EBird App Reviews

We transfer money over €4 billion every month. We enable individual and business accounts to save 4 million Euros on bank transfer fees. Want to send free money abroad or transfer money abroad for free? Free international money transfer!

User-friendly & Very Handy in the field. I faithfully use this app to create 99% of my birdwatching lists. I use Voice Record app when there’s a bird I hear but don’t recognize. And I keep Merlin Bird ID app as a “field guide” on my phone. Where this app shines is the Explore tab! This feature keeps improving and becoming more helpful! I mostly use the Explore tab to search for hotspots in the vicinity I wish to visit. It’s become a very handy feature in the field! I’m looking forward to seeing what other features they add to the Explore tab! The app does not offer the full features and experience that the eBird website offers (I do not think it could or even should), but it is nonetheless a valuable tool to use in my birding hobby!

Bad app. Wow, I really wanted to use this app but what a mess it is. The basic process of setting up an account and login is impossible without being sent in circles. For example, the simple act of changing a password does not work. When I tried to change the password, hoping I could login, I clicked on the sent link seconds after receiving the email and it said I had waited for more than 24 hours and the password couldn’t be changed!? Huh?!

Checklists don't sync between devices. I'm signed into my ebird account but I can only see checklists submitted from this device. I should be able to see all checklists I've submitted from any device when I'm signed in. App needs a field guide so that when you click on a bird you can verify what it looks like (size and field markings), how it sounds, and it's migration map. Especially when using explore feature. Should be able to long press anywhere on the map to make that the center of the search area instead of going through the menus. Otherwise solid.

Excellent for everyone who loves birds and learning,. This excellent tool has helped me enjoy birding on a new level. The information available on this app helps me learn new things and enjoy watching birds more than I ever thought possible, this is a wonderful community and fun for all ages,

Common names?. I must be doing something wrong but I can’t find any way to switch the list to show and search by common names of birds. It’s a total deal breaker that I have to use the scientific names of what we’re seeing. The whole point of the app should be to make it easy but I have to Google every bird I see, find their scientific name and copy/paste it into the app. Total fail. What am I doing wrong or who is this serving best? I don’t get it.

You don’t need my precise location. I already have a ton of app tracking me. You don’t need my precise location to do your tracking. Please remove this requirement or I’ll just stop using your app. I’m use the app for the sake of helping with your research. Not so you can collect my data and do who knows what with it.

A pic is worth a thousand words!. I would give this app 5 stars if it had the ability to add media and access photos while using the app. I don’t like that I have to go to the website to add my photos and then they aren’t visible when accessing my checklist from the app.

Not really user friendly. Most times I’m standing in my house viewing birds from the window. I dislike having to “start checklist” and have it running like I’m actually walking around seeking various birds to log. There should be an option to just log one at a time at that very moment without having a duration. This app is just too complicated and doesn’t have the capability to search by characteristic in the Merlin app. I only really use that to search by sound. I typically end up using my Audubon app bc theirs is all in one to search by characteristics and easily log when you see one.

So frustrating. The Explore section is frustratingly unreliable. The intent is good. See what species have been spotted recently in an area you want to explore? Why, yes! Almost never works, then has the gall to suggest the problem is with the user’s internet connection. How hard can it be to pull results from a database? Perhaps the ornithology department should request the help of the computer science department. You’re Cornell for goodness sake! Please fix this.

Very helpful app, needs some work. The idea behind the app is good but it has a few flaws. Recently it’s started just shutting down with no warning if I’m trying to search sightings away from my actual location, like when I’m anticipating traveling. And it’s very difficult to search for just sightings of a specific species.

EBird. I don’t see why people have such a problem with the app. I find it real useful for its purpose, to add birds to the eBird database. I’ve been using the app since it came out. It’s improved a lot. Doesn’t crash, or have problems that don’t allow you to submit sightings. People leaving bad reviews because location data is required don’t understand the point of the app. eBird is a scientific project that requires you to show your location so they can graph and track bird populations.

User friendly?. Just started using eBird as a recommendation, however not finding it logical in the way I enter my bird findings and locations. Can’t find common names and pics to help me pick the right bird. My location of the sighting could not be found even though it is a state reserve. I’ll keep trying and see how things work out. Wish me luck!

Won’t load…. Normally I’d be giving 5 stars but with the latest update it won’t load properly. It stays hung on loading new packs and even after a reboot doesn’t seem to open.

Wish it was collaborative. This is a great app for bird tracking. However, I wish I could see what my friends and family have sited. It would be cool if a social feature were added to the app.

Checklist. I haven’t used this app much so far mainly because I really just want a running checklist of birds I have seen whenever or wherever. It seems this app has a checklist but it is per outing/location/day and I have to start a new list each new day when I go to add a species. Nothing wrong with that, just not what I’m looking for. If it has the kind of checklist I am looking for, I can’t figure it out.

eBird app review. Great app that makes it very easy to sight birds!!! Love the update that helps you find the birds you want to see at a specific location. It’s helped me find a lot of birds!

New version crashes. Whenever I start a new checklist, the app crashes. It always used to work. I’ve tried restarting my phone, the app, reinstalling the app, and similar. Still seeing crashes. Updated: I deleted all ebird data on my phone, then reinstalled, now I can use ebird again. Not a great experience, but it is back to being usable.

eBird. Ebird has truly revolutionized the world of birding! It has been a game changer! Not only does it benefit science, but it benefits the birder. It does this by keeping track of our life lists and regional lists. Ebird data is powerful! Ebird allows birders to see their closest birding hotspots and discover what birds have been reported in their area. Thanks so much to the eBird team!

