- There's been an explosion of birdwatching apps on the market since the hobby has grown in popularity in recent years.
- Birdwatching apps are grouped into three categories: bird identification, bird logging and social networking apps.
- Birdlasser, Twitcher, Birda and BirdPro are some of the apps available in southern Africa.
- For climate change news and analysis, go to News24 Climate Future.
Birdwatching has steadily risen in popularity around the world since the Covid-19 pandemic. Apps have become an essential part of birding - as it's also called - with scores of young people picking up the hobby. Gone are the days of lugging around heavy reference books, when birders can identify bird species, upload photos and share their findings with other bird enthusiasts by clicking a button.
However, choosing the right app for your needs can be daunting, especially if you're a beginner birdwatcher. So we asked bird enthusiasts to review a few local apps to help you along.
Ernst Retief, the spatial planning and data project manager at BirdLife SA, said identifying the type of app you need is a good place to start.
According to Retief, birdwatching apps fit into three major categories: bird identification, real-time bird logging, and social networking apps.
As the name suggests, identification apps help you identify a bird you've seen, much like a traditional field guide. Bird logging apps let you make lists of the birds you've sighted, and social networking apps allow birders to connect and communicate with each other online.
Retief recommends identification apps for beginner birders.
Cost is something else to consider, since some apps are paid while others are free. Most apps are available for both Android and iOS, but it's worth checking if there's a version for your device.
Birdlasser
Birdlasser is a free, real-time bird logging app. It is ideal for more experienced birders and can be used to track and plot sightings using GPS, build a life list and share birding data with conservation bodies.
Bird enthusiast Hanlie Gouws said the app was easy to find and download. Logging a sighting on BirdLasser was equally simple, and using the app offline was a bonus.
Melissa Whitecross from BirdLife SA enjoyed the "simplicity, functionality and the gaming element" created by the challenges and events available through the app. Whitecross "appreciated" the app's "causes" function, where you can consent to share your birding data with a conservation project.
Gouws and Whitecross said the app's life list feature was easy to use, but a downside of Birdlasser is that it's not a bird identification app. Whitecross suggested downloading a secondary app to help with that task.
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Twitcher
Twitcher is another bird-logging app. It is free; however, finding and downloading the app can be tricky, as Gouws noted. It is available for Android via the Google Play Store, but iOS users are restricted to the web app, Twitcher Lite.
Like Birdlasser, it's easy to log sightings on Twitcher and users can access it offline. Maps, however, aren't accessible offline on Twitcher Lite. Notable features are the app's coverage map, which shows areas you've birdwatched in a heat map style, with the ability to upload and store images on the cloud.
Birda
Birda is one of the newest apps on the list. It's a free social media platform for birdwatchers. Co-founders John and Natalie White described it as "Strava for birdwatching". Although the company is based in the UK, the app is available in South Africa.
Avid birdwatcher, Karen DeKotzenhof, said the setup process was cumbersome, but the app was simple to navigate. She felt the species guide needed to be more helpful with bird identification, but enjoyed Birda's games and challenges.
"The badges and awards granted will really encourage young birders, which is wonderful," she said.
Experienced birder, Ian Rijsdijk, said the app seemed geared more towards casual birders. Although he felt there were too many steps involved when logging a species, he noted that the social media aspect of Birda was "fun". Comparing Birda to Birdlasser, Rijsdijk said he enjoyed that the former allowed birders to bird a "patch", whereas Birdlasser uses precise grids on a map.
"This is good in that it allows someone who walks a regular route to build up a list [of birds] for that route."
BirdPro
BirdPro is a bird identification app. The free version has a limit sample of 100 birds, but you can upgrade to one of the three paid versions. BirdPro's notable features include image recognition software and a database of bird calls.
Whitecross described the app's interface as "beautiful" and recommended BirdPro for beginner birdwatchers. She said:
The distribution maps are well designed, and navigation around the app is user-friendly.
The photo identification was also "great for those wanting to learn their birds and get some sort of feedback," she added.
Other apps to try
- Firefinch (free and paid versions)
- Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab (free)
- Newman's Birds South Africa (paid)
- Sasol eBirds of Southern Africa (free and paid versions)
Benefit of apps for bird conservation and data
Apps have been a game-changer for bird conservation efforts.
The data or "sighting records" captured through Birda, for example, are shared with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), an international online platform that provides open-access data on living species.
South Africa also has several citizen science projects where birders collect data and upload it to a central database using specific scientific protocols. Retief mentioned the Southern African Bird Atlas project at the University of Cape Town, which is mapping the distribution of birds in the region. Most of the project's data has been collected through BirdLasser.
BirdLife SA is involved in this initiative.
"We've collected about 20 million records since 2007," Retief said. "We then use that data to build distribution maps and also for our conservation work."
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Andrew de Blocq, BirdLife SA's Avitourism Project Manager, said that 85 of South Africa's 876 bird species are threatened, while a further 47 are considered near-threatened. Thirteen species are critically endangered, which means they are likely to go extinct in a few generations without immediate intervention.
He says birding is an important gateway for people to become supporters of conservation.
New to birdwatching? Here's how to get started:
- Have a reference guide to help you identify bird species.
- Get a pair of binoculars.
- Attract birds to your backyard by using tools like bird feeders and birdbaths.
- Create challenges for your family and friends.
