Compare feature can really help both beginners and others work out a correct ID

app user. The only complaint is that it does with iPhone updates. Sometimes impossible to access songs as they are on top of each other. not keep up

Bird calls stopped working. The apps bird sounds quit working recently.

Not the Field guide for serious birders. Audubon app has much more informed descriptions and has several variations of songs, along with diet, nesting habits and egg color, as well as conservation status.

Best content, slow app, poor search. At the end of the day, the Sibley bird ID info and pictures are better than any alternative. Having it in your pocket is invaluable. That said, the app is inexplicably slow. Scrolling should be far more responsive. My phone (XS max) is faster than most computers a few years old but can’t scroll through some names and tiny pics without halting? Please fix this. The search function is also far less useful than iBird Pro. When you have no idea what a bird is, start with iBird. Then confirm with Sibley.

Mixed reviews. This app is great for people who really know their birds but need to differentiate between similar species or keep track of what they’ve seen and where. I don’t know how beginner could use it, but that’s ok. The biggest issue is that the species aren’t cross referenced. A pintail doesn’t come up as a duck, nor does a teal. And a yellowthroat doesn’t come up as an option for warblers. Yellowlegs doesn’t come up as a shorebird or sandpiper. Kestrel and merlins are another example. They need broader categories. Again, great for good birders , but not if you’re struggling to figure out what you’re seeing for the first time in a new place.

Search filter needs improvement. Filtering for only common birds is useless. Filtering for common to scarce yields too many. How about adding the simple option of common+uncommon? That would be by far the most useful option. Also, for heavens sake, why can't the app look up the current location and date instead of requiring entry of that info every time? The Sibley data is great. The app development is lacking.

Great, but needs some adjustments. 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.

Completely worth the upgrade. 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.

Colors still off. I was excited to finally have an updated Sibley app, especially with updated range maps. I guess these colors might match the 2nd edition of the book, but they aren’t as accurate as the 1st edition of the app. Too dark. I find myself just using the old version. :( also I can’t seem to make the birds side by side when I use the compare feature, just stacked. My phone’s portrait lock is off—and it does still work on the old version. I emailed the app developers about that so maybe it will be resolved. But I’m disappointed the colors aren’t true to life. Check out Chipping Sparrow or Bewick’s Wren—in both these (and others), they’re too dark—old app version is much more accurate.

California Thrasher. The app is good and works well. Better than the old app. When I was looking through the app I saw that the last song for California thrasher was actually California Towhee. Just a small fix. Still a great app. I was happy to see the yellow footed gull range map fixed.

iPad problematic. I love this app, and Sibley’s guides. I wish they would fix the iPad version to allow searching and browsing with the whole screen instead of just from the side bar. Super annoying. I’ve got this big old screen so I can see things bigger and I’m relegated to a tiny side-bar fraction of that to search and browse the guide.

Excellent - getting better. Love Sibley v. 2 for accurate ID info, abundance of field mark details incl. mass and the split screen compare feature.

Sound with the update!. Excellent app. If the new update caused your sounds to quit working check if the button to silence your phone is on…

Daily use. A great aid to my day to day birdwatching life. Easy to use.

Glitzy, careless, all but useless. Whatever you do don't delete your old Sibley Birds app! A few reasons why you'll use it instead of this ill-considered revision: 1. Range maps now made useless by omission of key (explanations) to colors (denoting year round, breeding, etc.) in range maps anywhere I can find, much less with each map as is customary. 2. No practicable way to import one's painfully noted species list & information from earlier edition. Vertically split screen is a real pain in the neck as far as I'm concerned. Just adds more complication to finding a species. Mysterious color blocks with equally mysterious letters obscure species names in split screen-- and I can't find a key to whatever information these may have been intended to convey anywhere. Again. Most menu list items lead to long winded expositions not well suited to a phone app field guide -- but just try and find a picture showing common body parts (front, primary feathers, etc)! In the unlikely event that one would consider another item by this app designer / publisher, THAT information is very easy to find -- right from the menu.