Great framework, but needs some improvements. I got this app when I got Merlin to help me identify and keep track of the birds I see. I love how easily you can switch between Merlin to eBird to log a bird that was identified, and how you can download specific area packs instead of all birds in the country. It’s great to have a checklist like this in my pocket when out in the field! However, I have one bug that I’ve had trouble with, and a suggestion. First off, I can’t use the explore tab to look at local hotspots. When I pick a location, the app crashes every time. That’s a bummer, especially when I wanted to scout a location to see what was in the area. As for my suggestion, it would be nice to have more options when making a checklist. For example, if there were counters for male, female, and juvenile, I feel like that might make for more precise and organized data. Perhaps an ambiguous or unknown option as well for species that look identical regardless of sex. After bug fixes and further improvements in the future, I feel like this would be an even more useful tool.

Great idea, coding is horrible and therefore education. The app repeatedly will not load information, claims that internet connection is not strong enough even thought internet tests indicate internet is functioning as normal, only one location’s data will load and then no others. I am using a fully updated Gen 2 SE, it is frustrating to see such a great idea die because of poor app design/execution

Photo submissions necessary. At the heart of it, the app is fine. It does, however, miss the critical feature of allowing photos to be attached on the mobile app. You can add photos on the website, but sometimes transferring these photos over is a pain. This is really the only thing I believe is missing.

Great but could be better. Sometimes crashes, works fine at most time.

EBird won't open/crashes. Been using eBird for years. Many many checklists saved in the app both reported and unreported. Well, today I updated to 14.2 (or whatever the lates iOS version is) and eBird now will not open at all. Restarted phone, reinstalled app, etc. Nothing works. It is completely inaccessible. I'm very worried my years of unreported data from many places in the world is gone forever. Please help!

Great overall but one thing. I love this app overall, it’s quite helpful. I just wish that you could see checklists submitted on the actual webpage itself say from your laptop would show up on your app. That would be so amazing.

Love the new features!. Thank you Ebird for finally allowing our lists to be integrated regardless of the device used to enter the data. I have been asking for this enhancement for years and I’m so happy to see it finally come to fruition. Now I can see all my old lists that had been entered on the computer before the app even existed. Thank you for a wonderful product. And it’s great that the data helps scientists too. Win win! What’s not to love? Keep up the great work.

It could have been so much better!. I’ve used this app for a few years now and I’ve encountered several issues with it. If you are lucky enough to spot a bird that they don’t believe should be in your area and you report it, you’ll likely get an email explaining why you couldn’t possibly have seen such a bird and then they ask you for pictures so they can properly identify the bird. Obviously it doesn’t matter how long we’ve been birding or how many bird books we have, if eBird says that bird shouldn’t be here, well it’s just not possible. There are times when you can’t even record a sighting of a bird in your area because eBird won’t even list the bird as being in your area. This is so frustrating and a huge injustice to all of us who would like to help contribute to where birds are actually being sighted.

Please Remove Geolocation Requirement. I have been a user of the eBird website and decided to try the app. However, I do not like how you need to turn on geolocation and give the app access to your position in order to submit a list. Please allow users to use a saved personal location without requiring them to turn on their device's geolocation services first. This would help protect users' privacy. From now on I will stick to the website for submitting lists and only use the app for reference or for viewing my already submitted lists. Also, I cannot see the checklists that I submitted online in the app. I have signed into the same EBird account, but my checklists are not visible.

Unusable due to crashes. I can no longer submit observations because the app crashes every single time I use it. App has always been unstable but it is now unusable. CBCs will be extremely difficult without this app so please fix this asap

Love this app. I am a long time user and I feel that this app works well in most ways. I do have a few suggestions for improvements. 1) can we have the ability to change the font size please? I don’t use glasses while birding but I need reading glasses to use my phone. The font size selection on my phone doesn’t change the size of the font in the app. 2) can the area where you select how many birds have the option of either starting with the alphabet or the number keyboard. I would like a choice. I like selecting the bird then adding the number. I have a iPhone 11 Pro incase you need that info. Thanks!

Getting more cumbersome and harder to use. e-Bird was a 5-star application for entering bird sightings. Recent versions just get more cumbersome and harder to use. When starting a bird list, it downloads a list for your location based on the users GPS. Now, when submitting it has to download the full bird list again. Why the need to download twice? Waste of time and data. When picking a location, it used to be easy: enter GPS location, pick a nearby hotspot or use location as given. Now it has to download a full color aerial photo and make you pick a location from that. Aside from the fact that I could not enter an incidental sighting because the map did not cooperate, why waste the time and data with it. The GPS tracking is poor. It is not possible to download the track taken for other purposes (like geo-locating photos) furthermore e-Bird uses much more battery than other GPS tracking applications I use. Finally, while a lot of development has gone into making a clumsier application, it still lacks the ability to upload photos from the field or upload GPS tracks. I still eBird, but will have to leave if development continues its downward trend.

Bad update. Agree with the other reviewer below that the latest updates to this app have virtually eliminated the most useful features of eBird for me. Specifically the “Explore” section, which seems not to have the ability to check recent sightings in a particular area anymore. How could they possibly think it was a good idea to do that?! I’m very disappointed that one of my go-to, daily apps is no longer of much use to me.

Fantastic. I have used this app since it was new. It is great. I hope that it will not leave me & my Iphone 6 in the dust like happened with Daily Bird which was also a favorite of mine.

Useless unless you allow location tracking. Please remove the requirement to enable geotracking in order to use this app. Literally nothing will work without turning on location services. If I’m doing backyard birding I don’t want my exact coordinates on the internet.

Overall an amazing app just a little issue with location. This app is amazing. I have learned how to identify countless birds. It is also very inclusive with the option to download “bird packs” for a multi you countries so you can identify birds from home to halfway across the world. The birding app itself is also amazing. When you start a checklist it keeps time and keep track of birds is easy with the # and then bird name system. The app also automatically provides your start location when closing which is extremely helpful That being said I have a complaint 1. Entering a location in the app is difficult if you haven’t already been there and you are entering it away from where the birding took place However, overall it is a wonderful app and tool. I love writing comments and the feeling of satisfaction when I can record an uncommon or even rare species!

