Best Birding Apps for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android Review

Here are some of the latest and greatest 2021 birding apps for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android.

Three that stick out among the competition are the iBird Pro, the BirdsEye and the Audubon Field Guide to North American Birds applications.

All three have field guide related information, but the BirdsEye app also allows users to see what birds have been recently sighted in specific locations and has an inventory of birding hotspots as well. Here are some of the highlights of each app:

iBird Pro Birding App

• Interactive field guide for every species (924) found in North America, Canada, Hawaii, and all coasts and islands, even extinct birds!
• Audubon-quality full sized color illustrations, with perching and flight views
• Full color range maps for every species
• Search by song, conservation status, genus, species, shape, size, color, flight pattern, bill shape and length, wing shape and more
• Lifetime updates to bird species information

iBird Pro Guide Overview

Here's a great overview of iBird Pro features:

View iBird Pro Guide for Android

View iBird Pro Guide for iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad)

Peterson's Birds of North America

Features of the Peterson Birds of North America Birding App:

• 800+ species, over 700+ bird songs, 500 bird nest & egg photographs
• Compare similar species (illustrations, range maps and songs) on one screen
• Create, save and share checklists
• Records sightings
• Zoom in to see fine detail
• Quickfind Index
• Browse illustrations just like a book
• Add your own photos to each species

Peterson Birds of North America Review

Those of you who are Peterson guide birders will especially enjoy this app.

Several reviewers have said they like it even better than having their field guide book, especially that you can instantly listen to songs in addition to viewing identification details.

It does not have photos of the birds, but has Peterson drawings instead which I think is always better for bird identification.

View Peterson's Birds of North America for Android

View Peterson's Birds of North America for iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad)

Sibley eGuide to the Birds of North America

Features of the Sibley eGuide to the Birds of North America App:

• Over 6600 images
• Every species is shown perched and in flight from above and below.
  Shows every major seasonal, age, and sexual variation.
• Detailed coverage of subspecies and regional variations.
• Detailed maps showing not just winter and summer range but also migration and rare occurrence.
• Detailed descriptions of songs and calls, comparing similar species measurements of length, wingspan, and weight for every species.
  One-tap enlargement of images and rotating the device expands images further.
• Over 2300 carefully-selected and edited sound recordings. Nearly all species are represented with multiple examples showing the range of vocalizations.
  The ability to compare any two images, maps, or sounds, side by side on the screen.
• The ability to filter by state/province, so that you see only the species likely to occur in your location, and to further reduce the possibilities to the most common birds in that area.
• The ability to search by distinguishing features such as size, prominent A basic personal species list that stores your sightings saved to the device

View Sibley eGuide to the Birds of North America for Android

View Sibley eGuide to the Birds of North America for iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad)

Audubon Birding App

Features of Audubon Birds Field Guide App:

• Detailed descriptions for 760+ birds
• 2,300+ bird songs
• 3,500+ high-quality color photos
• Unique search function for identifying bird by song type or pattern, wing shape, time of year, by state/province, locomotion  and more
• Up-to-date range maps with wintering maps for 125+ migrating birds

Audubon Birds App for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad Walk-Through

For those of you who prefer photos of birds for identification over drawings (which we personally do not), you may like the Audubon app better than the Peterson, National Geographic or Sibley apps which do not have photos, but drawings.

The iBird Explorer Pro has both and would be our choice if you wanted photos.

View Audubon Birds App - A Field Guide to North American Birds for Android

View Audubon Birds App - A Field Guide to North American Birds (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad)

National Geographic's Birds

Features of the National Geographic Birding App:

• Sort by location, size and color through 867 birds of North America
• View more than 1600 bird images, listen to bird songs, 650 range maps, behavior and more
• Search for birds by name and the list updates and shortens as you type in the search box

This app would be a nice companion to the National Geographic's Field Guide to the Birds of North America, for those who prefer it over Peterson field guides, and/or instead of when you didn't have your guide book with you. It's also priced relatively cheap.

The search function seems to one of the highlights of this birding app, though we think Peterson's app is better at the same price because of added functionality and features.

National Geographic's Birds (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad)

BirdsEye App

Some Features of BirdsEye App:

• Powered by eBird, a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon
• New observations are downloaded from eBird over the network
• Over one million bird observations each month reviewed by local birding experts.
• Map of 25,000 birding hotspots
• Can show you where any one of 847 North American species has been seen recently ??? and even give you directions
• Keeps a record of your life list
• For the 470 most observed North American birds (377 additional bird content can be purchased separately) there are photographs, songs and calls and Kenn Kaufman's notes about the species.

BirdsEye App Demo

We think this would be a good app to have in addition to one of the other birding apps on this page which are more for identification purposes. BirdsEye would be especially useful when you are traveling and want to see new species in locations you aren't as familiar as your home town.

View BirdsEye

Bird Codes App

Bird Codes is a simple birding app to help you learn the four-letter bird codes, aka alpha codes or banding codes.

Good when recording birds in the field and unsure of the proper code.

You'll also now know what other birders are talking about in forums, blogs, bird alerts, birding email lists, etc..

Some Features of Bird Codes App:

• Search by bird name or by code
• Contains alpha codes for all 2,078 AOU (American Ornithologists' Union) species
• Easy to use app, only 99 cents!

On a side note, for those banders or ringers out there, there is a free Band Codes app that in addition to the 4-letter banding codes also provides band size as a back-up, double-check.

It also gives notes when banding certain species. This one is free, but does not have all the AOU species as mentioned above.

So if you are a birder, not so much a bander, get the Bird Codes app.

View Bird Codes

Whether you are a beginner bird watcher or an expert ornithologist, any of these six birding apps for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or Android device would be a great addition to your birding knowledgebase that is extremely portable.

All six, we believe, are bargain prices for the amount and quality of information you receive about birds for your mobile device.

Choose the app that best suits your learning style and the kind of information you would prefer most. Happy Birding!

More Bird Identification Pages:

Bird Identification - Need help with Bird ID?

Wild Bird Identification - Tips for identifying birds by sight and song.

Best Bird Field Guides - Which are the best field guides?

Bird Song Identification - Learn to id birds by song alone.

Bird Watching Tips - More birding tips 'cause you can never have too many!

Our Favorite Bird Watching Binoculars, Squirrel-Proof Feeder & Hummingbird Feeder Read Our Reviews:
Nikon Monarch M5 Best mid-priced bird watching binoculars. Waterproof, shockproof, multi-coated ED-Glass.	Squirrel-Proof No batteries, adjustable, easy to clean...and no squirrels! "Best New Product" Award.	Bird Bath Heater Keeps your bird baths ice-free down to -20 F. Low-operating costs ~$1/mo
Click Images or Links To View More Info