Illustrations are significantly darker. The illustrations in the new app are significantly darker than in the old app, making many colors inaccurate. I hope this will be fixed in an update soon? Otherwise I’m excited to finally get an updated version of my favorite iPhone bird app!

Browse or search by family function. 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.

Bad Update. The most recent update broke all audio functionality, please fix ASAP.

Amazing. This seems perfect so far. have always liked the Sibley book, and parts of the online app. What I was missing most was the compare feature, and hooray here it is. Thanks.

Best NA Field Guide gets an upgrade. The 2nd Edition Sibley is the gold standard for North American field guides. This app is amazing, featuring Sibley’s gorgeous artwork, new range maps, bird calls and songs, and a detailed written description. The first version of this app had a few issues, but the new update has fixed them up. This app isn’t cheap, but it’s totally worth it for the serious bird lover.

Useful, comprehensive, flexible and great on a smartphone. And I like the clear paintings. Comparison tool is great, so is setting the month and state to avoid confusions arising from too many options. Try it. It is my go to bird app

Excellent. Happy to see species updates. Banding codes are extremely useful and just work when typed in.

Wow. So unbelievably useful to have excellent bird id at my fingertips!! Thanks Sibley.

Every North American Birder Needs This App. Quintessential field guide for North America. Easy to navigate. Superior app to Merlin and Audubon. I am a field biologist and this is my go-to for referencing any and all species I come across in California.

Did anyone check this?. What a disappointment. Pictures are colored wrong, maps are incorrect and mixed up, and it’s slow. Did anyone even check it? It takes one easy look to see how badly plates and maps are messed up. I can only hope an update comes out soon. Western and yellow footed gull range maps are the same. Key west quail dove shows they’re in California. All rare bird maps are empty Scarlet tanager and ibis are wine colored instead of scarlet Immature black bellied whistling duck is almost black And numerous other issues.

Good app, dumb new change to sound. I thought the app was broken after update, but found that now if you have your phone on “silent” the app won’t produce sound. This is asinine, no other apps have this issue, because “silence” is to mute notifications and ringing.

I love the new comparisons format. However it doesn’t always work. This should be fixed if possible. When you tap on the similar species tool and tap another bird to compare 3/5 times, I end up with the same bird in both columns. This is frustrating. When it works, however, it’s great. Please fix soon. Looking forward to using it more.

Why can’t I download this app to my telephone?. I cannot download this app to my telephone since it was updated. I previously had two copies of the older versions. Help me, please.

Best app for good birders. Was cautious after reading reviews but this is now my go to app. Especially for comparisons. Also shows sexes, morphs, immature and other variations in plumage better than other apps. Love this app!

Great birder app. I love David Sibley’s books, and this app is perfect for making that work easily accessible. I don’t carry a Sibley guide with me everywhere, but I always have my phone. The app also has nice features like filtering by state and month, as well as bird song recordings. I honestly open this app every day just to browse through bird illustrations. I love it.

Two years later we got new update. Finally hoping for more :)

Show me birds not the book cover. When I buy a book I like to open it so I can read the contents. Unfortunately, the app thinks I should enjoy looking at Sibley’s book cover while the birds are caged in a narrow column beside it. As an owner of v1.0, with all its inadequacies, when are the developers going to unleash this app from their preconceived ideas about making it “different”?

What happened to the sound?. Please fix the sound on this app. It no longer plays bird songs, when your phone is in silent mode. So in order to use it, I have to switch my phone out of silent mode, and I also have to listen to all sorts of other sounds on my phone like text messages coming in or the sound of the phone ringing while I am out in the field. Very annoying. Please reverted back to the old way where you can play sounds through this app while your phone is in silent mode.

Disappointing but . . .. 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?

Disappointed. Comprehensive, BUT can’t print information for personal journal when identifying a bird. No response from Sibley or app developer when inquiring about inability to pry. Wouldn’t have purchased this if I had known.