Error loading species. You'd better get used to seeing that. I'm pretty sure that I actually am connected to the internet. It's an amazing app that greatly enhances birding, no doubt. But it shouldn't take a dozen tries to load what birds have been seen at a local spot.

Works great for me. Use this app every time I bird, in USA and Europe. With it running in the background and Merlin Bird ID on and off in foreground I do great. I fully accept rare sightings need to be entered separately on the website. In a good birding location I will be adding birds quickly, and with a much longer list will select rare birds by mistake. I have politely been emailed for the few wrong rare birds I have recorded. I was almost honored to get an email from the moderator for one mistake as he is such a phenomenal birder. Subsequently had opportunity to bird with him, and we saw 67 species when I would have seen 35.

Great app! I only wish…. Please please PLEASE make the app more like the website! I want to be able to see my account and search up species like you can on the website.

Much to improve. This app is overall incredible. But some things don’t make any sense: why not let you search for a species within a particular radius from yourself etc. Biggest peeve is with the keyboard. When you want to manually enter a number of birds, so tap on the species and it opens into the full screen counter for that species, the keyboard that opens is alphabetical, not numerical, requiring yet another tap to get it entered. Also, it would be cool if the app would allow you to sort in the birds you already found to the top of the lists (it’s often the case that after seeing one group of Canada geese, I see another), but keep the yet unseen birds in the species or alphabetical lists below. This would offer faster access. When seeing a lot of birds at a time, one doesn’t want to have to scroll or input letter by letter to bring a species back up to add to. Underside shots of more birds would be really helpful, too. Also, ability to message with other birders by consent would also be cool cuz sometimes you don’t meet in the field but wish you could find out more. Many thanks! One more thing: you should make track location OFF as there default. Women and ppl of color are often afraid to post exactly where they regularly go or their homes, so also making it possible to offer the tracking details to you at Cornell but obscure them from the public by default would also be great.

Really buggy. I have the latest iPhone and the latest IOS installed. This app constantly freezes and crashes. I manage to see the activity in a location about 1 in 5 times I try to access it. I live in a metro area and have great internet access. Cornell Lab is usually so good but I find ebird very frustrating.

Please add ability to export track. I love this app and use it for work and personal birding. A huge improvement to the entire platform would be the ability to export your track into a kml or shapefile. That would be a very useful feature.

Great app, but room for improvement. I love the app and being able to contribute to citizen science. The major improvement I wish they offered was bring able to add photos to your species list while in the app instead of doing it after you submit the record then you are required to login, edit, and add media from the website.

I hate this app more every day. And it has completely ruined Merlin somehow. I think I will just get a paper journal. It would make life easier. I used to be able to save just a single species I saw while out and about on Merlin. Now it forces me to eBird and forces me to start a timed count. I saw a bird on my way to work. I am not starting a freaking timed count. Now Merlin no longer allows me to save birds just to Merlin but now forces me to Go to eBird, which takes forever and doesn’t work half the time. Birding used to be stress free.

Good mainly for data. Where eBird soars is in the database and region packs. I’m in Mexico so downloaded the Mexico pack. This, combined with the global contributions from others, makes the app worth it. However, the user experience of the app is quite poor. Having a smooth user experience clearly isn’t a priority. This probably hinders the quality/quantity of the data itself, as I’m sure it turns people away. For example, when you search a hotspot list (e.g. “hawk”), the search is cleared when you try to scroll down the filtered list, so you see the full list, rendering search useless except for the top 3-4 hits (depending on screen size). Also, you cannot actually see information about birds in the app. You can only see metadata for sightings (common name, time & location). For information about birds (photos, range map, etc.) you need another app; Merlin Bird ID is good for that, and links to eBird). Dear Cornell bird lab: please apply for a grant to up your UX game!

Please fix this bug!!. Whenever I open eBird on my phone, it takes me right back to the Home Screen. I’ve tried shutting my phone down and even deleted the app, but to no avail. This is a wonderful app, please please fix the bug so I can record my checklists again!!

Another “down” date. This is why I’ve stopped donating $ to them. They use it to make things worse. They just changed things (again)—now, you have to memorize the complete list of breeding codes or wait til you have internet to look them up. Why?!? They always took a good thing and try to figure out the best way to make it worse!!

Great app for Birdwatching. Useful app for finding new birds. Personally I have used it three times for this specific reason and found a new bird each time. All the other times I have done bird checklists, and the UI is easy to use once you get the hang of it. It can track your path during your time to make the data more meaningful. Also, the checklists made with the app get put to great use if you have an account because the data is entered in one of the world’s biggest public databases for bird sightings.

Incredible app. If you call yourself a serious birder, you probably have this app already or you are a contrarian…

Don’t update if you’re in iOS!! July 10, 23. Your summary history, once available on the app, is now gone & takes a cumbersome search on their website. They keep tweaking the app and each update is worse than the previous. I wish I could revert back to BirdLog! It just getting worse, won’t be updating ever again unless it’s to revert to the tools taken away from us.

Previous locations. I use eBird a lot, and the mobile app has been great. However, the updated app seems over-designed. Pet peeve: I cannot select from previous locations when entering a list from the past, I have to zoom in on a map that starts with the whole of North America. Why not allow scrolling through the list of previous locations just as when you can when submitting a list in real time? Also, the tracking function is better when the default is OFF.

Too much untapped potential. Wish they had more features, including website and app. eBird has so much potential. Why can’t we have a target species in vicinity option like that other app which eye (pun intended) shall not name??

Did you know that you can earn 25 USD from our site just by registering? Get $25 for free by joining Payoneer!

Excellent app!. Very handy app. I submit 3-7 checklists a day, and the app is just the thing I need. 6 star rating for this app!

Able to sign in now!. Something must have been updated as I can now sign in to the app, as I have never been able to do so before!

