Birdathon
iOS Universel / Education
Birdathon is an observation-centric tool for creating birding checklists. It helps you organize your checklists and share them with others. Use Birdathon in the field to quickly record whether a bird is seen or heard and the number observed. The time and location of each observation is automatically recorded. You can adjust the location, time entries and the count of birds observed at any time to ensure your records are accurate.
Checklist maps display the locations of your observations. You can overlay county boundaries for every US state. You can add a range circle such as a 5MR (5-mile Radius) to your maps. You can import and overlay custom kml/kmz files onto your maps.
An Overview feature lets you see your combined observations for any time period, and displays a map showing any boundaries you have selected, so you can utilize the map feature even when you are not actively checklisting. You can export Overview data into a csv text file or create a new checklist template from the Overview.
Your checklists can be viewed in taxonomic order, alphabetically, by rarity or as a timeline of species. You can enrich your checklist with field notes and add observations such as mammals, butterflies, wildflowers, etc., to make it a more complete record of your experience. You can organize your checklists into categories such as Day List, Year List, County List, Life List, etc., and assign color themes to your lists.
Bird species may be added and deleted from your lists at any time. You can create new checklist templates from your previous lists or import templates created by others. You can change which template is being used. You can import text files into Birdathon, making them into templates or new checklists.
Different export options for your checklists allow you to import into eBird or another copy of Birdathon.
The bird species source data and other resources used in this app come from the following sources:
AviList, a unified global checklist of birds, is the core data set used for Birdathon. https://www.avilist.org. Some data has been integrated from the following sources: The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world (https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/), the American Ornithological Society's (AOS) Checklist of North and Middle American Birds (https://checklist.americanornithology.org), and the American Birding Association's (ABA) checklist of North American Birds (https://www.aba.org/listing-taxonomy/)
Alpha codes come from The Institute for Bird Populations’ Standardized 4- and 6-letter Bird Species Codes. https://www.birdpop.org/pages/birdSpeciesCodes.php.
County boundary data is from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) TIGER/Line 2019 Shapefiles found on the United States Census Bureau's website at https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/tiger-line-file.2019.html. Boundaries should be used as general guidelines and not be considered precise. Note especially where county boundaries follow creeks, rivers, ridge lines and other natural features, and so are of much finer resolution than can be shown on Birdathon’s maps.
California breeding bird atlas blocks come from the California Bird Atlas, https://www.californiabirdatlas.org.
Quoi de neuf dans la dernière version ?
This release changes Birdathon’s reference taxonomy from Clements to AviList. AviList is a unified global bird checklist that is the result of a collaboration between the major organizations responsible for classifying birds. More info at https://www.avilist.org. Because the eBird/Clements taxonomy is still in the process of aligning with AviList, Birdathon makes some accommodations to help smooth the transition. For example, the built-in sample checklists (e.g. “California 2026 Checklist”) still use the eBird/Clements naming, to ease export from Birdathon into eBird.
A new “Overview” feature shows not only your combined observations for any time period, but contains a map that can display county boundaries, range circles (e.g. “5 mile range”), and custom overlays simultaneously. As you travel, you can see your current location relative to these overlays, whether or not you are currently checklisting.
Support for a new initiative called the California Bird Atlas has been built in to this version, most especially the ability to display atlas blocks for any California county on the maps, and show your location within those blocks. You can also specify whether a checklist being exported for eBird import is part of the Atlas project.
US county boundaries, custom overlays, and range circles all work smoothly in the map views whether or not you have any network connectivity. Even if map tiles cannot load, due to lack of a cellular signal, boundaries, overlays, and range circles will still display on the map along with your current location.
Other changes and fixes include:
• Maps now show a dotted-arrow path connecting all the observations in a checklist. You can now tell the direction of travel and the order in which each observation was made. This can be turned off and on in the Checklist Info window for any checklist
• Dark Mode now has better and more consistent support
• Overview contains two tabs: Summary and Map. Birdathon remembers which tab you had open last and next time you go into Overview it will show that tab. The map in Overview remembers your position, zoom level, style, whether county lines are drawn, etc.
• Fixed an obscure bug in Summary where the year would display incorrectly, but only in years (such as 2025) where the last week of the year crosses over into the next year
• Saving Summary as Text now honors the current sort order in the Summary and suggests a filename indicating the sort style
• You can now email the Summary information. In the email, items are sorted the same as they appear in the Summary and include information about the date range, any geographic restrictions, and other optional settings
• Lists now remember the location and zoom level that you last set for their map. When switching lists, each list’s map will remember its location, zoom level, etc.
• You now have an option to sort lists by “Newest First”, basically the reverse of the Timeline order
• Better import of files exported from eBird. Birdathon now preserves the Location Name, the original observation date & time and Submission Comments
• Maps now show a button to take you to your current location
• Fixed several places where attempting to show a window on an iPad could cause a crash
• Many windows that appeared small on iPads now appear the same size as the main view. For example, Settings is now as big as the main window
• Rarity picker now shows colors when you are changing the custom rarity for a bird
• Observations on maps update more reliably and remember their color
• Improved support for larger font sizes, especially in the main and checklist views
• Birdathon is completely free: no ads, no subscriptions. Options for tipping the author have been removed. You can help the birding world by supporting your local Bird Alliance or Audubon Society!
• Many other bug fixes and user interface refinements throughout the app
