Audubon Bird Guide

So I originally used Merlin and didn’t really know this app existed. However, I have an older phone and was not able to update to IOS 16, so was not able to use Merlin anymore as it requires 16 or above. I found this app which is amazing and is totally free! Also, the Bird ID option is awesome!!! On merlin it’s just a few questions that doesn’t narrow it down much. Just size, color, habitait, and activity. Audubon though has options for those AS WELL AS wing shape, tail shape, and best of all type. It was so annoying with Merlin when I was trying to ID a songbird and the options were raptors. On Audubon those won’t even show up! Audubon also has in my opinion much more information about the individual birds and a better designed app. There are a few things I like about Merlin better though. Merlin obviously connected right to my EBird account which was very useful. It also had bird packs for all over the world, while Audubon only has the US and Canada. Audubon also doesn’t have a sound or photo id, which is annoying. If the developers added this the app would definitely be much better then Merlin. I suggest, if you can, to download both Merlin and Audubon. Merlin for the photo and sound id and EBird, Audubon for everything else. Thank you for reading my review! Good luck birding! 😁🪶

This app is handy. However, I downloaded all the bird packs and whathaveyou with the intention of using the app without needing internet. But when I used the app today in a place where I had no internet, the guide wouldn’t load any species account. It was useless at that point. The exact opposite outcome of what I expected. Thus 2 stars.

Some birds that should show up when you apply certain filters to your search don’t. For example, going to “activity” and selecting “swimming” results in only the Egyptian goose and short-tailed albatross showing up. This issue wasn’t always present; it was introduced in a recent update. I hope this issue gets fixed soon. Edit: the issue has been fixed.

If I enter "december" and "walking" - just those two pieces of information - it finds only one result: egyptian goose. Apparantly canada geese don't walk in december? Complete garbage.

Now you need an account to use the field guide. Next time you will have to donate blood. No thanks.

Attempting to do an Audubon chapter search, takes you to a forbidden pages?

If you care about the world around you, do you know what all those trees are, and the underbrush, and what about the birds? What are all of those sounds? How many bird species live around your house? What is their range and migration patterns? You must have this app to learn more about where you live and where you walk and where you golf (or whatever you do). Understand and appreciate the world around you!

I was searching for an app that would identify birds by their call. Something like Google lens where you could photograph or record a sample, and it would identify the bird for you. This isn’t it. You need to enter whether its sound is “a trill”, a shriek, a warble, a chirp… etc, etc. Do I look like a professional birder? What the heck is the difference between a “flute”, “a trill” and “a twitter”?? Not what I was looking for. Nice layout and some good information though.

Gracias, Merci, Danke, Grazie, Obrigado!

The filtering is terrible. I've tried to identify a bird that's completely black, and selecting size and color left me with several dozens colored birds, including northern cardinals. Not a single bird in the list of candidates was black.