Brilliant!. Fantastic free app that means you can enter bird sightings from anywhere in the world with or without an Internet connection - free, great interface, simply brilliant!!

A fantastic resource. As others have said, BirdLog massively changed - for the better - my birding data capture and the eBird app takes things to the next level of excellence, and ease of use. A fantastic free resource for birders, highly recommended.

Great birding app. The ebird app allows much more practicality than just listing, now there is a search and explore function similar to the online site. The ability to quickly search back on previous lists and check totals for specific areas also adds some benefits, especially for keen listers like myself.

Almost perfect. Great birding app - the amount of detail you can add is excellent, and the distance tracking is a great feature. You just need to add the capability to add photos and sound recordings in the app, and then it would be a 5 star app!

e-bird. Great app, easy to use. Can you put in a true "travelling" component though for road travel say around 50k by car and not just 5k walking. Thank you.

Brilliant way to record data. This app is a brilliant way to record data on birds that is shared all over the world. It can be used online or offline with previously unheard of accuracy in time and location. The flags checking for rarity and back up by volunteer reviewers is fantastic and so important to keep the integrity of the data. I used to Atlas for Australian birds, but when I read that eBird passed data on to the Australian Atlas I started using eBird instead. The only issues is that spelling and names are for Australian species is not the same as we use in Australia, and the recent update has greatly slowed down the loading of checklist so much that it really is a pain when out in the field with slow download speeds. Perhaps a choice to use a previous checklist at this stage would be possible as is available in offline mode. Otherwise keep up the great work eBird!

Don’t update!. The recent overhaul of the app has reduced, rather than improved, useability of this app. As a daily user, I was quite excited by the prospect of having a shortcut to new checklists. However, I am now forced to deselect tracking and confirm my decision to do so before I can start any list. (I don’t use tracking because I am in the field all day and can’t afford the battery drain). The review page is crowded and hard to read compared to the old version. When a duration is 3 digits long, only the first digit is visible, followed by 3 periods!? So you actually can’t see how long the duration is if you use the auto calculator. The “create new checklist” button has also disappeared from the checklists page. I am also not sure why we now need to go into the map in order to rename an offline location. Advice to ebird would be to please fix the above issues, and in future, maybe change things in baby steps - such a radical overhaul is pretty disruptive to regular users who use ebird as a survey tool. The old version of the app was, for the most part, well-designed and easy to use.

Great app for your life list. I use eBird nearly every week to track my observations. I love that there's a map that shows other peoples' sightings and hotspots. Looking forward to future updates and to be able to sync my checklists across all devices.

Great for holidays. Easy to use especially useful when on extended holidays to track daily sightings.

No longer works.. This app was great but it no longer works since I got my new iPhone XR. I just get repeated errors that eBird servers are down. It appears to be no longer supported.

Imagine you at your best. All the time. Picture yourself at your sharpest and most productive. Your most alert and focused. Your most lucid, creative and confident. At work. At play. In every area of your life. Add Mind Lab Pro® v4.0 to your daily routine and uncap your true potential. Buy Now!

What a mess. This app is just so hard to enjoy. How can it be so painful to just list birds.

Terrific App. Love this app. An extremely quick & easy way to update my sightings, whether at home or on the go.

Lots of potentials, but needs finition. -Can't add photos -Can't add breading code like on their website I would really like too see a "my ebird" section that we could see ours stats. Other than that everything is perfect and Im a big fan of it!

Easy, but needs some fixes. Easy to enter sightings and see local hotspots. The PC version is easier to use, and to see what others have observed near here. Please fix so that the iPad app integrates the same Locations as I have on my PC. The app sometimes refuses to accept entries it considers rare e.g. our hummingbird was here earlier than most years. The app kept asking for confirmation, with no way to do so.

Très bien. Très bien

Cannot access account. This is a very confusing app. I have wasted a half an hour trying to set up an account but will not accept user name or password. Why so confusing???

Good app when it works!. Since I switched to iPhone X and iOS 13, it can’t connect to the database to populate species for a chisen location. I am stuck with using the web version, to my disapointment. I sent a support ticket but no reply. Pierre Richard

Easy to track your sightings AND help researchers. Simple to use, helps build discipline while you observe birds at the feeder, and creates a reference list.

Not bad. A bit convoluted but useful. The setting for the birds' common name language doesn't seem to stick: I change it to French but it keeps reverting to English? 🤷‍♂️

Simple checklist for Merlin Bird ID?. Looking for a simple way to track detected birds through the Merlin Bird ID. This app isn’t useful unless you track/checklist birds in-field.

Great, with some caveats. Of course this app does what it says - nothing all that groundbreaking there. Two particular issues: 1. It is a battery hog. Even when I lock my phone and put it away, it seems to be draining my battery. Not sure if it's using my GPS while in use or what but it's very annoying. 2. I have no idea why, but the default keyboard is the alternate one on iPhone (number and symbols) when you click in the field to type common name/species codes. Again, very annoying.

Great but possible to improve. I like this, its great. I'd like to see a feature where a birding day could be tracked by GPS. Also a voice-activated feature so if you're driving along during a birding day and you spot 80 geese in a field, you'ld press a button that would leave a marker on the map of your birding route...and by voice the app would ask : SPECIES? ... then it would ask: QUANTITY? ... That would make the data bank much more accurate. In the field...you activate a "route" when you start birding...as soon as you see something; you say: E-Bird ...and a marker is dropped and the app ask what sp and how many...*sigh* ...call me a dreamer but I am sure its easily possible.

Counterintuitive. Stupidly hard to use. Common species for my area won’t show up when I try to add them- no workaround, no obvious reason, can’t add them to the list. No support available. They use some free forum and don’t let you contact the developer to report a bug. Plus the design is just boring and ugly. Too bad this is the app of choice for nerdy birders, because surely someone could create something better. Update six months in: two of us are still having to look up the basics to do anything (eg, edit date/ time on a checklist; force rare bird alerts to show even the stated 7 days, let alone more.)