Best Bird ID app. I’m biased as I’ve always favored Sibley’s bird ID books, but this app is easy to use and has so many little tips on how to distinguish similar birds. The other excellent feature is a comparison mode to see the details of similar birds.

Disappointing. I was hoping for much more of an update to the user interface. It’s almost an identical experience to the old app, which has been somewhat dated for years now. Well, this new “Version 2” is nearly identical in form and function. On top of this, scrolling through the list isn’t smooth - this stuttering appeared on the old app and I just assumed it would have been fixed. Laggy scrolling on 2018 iPad Pro and iPhone Xs is a big disappointment. Glad to see updated taxonomy but this should have been a free update.

Great App But The Scrolling is Slow & Jerky. 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.

Worth the Upgrade. I wasn’t happy having to pay for the upgrade but now that I have it I am happy to invest in the up keep of this well written program. A better designed interface makes it easier to find the bird you just saw. My only complaint is on the Smart Search. It’s much better but it’s still not so smart. More detailed filters would be a big improvement. Example: Your only options are visiting a feeder, swimming and flying. How about wading birds or birds sitting in a field.

Bummer. Apparently, I’m too late to get the discount on this new app even though I purchased the other. Haven’t used it yet, but I really feel like its a slap in the face to have to buy the new app at full price. I’ll update once I’ve spent time using the new version. So disappointed.

Still the best. I loved the v1 app. I think Sibley is the best guide for NA because of the great art. When the second edition came out, I thought it was great but way too big. Now I can have it on my phone and tablet with zero weight. New features are small improvements, but having all the information of the newest Sibley in such a compact form is amazing. Worth every penny to a serious birder. One of the best features is to restrict it to your state so it’s easy to browse just the birds in your area. I prefer the app to the book.

I like the changes. Can I ask for a note taking area that displays on the written description page for each specie. I like to write field marks I notice, or ID hints in my book. My book was recently stolen along with 10 years of my notes so I would like to have this in my app vs in a book that can be lost. The “my list” function is useless to me with ebird and, honestly in the wrong area as it does not show on the page of the bird itself.

Crashes when scrolling. The latest version crashes when scrolling anywhere in the smart search area. Would like to report directly as a bug report, but do not want to use email. Hopefully an update can be pushed out soon. This bug makes the app no use for birds you don’t already have a pretty good idea what they are.

Huge mistake.... 5e first printing of Sibley’s 2nd edition was infamous for having severe color issues. E.g. the red colors were waaay off — much too dark. (See plate of Scarlet Tanager) This was eventually rectified and a lot of us got free replacements once this was corrected. Well, guess what, they digitized the WRONG printing for this app! So the color issues have returned!!!! This MUST be fixed!!!

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Come on! La traduction française laisse encore à désirer!. Comme le titre de on avis le mentionne: Ils n'ont pas corrigé la liste alphabetique avec la v2. Encore une fois, si vous choisissez la liste alphabétique, vous vous retrouvez avec un tri pas rapport... par exemple, si je cherche pour la bécasse d'amérique, je ne m'attendais pas à ce qu'elle arrive à la FIN de la liste sous la catégorie "Woodcock"... Sinon, en gros, oui j'ame mieux cette appli que celle de iBird Pro, l'interface est plus moderne et plus conviviale. Ne serait-ce que pour l'aspect traduction, j'aurais donné une note de 4.5/5, mais je dois baisser les attentes et ça justifie le 3/5...

Should have been an update. I’m really unhappy that my Sibley app just stopped working, no update to the new iOS was offered, and I had to buy the 2nd edition at full price. The new app is very nice, but I would rather just have had an update on my existing app.

