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Hey, thanks for taking time to read this topic. I am a student programmer busy with the development of a cellphone application for bird watchers (for an assignment). I am not a bird watcher myself, thus I do not really know what would be handy in such application.

I was thinking about implementing the following:

1) Pictures, sounds , location and other information about the birds.
2) Option to add own notes.
3) Online data powered by users. example: interesting bird encounters etc.

This is a really short summary of what I had in mind. Please leave any other comments or ideas.

(Note: the program is being developed for the Kruger park in mind. If it works other parks will also be added)

I will make sure to post a free download link for he program when I am done for all the people who comments.

Happy watching*

I like the concept. Do you have more detail?

Anything specific you would like to know?
Or just general details?

Maybe a way to gps tag? I've seen a few bird watching apps for iPhone, but nothing for southern Africa.

Very very good idea. I would be able to redirect user from the app to website where he/she would be able to tag on map. The main idea is for users to be able to interact about there seeings from the app. almost like this forum. But the app will also have its own database for personal offline use. ThAnX

Peace*

How about a way to compare similar birds to help identify which it is.

THe sasol e-birds sounds pretty much what you have described, but is only available on android. So if maybe your app have more functions and is available on more phones than just android, that would be awesome. My dad also mentioned the other day, he would like to be able to record the bird singing and then have the app give the bird/ a few possible birds which it could be, to help with the ID. Sometimes you can hear the bird and barely see it. If u can do something like that.

Maybe a option to show all birds with certain attributes example. Search box with . Colour: Yellow
then the program will show a list of birds with a yellowish colour? Will this also work for the idea you had?

My app will be written in java script (almost all phones will be supported ). The singing record thing is a great idea but will be very hard to implement. I just want a basic app up for starters and will do some research on that idea later on

Hi Mossie07!

A kind of interactive identification key would be nice - but you may need help from an experienced birder to develop the key!

In the background you'll have a matrix with a set of characters and character states (e.g. bill shape = character, with various options (=character states), such as "small and short", "scimitar-like", "spoon-shaped" etc. under it) on one side (as rows), and on the other side (columns) you'll have a list of birds. The character states get matched to the birds in the matrix, by using a '1' for a positive and '0' for a non-match. Then you'll present it in a visually appealing (non matrix) way that makes it easy for the user to use (check out Lucid interactive keys -google it- for examples), which can be ticked in any order.

E.g.

Bill shapes, with "clickable" icons showing various options, depending on selection, a lot of birds get eliminated from the list of possibilities.

other characters would include:
bill colour, habitat, how long is the tail relative to the body and so forth (many many options - for the more experienced birder you may even have categories such as "sea birds", "water birds", "LBJs" or more specifically families such as "pipits", "thrushes" etc as options).

The idea is that the user will select those characteristics that he/she observed, thereby eliminating a set of possible birds from the list, and hopefully ending up with one or only a handful of options that he/she can than visually compare with the bird seen. The user does not need to know everything, he just ticks off what he does know, and get closer to an ID in that way.

...

Or is this too big for the assignment?

That is EXACTLY what I had in mind. I googled the lucid keys and I have never seen it before. I will do some more research on that , it looks really interesting and would like to use at least some of the concepts . I realize that it will be very difficult for me to make exactly what the bird watchers want (Because I am not one myself.) I will really appreciate it if there is some one willing to be a beta tester.

Thanx for advice!

ENJOY***