Happy. Such a great app top notch and awesome quality! It wasent hard to make an account and it’s free! It has learning games and courses and it also has a field guide! My favourite part is hot spots and rare bird alerts! This is the perfect app for beginners and also advanced people! Please download this app and donate!!!!! Ps they have bird feeder cameras and it can be live!

Great app with lots of potential!. A fast and easy way to add reports. I would give it a higher rating if it had more functionality. I would like to see the possibility to enter species not available, add photos and comments to specific entries. Besides that is the obvious idea to include all the Internet site functionality into an app. Above all thanks for the great app. It works great!

Very useful. Doesn't drain downloads, super easy to record species while on the go.

All my personal locations and checklists GONE!. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, another update for this free software that has gone badly awry. All checklists and personal locations are GONE with the latest update. Absolutely terrible. Make sure you have uploaded all your checklists before updating...

No Syncrony. I have at least five apps from eBird/Merlin, some of which I have paid for. Unfortunately, it seems that each app is independent from each other and the same app on two devices do not sync with each other. I use IOS as these apps are created for, so don't tell me that I have to go to a laptop to make any changes. Why do you continue to make apps that can't connect with each other. I have bird lists everywhere. I've decided to use my eBird World app, as my main list app, but how do I bring my other lists from your other apps, together?

Add photos from app!. Please please please can we add photos from the app? Lack of this feature is making me not post my photos which is unfortunate. Please!

Not showing all birds in packs anymore. The last few days I’m not seeing any of the birds in my installed packs that I usually see. I do have the region set accordingly. I’ve even uninstalled the app and reinstalled it. Please advise what to do. Thanks.

No response for help. I have not been able to get a help response since April. I cannot log in any more. There may now be a Canada portal but this does not show up as a login option

Évaluation. Bonne application et simple a utiliser mais pourrait comprendre plus d’options lors de la mention des oiseaux.

Offline checklist problems. I often use an iPhone 6 without a SiM for birding on eBird. However, since the last update with bird packs, I find it takes a very long time to get a checklist to populate for the area I am in. Sorta sucks.

Glitch since latest update. Database of birds does not show up since update 1.6.0 ... can’t enter any counts. Also noticed I lost all my checklists too.

Great Tracking App. This is a great app to track your birding lists.

Frozen. I can’t even open the app. Every time I open eBird it tries to update and freezes. I have removed and deleted the app multiple times, then downloaded it again and the same thing just keeps happening. So disappointed. I was really hoping to love this app.

Excellent. A most perfect way to enter data directly into eBird on the field. Regarding this new update, how much of an improvement enabling to change the date/time is cannot be overstated.

Great app. Love this app, use it almost every day for documentary local avian species!

This app is amazing!!!. I’ve been using the bird id for a couple years, and that in itself is very cool. Answer 5 questions and 95% of the time, the list of candidates will include your bird. But today I tried Sound ID, and this is incredible!!! Must be experienced! Turn it on and see the app picking out birds from all the noises around!!! Thank you Cornell!

L’application ne fonctionne pas. 23 mars 2018. Je viens de m’abonner et télécharger l’application et elle ne fonctionne pas

Very useful. Very helpful to keep track of sightings.

Please fix!. Since switching to iPhone XR, eBird gives me an error whenever I try and submit my checklists. It won’t download the location lists and therefore I cannot submit my checklists. This app is so great when it works!

Great app. This is an awesome app especially when used in conjunction with the eBird website and Merlin bird ID (fully compatible). Load up the eBird website and you can upload your photos and sound recordings to the checklist you just made on your phone. If you find a new bird on a checklist, the next time you open Merlin Bird ID, it will have been added to your life list. The site is a bit more intuitive when it comes to modifying your checklists and viewing media. Hopefully at some point we get the last few capabilities of the eBird website put onto the app.

easy transition. Very easy to make transition to the new app. Done in just a few minutes with no glitches. Good job IT team! Easy to navigate the new app. FAQs covered all the questions that popped up for me.

Overwhelming at first, but one of the best apps for bird enthusiasts.. Every birder should be using eBird, it is the perfect app for keeping track of one’s life list, and gives birding a new purpose.

Good for Recording What You See. This is a good smartphone app. But it is not problem-free, as became clear to me on a recent trip. First, its locating and mapping ability is entirely dependent on contact to a live telephone network. Connecting to wifi only doesn’t do it. Second, it is not integrated with the eBird website: checklists and locations entered on the app do go to the main Cornell data base. However, checklists and locations entered first on the eBird website do not get reflected in the app’s locations or checklists. This is funny, because one’s species total does get changed as the total changes in the website data base. I will continue to use it because it is a useful tool some of the time.

Depuis la nouvelle version, ne démarre plus. Lors du démarrage, il tente de faire la mise à jour de l'application puis de la base de données puis avant de terminer, il cesse de fonctionner. L'app est donc devenue inutilisable. J'ai un iPod touch.

Disappointing. Created account and user name twice, won’t let me sign in neither!! I tried to reset password but I have not received an email from either accounts…

Excellent. I love this app. So easy to use! Now I look for birds to track instead of Pokemon.

Adsterra is the most preferred ad network for those looking for an alternative to AdSense. Adsterra is the ideal choice for new sites with low daily traffic. In order to advertise on the site in Adsterra, like other ad networks, a certain traffic limit, domain age, etc. is required. There are no strict rules. Sign up!

App keeps shutting down!!!!. Omg please fix this!

Trash. It won’t let you search for a specific bird in your area and the app is hard to use.