Needs improvement. First off, Id like to say Im very displeased that the first edition I payed for no longer is available, and I had to pay full price to upgrade to the second edition. Still some good features and easy to use. Comparison is still a lovely feature, and being able to switch between a list or thumbnails is nice. I like that you can enlarge the art and take closer looks. I like that you can search by banders codes as well. The ‘my list’ section is nice, I havnt played around too much with it yet though. Im not sure why, but when setting your location for specific birds in your area (mine is Ontario Canada) I still am seeing birds from far south and west like black-capped vireo and mexican violetear... birds that have never been recorded in Ontario. It makes me wonder if its not showing species that should be listed for the area Ive selected. Thats a pretty big issue in my opinion. Smart search doesn't work well, I entered in field markings for american woodcock and it couldn't tell me what I saw, even when I selected month of may, sandpiper like, long bill and small/medium with diving flight pattern. I had to removed flight pattern and list it under all waterbirds. Which I could have just scrolled to in the actual guide and not wasted time with the so called smart search. The interface for the app is ok, the symbols of the left are not explained and Im assuming they mean to tell me if the bird is common in my area or not. Not really that important to have popping out more that the birds do on the list... when I switch to thumbnail mode I cant use comparisons but the option pops up as if I can. Glitch? Is this still a beta version? Just makes the app heavy with a useless feature. Overall I think it needs improvement. Im disappointed with this version, but I know it can be better. I used to recommend this app but now Im not sure. Theres still things I like a lot about it, like comparing songs/calls. And sibleys work is still great and points out key details, one of the reasons I like it more than photos (although his owls in this edition are a bit questionable, particularly the western burrowing owl) its still a great guide and easy to use. But I feel like it doesnt have to be the bare min. I hope you see my review and look into the location problem at least, it was one of the reasons I loved the last edition so much.

Suggestion. Bonjour, Ce guide numérique est très bien fait. Facile à utiliser et très convivial. Pour moi c’est un guide parfait sur le terrain. Mais c'est pour quand la version française de ce très bon guide?

A true reference. This second edition is an improvement of the excellent first edition. There are more drawings and details among other things. This app was clearly designed with care.

Overpriced and glitchy. The app has some issues. If you change the view to larger icons and then use a search term when you click on a bird, the app crashes, consistently. I enjoy the app but the crashing is annoying and there hasn’t been a patch to fix it. At $20-$30, the app should really be able to work normally without crashing.

Updates. I really like this app and find it very useful in the field. However, the updates come fast and furious in the middle of birding season for us in northern latitudes, and I need wifi to do this. Many times I’ve headed off for several days only to find the app will not work until I update, so its of no use to me. Please plan your updates so they are meaningful and less often.

Use old app!. Colours on this app are not accurate. Too dark. There was just an update to fix colour issues. Well, there are still issues. Check out, for example, juvenile GoshHawk. Just too dark and intensive. Compare with the more accurate colour of the old app. So. Stick with the old app for now.

Sibley V2. Finally !!! After many complaints, they ended up solving the problem related to the selection of locations and status...So , l give you back your 5 stars of appreciation. Thank you ! Peter

Great app for birders. I use this app to help me identify birds when my spouse is otherwise not available.

Excellent guides. Nom des espèces en français, guide complet (cartes, chants, descriptions...), achats qui en vaut la peine!

Mise à jour des taxons / Update for french names. Bonjour, j'adore l'application! Par contre, quelques noms français ne sont pas à jour. Je pense par exemple au Busard des marais (Circus hudsonius, anciennement Busard Saint-Martin) ou à la Pie-grièche boréale (anciennement Pie-grièche grise). Je sais que l'application est nouvellement lancée, mais il serait vraiment génial, dans une prochaine mise à jour, de corriger tous les noms qui ont changés. Merci! Jordan ---------------- Hi, I absolutely love the app! However, some names in french are not up to date. I think for exemple of the «Busard des marais» (Circus hudsonius, formerly «Busard Saint-Martin») or the «Pie-grièche boréale (Lanius borealis, formerly «Pie-grièche grise»). I understand that the app was launched recently, but it would be very awesome if, in a future update, all names could be changed to be up to date. Thank you! Jordan

When do you plan to update Hawaiian species, please?. I do like being able to see similar species, compare them and the flight underwings and upper details. The colours are a bit dull. Can you enhance them with current colour apps or effects? Can you add more western pacific bird calls, sounds? I live north of Seattle. I like the hummingbird app. It’s missing Allen’s? Could you adjust the tail notch detail in the Rufous? It’s not that clear, magnify it? I’ve seen photos that made it perfectly clear, same size. I would also like Mexico included. Thanks

Colour coding needs tweaking.... Was hoping last update would address the colour-coding, as the frequency letters “R” and “V” are the same shade of red. Otherwise, love the ability to directly compare two species, illustrations are quite large and well done digitally, they look like the illustrations found in Sibley’s bird guides.