A disimprovement: requires more clicking. The ebird app is essentially great but this version is a significant disimprovement. It requires more clicking than the previous version. First, "Traveling" is no longer the default checklist type; you have to explicitly select it, which adds one click to most checklists. Much worse, there is no longer a field to enter new species at the top of your checklist; you need to open the field by selecting "add species" -- this means that every checklist requires a lot more clicking. The new format is pretty and may be less confusing for neophytes, but functionally it's worse and adds work. Another frustratingly inefficient feature of the ebird app (all versions) is the fact that it requires 3 letters before it starts to guess what species you are entering; this is especially frustrating for those of us who are used to Scythebill, which is uncannily good at guessing your species instantly based on the first letter. The ebird app folks could redeem themselves with a feature like that.

Location bug. Every time I start a checklist the app searches for my location. Why can’t I just start with locations I’ve already visited?

Unusable. GPS timeout errors when loading the checklist. GPS works for all other apps.

Needs work. I downloaded this app for the annual backyard first day out, but deleted it out of frustration. And yes, I watched the how-to video before I even downloaded it. I have an iPhone 6

Too many extra clicks. Longtime user, and I like some of the new features, but I am annoyed by all of the extra steps that have been added, and I don't see the reason for them. Maybe you could explain how it is an improvement to add more steps to enter the same information as before? I know it's just a few extra seconds, but it's annoying, so why? I also liked that the old versions said "Review & Submit" before you selected "yes" or "no" and entered all of the correct effort information. Now it says "Submit" on the last page before you select everything, so I forget to hit "yes" or "no" and get the dialog that pops up, so I have to click out of that. 2 more clicks! Please go back to the old way, or explain why I should give these extra steps a chance.

Awesome app, love it. I love this app and use it all the time to log in my bird sightings. I would recommend this to anyone who's birding or trying to keep track of their bird observations. A few people have complained that when entering records, you click on a species to enter data and the keyboard defaults to numbers. This first seemed a bug to me, but now I know how that it is another way to save time, if you use it properly. If you see one European Robin, you don't type "EURO" into the search bar but "1 EURO" and then you don't hit the species box but the whole bar, and it will automatically add your count without you having to put anything in manually. This makes things much faster now that I've learned to use it.

Please remove precise geolocation requirement. eBird shouldn’t need precise location at all. Rough location is more than enough for its purpose and this is annoying and forces me to use the website.

No way to enter existing life list. Would be great if we could just add birds to our life list in a similar way as the Audubon app.

Constant trespassers. All the good this app may do is not outweighed by the constant trespassers I receive by reporting birds. I should sue Cornell! Hardcore birders are the worst people and do not respect personal property. I can’t believe I donate to this cause, it just goes to support human invasion into conservation and protected wetlands.

Iphone. Doesn’t work with my iPhone 11. Crashes every time I try to enter data.

Long time user and loving it. I have been using the eBird app for a few years now and I have always enjoyed it, though there is always room for improvement or additions. I do have to say that I absolutely LOVE the newest update which brought in the gps tracking and time tracker so that I don’t have to worry about remember how many miles of walking I did. It also helps give a more accurate account for exactly how long I was out there Birding. Something that I’d like to see in a future update is to be able to pull up my life list on the app. I am able to see my life list by connecting eBird to Birdseye, but it would be nice to have it all in one. And on the ebird website itself I’d like to have some type of messenger system or forum to be able to ask birders about a bird they saw or how they saw it or even to be able to ask to go birding together. All in all I love this app though and it is constantly improving!

Misdirection. PLEASE fix the directions bug. When navigating to a hot spot from ebird to google maps it takes you to random locations. It is annnoying and unsafe.

Somewhat better than birdlog. Very handy, convenient and useful. There is not much difference from the app it replaced which I guess was not directly related to ebird. In fact the whole format is the exactly the same. The only difference from the previous one is the ability to start a list prior to going out for those of us who do not have a cellular data plan. Before you had to start a list onsite using some recent site list or start the list at home. In either case you had to get on ebird after you got home to change the location or the time, and it was a bit of a pill. But this version does not require that because you can time it for starting later than your download.

Now I remember why I uninstalled this app in the first place. Have recently renewed an interest in birding, and wanted to participate in the birding community a more using eBird. Downloaded this app over a year ago, but then deleted it sometime last summer. Now, after downloading it again and logging in, I remember why I deleted it to begin with. It irritatingly wants location data at all times in order for one to participate at all. I find this inconvenient, as it is a drag on the battery, compromises what little privacy control I already have on my phone, and assumes a list of species one might see in a given area-almost at a hyperlocal level, and also assumes that one will have have network connectivity all the time. I get it – the location is important to science. But I should have that choice about whether or not I want to provide my location at all times in order to participate, plus sometimes I am in remote areas where there is no network connectivity. I suspect that removing the requirement to have location services “on” is going to require a complete re-vamping of the app, so I am not optimistic, given my preferences, that I would go back to using this app anytime soon.

How the heck do you use this thing?. I deleted this app 30 minutes after installing. I’m not stupid but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to use it.

New update is not working. This new update has completely broken the app if you try to use it in a location where you cannot get GPS coordinates. Many of the places that I go birding are places where it is not possible to get the location using GPS. It is also impossible to get the location from the map if you don’t have cell service and GPS. If I try to select a recent location (which is what I have done in the past), it tries to download something (what?) and freezes because there is no cell service. So... I am unable to start a count at all. When I do have cell service I still cannot load a previous location. The app just freezes trying to download something. There should be a choice for off-line counting as there used to be. Developers: Thanks for your note but sadly, the app does not work the way you described. I test by going into airplane mode which simulates the locations that I count out in western Marin County. I do have the bird pack downloaded but the only choice it gives me other than to try again to load the GPS location is to Quit or to Choose From a Map which you cannot do without GPS or cell service. The only way I can figure out how to make counts is to start a list while I still have cell service, select a location that I am going to on the map, stop the count, and then when I am on location use that un-submitted list to enter the counts in the real time, so at least I have figured out a workaround.

Great app some suggestions. I really like the ease of the app, but would like to see the ability to delete a personal list once you started it. Also, it seems the only option when starting a list of birds to select from when beginning a new personal checklist is to use a full worldwide bird species list or species from checklists you've already submitted. It would be nice if you could start with a list that has been whittled down to the location you're currently in, perhaps linking with recent sightings posted through EBird or the BirdsEye app. I also would love if this would link my sightings with my iBird PRO app, since that is the app that I use most for my "field guide"... that would be amazing but probably not realistic.

Checklists missing. Since upgrade yesterday, no birds are listed to choose from

Does not work on ipad. Great app for the iphone; easy to use. But it does not work on the ipad — it won’t allow me to enter my password.

Privacy warning! Novices beware of birders at your door. I spotted a rare bird for my locality, and was pleased to contribute my data to the database. Or so I thought, until a couple of hours later my doorbell rang. I was caught off-guard by a couple of birders. I was a bit flummoxed but said they could visit my backyard to try to see the bird, which I’d seen for 3 days in a row. I left them and went back to my work, and I later found a note indicating they had indeed seen the bird. Trouble is, they had used a recorded bird song to lure the bird. I am just getting into birding, but I question the ethics. I offer food and water, but would not consider using a false call to lure a bird, especially an isolated bird that may be far, far from home. I turned away subsequent birders and quickly changed my privacy settings, which should be Anonymous by default — but are not. Check your privacy settings before submitting any sighting data! Incidentally I never saw the bird again.

This app is unusable. I try to set up an account and tried three times now to set up new password and when I sign in it tells me to check my email to activate my account even though I already did that. I’m in a never ending loop of account activation

Bird packs won’t download. I have tried multiple times to download my local pack for identification and it won’t download. I have waited hours and closed the app and everything.

Issues. Please check app . It closes as soon as I click Start checklist mayagüez Lori OK byeand app closes. It is updated

No Connection Error. Won’t submit checklists because it claims there’s no connection

Explore stops working after updating to the latest. Once I updated the app, my target species list stops displaying any species at all. Please rollback the change.

Login woes. I just got the app and set the account up on my iPad. But I cannot login with the same account on my iphone. What’s with that???

Zero Stars. Cornell Lab support is terrible. Four weeks after emailing a couple of questions, no one responded. Even called and an angry dude would not help or answer questions. Looks like maybe the app was hijacked by someone outside Cornell? My last review was somehow deleted.

Needs some improvements. It would be great to be able to add and view media through the app!

Unstable on iOS; order of operations issues. First, app prompts immediate log-in or create an account; makes sense, but annoying. Show me what the app can do so I’m invested in linking personal data to app. Also, there are lots of instances where a person may wish to view hotspots or bird data through the convenience of an app and may want to do that without logging in. You can’t. OK, so I logged in. App was jittery, laggy, and so far as I can tell, all I’m able to do with it is link my Ebird account to app and submit bird lists. Yes, Merlin is for looking up birds, but didn’t expect such limited functionality relative to ebird features. Would like to see: 1) optional feature-based log-in; 2) access to bird hotspots and ebird regional data (even limited) without log-in; 3)store bird lists for later and submit with log-in (would benefit ppl without internet connection), and most importantly 4)let me update settings before logging in so I know what it’s doing with my location, name, data etc. currently have no idea if I’m anonymous or not in app. Most people using the app aren’t immediately planning to create a bird list upon download, so it seems like an order of operations issue. Ebird is very helpful; app is not right now.

Can’t logon. I’ve been trying for two days to sort out login problems. I would like someone to call me to sort this out. First my reset password is accepted and then rejected. I’ve emailed Cornell about this and haven’t heard. I cannot use the app because of login problems.

Latest version crashing. Deleted and re-download the app and it is still not letting me login properly. The same issue happened with FeederWatch recently but at least re-downloading helped.

Can’t even create an account, app keeps crashing. Help

Fantastic!. Wow, this is really great! I love how easy everything is to use. And it's so slick! The development team really did an outstanding job. Just top-notch. I'm a new birder (and a millennial to boot), and this app together with a field guide (like Merlin) is invaluable. I love how you can add birds for running totals. That's both super easy and intuitive. It makes it way easier for a beginning birder to actually count things! Instead of saying at the end of the trip "I dunno, I saw robins all over the place. Let's just put in a big number," by keeping track as I go, I automatically know exactly how many I saw that day (say 17). I also really like the "calculate duration" feature. In the future, I'd love to be able to look at hot spot bar charts with this app. That way when I'm identifying a bird, I can compare to which are more likely for this particular spot. It'd also be cool if we could edit submitted checklists, but that sounds like you might have to change the website's api, which is way more work than this added functionality would be worth. Perhaps you could make it so that order of the species is customizable. I live in a city, and "wood duck" sincerely does not need to be at the top of the list for species I might be recording. By putting the most common birds for my backyard at the top, I don't have to type them in. I believe the webpage already has this feature. In all, really great app! Awesome job!

Excellent Tool & Resource!. This app is so easy to use. When I travel or I'm just in an unfamiliar area, it's nice to see what birds have been there. It'll also help me find where the hotspots are located where ever I am in the world. I like that I can enter the ABA codes; that makes it quick and easy. Sometimes I want to know where all the birds of a certain species are located along their migration route. I also appreciate that it lets me know if a certain bird I've "found" is rare or unlikely. I can give details and send a picture to have someone on the other end confirm or correct. When a snowy owl was in our area, it was nice to see if it was still in the same location or if it had moved. It's my go-to app whenever I go outside or just want to watch outside our window with a warm cup of tea whether it's 8 minutes or 8 hours.

EBird. Amazingly difficult app to use. Actually I wouldn’t even give it one star.