Good while it lasted. I just deleted this app from my phone after 13 years of patronage. I’m unable to comprehend why this company cares less about the long term users that built their customer base, while placing profit above all else. I sent them several messages to this effect, and never received a single reply. I think I know where their loyalties lie. So long, iBird: fortunately there are many excellent alternatives out there. PK

Really happy to support Sibley. Very pleased with this version. Love this app. Super appreciative there is no subscription model. Thanks again. Grateful for the opportunity to upgrade to this current version.

Needs Mexico on maps. This is an extremely well designed app. Lots of information in a compact format. The compare feature works well. I wish the maps included Mexico as it is part of North America.

Génial mais….. Évidemment c’est super pratique comme application, aussi bien pour les photos, que les chants les cartes, MAIS QUAND JE SÉLECTIONNE LANGUE: Français je m’attends à ce que tout les mots soient traduits, aussi bien le descriptif, que les sexes âges et caractéristiques des images et pas seulement le nom français et pas la classe ou la famille. DU FAIT QUE L’ON EST OBLIGÉ DE PAYER JE M’ATTENDAIS À UNE QUALITÉ SUPÉRIEURE pour le français, déçu.

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Sibley Birds V2. Excellent…Daniel Edelstein, WarblerWatch.com

Bummer. Apparently, I’m too late to get the discount on this new app even though I purchased the other. Haven’t used it yet, but I really feel like its a slap in the face to have to buy the new app at full price. I’ll update once I’ve spent time using the new version. So disappointed.

Ripped off!. Special price listed is $9.99. I purchased and was charged $24.99 (plus tax). What gives?

Sibley guide is in need of ANOTHER update. Seriously.... after all this time, they digitized the wrong plates from the field guide. The reds are a mess. The Scarlet Tanager is BRICK RED! I do like the layout and the expanded number of species covered, but the heart of any field guide are the illustrations.