Fun App. I like this app and since using it, have become addicted to counting and entering the birds I see. I like the new distance tracking feature but I’m not a huge fan of the new time tracking feature. Since the time tracking feature is a part of the app now, I think the app should have a pause button for instances when my group is stopping for a bathroom break or something and we aren’t focusing at those moments on counting birds but it wouldn’t make sense to submit the checklist then create a brand new one. Also, the app (or even the website) should have a place where we can submit pictures of birds we’ve seen but we aren’t 100% sure what they are or we have no idea what they are. The experts could then weigh in with their thoughts so we can learn to identify those birds we are uncertain about and we can be sure to include them in our count the next time we see them. Sometimes I’ll come across a bird that I can’t identify and the bird books I have and the bird ID apps I use don’t help.

To busy professor prefers. Build your own app, “busy professor”. This one is perfect.

Cannot open App after download of update. Screen frozen!! Feb 16, 2023 Can you fix this for tomorrow? Yes phone rebooted etc Worked until update. START TIME O Updating eBird.. RECORD TRACK Start Checklist

Unable to login. Whenever I try to login, the send me a confirmation email. I confirmed it several times but it keeps saying the same. So after an hour of trying to help with bird reporting I quit. Good birding.

No Identification Assistance. This app lacks any form of ID assistance for birders. The interface is not user friendly. And if you report a rare bird, you will be harassed via email about how you’re wrong and don’t know what you’re doing.

Latest updates ruined a great app. I have used this app for years with much success, however recent updates essentially force users to always allow it access to location services, in the process weakening privacy and breaking functionality. While there is certainly value in using location services to create precise tracks of the area birded, particularly for a new location, any location data collected should be viewed as private, something for a user to disclose or not disclose at user option, i.e. the app should always operate, albeit perhaps degraded, without location data. To me this is a basic privacy principle. But more than that: birding in the field often takes the user out of coverage and although GPS signal remain available, lack of internet access breaks functionality. Cornell management needs to reestablish proper governance over eBird mobile, and take decisions like the ones that broke this app out of the hands of the developers.

This App Makes Birding Easy. I've created a birding folder on my iPhone and placed eBird and Merlin in it. When I go birding they are my constant companions. eBird app makes it easy to create and enter data into a checklist. It lets you pick from a local birding spot you've used before, pick one designated as a hotspot, or create a personal location where you stand or from a map. You can view your previous checklists. The app is a mobile accompaniment and isn't intended to do everything the eBird website does. It's a great tool for the hobbyist. One feature I'd like: information on distance and direction from my current location when I'm choosing a hotspot or personal location to begin a checklist. I also wouldn't mind adopting someone else's personal location on the fly.

Currently Unusable. I’ve used this app for a long time and have always found it convenient and simple to use. But it is currently crashing immediately every time I try to open a list, rendering it completely useless.

Surprisingly Clunky. I’m a bird NOVICE but I figured I’d give the eBird app a shot since I have tons of bird nerd friends and work in the wildlife field. This app is surprisingly hard to use. I though a Cornell app would be state of the art, but you can’t search locations, it’s not easy to create lists/locations/trips for sightings that aren’t in your local area (if you’re documenting them later than your actual trip). It seems like a huge missing feature is to follow your fellow birder friends kind of like social media and see what birds they’re documenting/seeing to amp up the competitive nature of birding. It also seems weird that they don’t have little photos or descriptions of birds as you mark them off. I was hoping to learn as I was tracking birds I saw. As someone new to the field, this app is not exactly making birding fun, social and competitive. Also, seems unprofessional to have species typed in varying ways (some capitalized and not). Seems like users are able to type in their own names instead of choosing from prewtitten or standardized names. Highly suggest major upgrades.

Explore rarely loads. Every time I try to use the explore tab it rarely loads, have to restart app numerous times before it finally decides to show me details from hotspots or wherever I’m birding. Buggy but otherwise brilliant app.

Love it but. When I tap to search for species the keyboard switches to numbers and special characters when it should just stay on letters.

Just horrid. I’ve been using eBird app for years. And liked it. I just ordered a bunch of notebooks to go back to entering by hand. This doesn’t work if I don’t have gps, nor will it allow me to have the location services off. It does not use the pack which I was forced to download, rather, it keeps telling me to please turn on my location services. Big, endless, unusable loop. What is the point of the pack? Why can’t I just use a recent location? Oh, and if I DO turn my location services on and choose a recent location, it immediately pops into the list and starts tracking. Developer says battery drain is due to leaving the screen on, not using the GPS. I usually enter as I bird and, to do so, I need the screen on. I turn off tracking to save battery. I often am out birding more than eight hours. With eBird on, the battery can be gone in 3. Sorry, it’s just awful. Will start back with pencil and paper and enter them as I see them.

Obviously an app only for those with a degree in eBird. I’ve spent a good deal of time reading how to use eBird as well as the many tips for such things as better counting and identifying birds. No, I did not spend three hours on the actual course they offer, yet it’s likely I’ve spent the equivalent amount of time trying to make sure I understand how to use it. I’m fairly certain I’m not a dunderhead. On this last big count day I made certain to re read and prep for the best possible birding day. My husband and I together drove 3&1/2 hours to a very popular birding refuge and general area specifically to do just birding. Yet despite trying very hard to follow all the rules, a reviewer decided to send six very fulsome emails absolutely questioning many of our count input. Here’s the thing: I consider myself to be a knowledgeable person that try’s very hard to learn competency and I accept it takes experience by practice to gain it. I’m not, nor is my husband an advanced birder, but I’ve been consulting identifying books and using many tools off the internet to help do it as best possible for many years now and have kept a life list since the about 2001. Just be aware that in order to use the app, you will need to spend a great deal of time trying to figure out how best to use it, and even then, it’s likely you’ll be attacked by a reviewer if you report something incorrectly or in my case, one thing incorrect (should have used an sp) and the counting of migrating birds. I used eBird for two years; not extensively and definitely not as many times as I went birding. We have two sets of very good, but not top of the line binoculars. While eBird looks all friendly encouraging to do counting, they actually only want scientific types out doing it IMO. I’ve erased the app and gone to another far more intuitive and friendly to the average birder.