Feels rushed and incomplete. This app (realistically more of an update to the first Sibley field guide app despite the fact that is a stand-alone purchase) has nominally, as I remember it, been two or three years in the making. As a result, users of the first edition of the Sibley app were understandably hyped about the promise of what the next edition could offer, drawing an analogy to the improvements offered by the second edition of the Sibley field guide book over the first edition. I purchased the app as soon as it became available and have spent the past 24 hours or so evaluating it. My overall impression so far is that while it is the same good reference platform as the first edition, it does not in fact appear to be the product of multiple years worth of actual development work, and a great many things must be fixed before I can objectively recommend the guide. Pros: The plates are all classic Sibley works that appear to have been digitized at slightly higher resolution relative to those in the first app. Due to Sibley’s artistic acumen, the plates therefore are quite good at conveying the field marks of the birds they represent. A number of species not included in the first edition are present in this edition, which is nice but to be expected given changes in the avifauna of North America over the past several years. Some of the improvements to the UI are also appreciated, including the addition of a dedicated “comparison” button and the ability to list species by abundance in a given region. The latter tool may prove useful to users with less field experience with the birds in their area. Cons: I fear this list will be longer than that of the pros. Perhaps the biggest gripe I have about the new app is the fact that the plates appear to have been taken from the first printing of the second edition Sibley field guide book. This printing is infamous for an error that occurred in the production process that caused some of the plates to turn out extremely saturated and dark (the Scarlet Tanager plate, for instance, shows the male as bordering on purplish-black rather than bright red). This error wasn’t caught until the book was already on store shelves, and a second printing was later issued that corrected for these print errors. My gripe is that this whole print error story occurred three or four years ago, before the first edition of the app stopped receiving updates and work shifted to the second edition, and yet the content developers *still* chose to digitize the plates from the first printing rather than the second. This decision is blatantly inexcusable, given the level of outrage from the community when the errors first appeared in the book. These poorly-printed plates are nonetheless, for better or for worse, part of the app offered for sale here. My second gripe concerns the quality of the range maps in the app. Most of the maps of species that were part of the first edition of the app look fine to me from a quality standpoint, and indeed look to have been scaled up in resolution relative to those in the first edition. The issue comes from newly generated maps, both for those species that are new to the app and for species whose ranges have changed enough to warrant having their maps redrawn. Frankly, most of these new maps are of very poor quality, and some appear as though they may have been produced in MS Paint rather than in a professional illustration suite. The poor quality of these maps relative to those of other species makes for a very uneven user experience, and speaks to low quality control on the part of the development team. Thirdly, I feel it necessary to address what feels to me to be a lack of optimization in the UI. Scrolling through the species list on my iPhone X feels slow and jerky, which leads to a frustrating and visually jarring experience. In addition, I experienced periodic hard crashes while paging through species accounts, causing me to lose my place in the app. This is clearly not an issue inherent to long lists of rich media, as apps like iBird do an extremely good job of making the scrolling experience feel smooth and responsive. This would be far and away the easiest gripe of mine to remedy, as it’s a code optimization issue that’s unrelated to the actual app content, but until a fix is made, it nonetheless detracts from the user experience of the app. Closing remarks: There was a great deal of potential surrounding this app release, particularly considering the lengthy amount of time that the developers had to work on it prior to release. Unfortunately, while the core of the app is still fairly solid, several major content and usability problems make me unable to recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone looking for a field guide app. I hope the development team is able to smooth out some of these wrinkles in the coming weeks, though I suspect that we will be left with the aforementioned shoddy plates and range maps for the foreseeable future.

Excellent - getting better. Love Sibley v. 2 for accurate ID info, abundance of field mark details incl. mass and the split screen compare feature.

Did anyone check this?. What a disappointment. Pictures are colored wrong, maps are incorrect and mixed up, and it’s slow. Did anyone even check it? It takes one easy look to see how badly plates and maps are messed up. I can only hope an update comes out soon. Western and yellow footed gull range maps are the same. Key west quail dove shows they’re in California. All rare bird maps are empty Scarlet tanager and ibis are wine colored instead of scarlet Immature black bellied whistling duck is almost black And numerous other issues.

Still a winner. I’m sure I will discover more to like about this new version but for now let me applaud a couple changes: the four-character banding code now works! I suspect most birders once they discover the convenience of using these abbreviations of names will adopt their use. eBird supports their use as do most of the Birding apps. So I am happy to see this app incorporate their use. If you need more help with bird codes I recommend PEFA by Nemesis Code for an explanation and their look-up. Second, the “COMPARE” feature has been expanded. You are now shown all similar species and can select them one at a time to study similarities and differences. Before you had to know and select the two species to compare ... most likely overlooking one or more points of confusion. You can still compare two species of your choice even if they are not similar (e.g., CORA & SWHA, common raven & swainson’s hawk). This comparison example brings up a feature that would be helpful for birders who frequent HawkWatch sites: profiles of raptors and other large high flying birds are more useful for ID than close-up feather detail. Sibley demonstrates this usefulness in both species of this example. Perhaps a future version of his app will expand this feature to include all birds you are likely to find challenging at a HawkWatch. I use my phone app in the field and my tablet app for armchair bird study. Considering what I have invested in bird books over the past sixty years, this $10 was my Best Buy of the decade.

They digitized the wrong printing. I was really excited for this app—especially the feature where you can search by banding code. However they have digitized the first printing of the second edition (the one that Knopf replaced) so the reds are too dark. I guess get it while it’s discounted and hope they update it with the correct illustrations in the future? Wouldn’t be worth it at full price without that.

Needs ebird integration. And I don't see much difference from the original app. Please build considerably on this foundation.