Reacting to the flood of tourists touring around Europe on their respective “grand tours” with their noses perpetually stuck in travel guides instead of experiencing the wonders to be found all around them and for which purpose they expressly came (or so they said), Edmund Wilson, that loveable literary curmudgeon of yore wrote his famous Europe Without Baedeker. As I was contemplating the best way in which to convey to you, dear readers, my impressions of the new iBird Explorer Plus, I couldn’t help but recall Wilson’s book and what caused him to write it. As I am indeed guilty of too often experiencing life second hand rather than first, I felt justly chastised by his general criticism of travelers. Packing as I was at the time for a trip to the Space Coast Birding and Nature Festival in Titusville, Florida, I thus fell upon the idea of taking dear old Edmund’s advice to heart and making the trip sans field guide, at least in the traditional sense – Florida Without Field Guide, if you will.
Now, just so as not to give the wrong impression, I mean this in no way to be a criticism of field guides either general or particular. As an ardent bibliophile, I shall forever hold dear the printed book. My library holds certainly no less than hundreds of field guides to forms of live the world over and I would not willingly part with any single one of them. However, I would likewise not try to carry them all in my carry-on bag when traveling.
Ordinarily, I tote no fewer than half a dozen guides on any given trip; more if I think the potential situations to be encountered may require even thirty seconds of consultation with one of them. Thus the decision to eschew all of them and set off for Florida, a state I have only visited a handful of times and the bird species of which I am not nearly as familiar with as those of my own state of Oregon, was not an easy one to make. Yet in the time I had already spent with the iBird Explorer Plus I had found it to be such a remarkably useful tool that I could think of no less a true test of its effectiveness that to put my entire referential faith in it and go boldly on my way.
A bit of background: the iBird Explorer Plus is compatible with both the iPhone and the iPod Touch (the latter of which being the device upon which I have the iBird Explorer Plus loaded). Available from the “App” section of the iTunes Store, iBird Explorer can be obtained for the very reasonable price of $19.99 (U.S.), installs quickly and seamlessly, and is ready to use immediately. Once activated from the main screen of the iPod Touch (from here on the reader may interpret either the iPod Touch or the iPhone as meant as the iBird Explorer Plus functions identically on both types of devices), iBird Explorer Plus boots in mere seconds – five by my count – and offers a highly intuitive user interface that requires little if any time to master.
The opening screen is the one most generally applicable for most purposes: the master species list. Atop the screen is a control bar indicating the presence of 891 birds in the database, three buttons to choose between the master list being displayed alphabetically by the first name of the species (e.g. “Abert’s”), last name of the species (e.g., “Towhee”), or in taxonomic order by the taxonomic Family (e.g., “Emberizidae”), and a reset button to bring everything back to where the user began. Each species is clearly listed on a graphics tile with an illustration of the bird, the English name, and the Latin binomial name. The master list can be scrolled by the ingenious and highly addictive “finger swipe” function of the iPod Touch as well “jumped” through the use of an alphabet jump list running down the right-hand side of the screen – simply touch the letter and the list “jumps” directly to the first entry for that letter (note: this jump list does not appear when the list is arranged by Family). Finally, running along the bottom of the screen are three more buttons marked “Browse” (to display the master list), “Search” (which brings up the identification engine feature), and “About” (a list of credits and contact points for the good people who brought the world the iBird Explorer Plus).
When a species is selected from the master list on the Browse page, the file for that bird opens to a full color illustration as well as buttons for the various points of reference available from the iBird Explorer Plus. The opening screen from the master list is the “General” page, returned to by the first of eight buttons spanning two rows along the bottom of the screen. However to diverge just a moment, a bar running along the top of the screen contains the “Birds” button, by which return to the master list is effected, the English name of the species selected, and a pair of “Up / Down” arrow icon buttons to move directly in either direction to the next species in the list. Below this, as mentioned, is a superb illustration of the bird itself accompanies by its names from Species all the way out to taxonomic Order. A simple finger swipe scrolls the image center frame bearing the image down to a brief description of the bird.
Working along the control buttons running along the bottom of the screen, next to “General” is found “Range” which brings the inquisitive user to a color coded range map complete with seasonal legend and relevant textual notes. Adjacent to that, the “Identify” button brings the user a wealth of information to help facilitate an identification of the species. It is quite impressive indeed that the creators of iBird had the foresight to include not only the general “quick ID” information here, which they did prominently atop this electronic page, but minutiae as well – nest material, egg incubator, egg color, etc. – that might not always be needed but would certainly be invaluable should it become so in a given situation.
Adjacent to the “Identify” button is a button that essentially puts an end to the illustration versus photography debate – the “Photo” button. While not all species yet include photos on this electronic page (nota bene: I am told by the creator of the iBird Explorer Plus that approximately 1600 professional photos are about to be released into the product software and as it is an iTunes App updates are free of charge) most do and for this users of the iBird Explorer Plus will and should be ecstatic. Truly, it is now possible to have the best of both worlds. Even more, what with the continuing expansion of digiscoping and the Wingscapes BirdCam, users can submit images of their own for inclusion in the WhatBird archive.
Beginning the lower row of control buttons is one simply bearing a small speaker – this being the sound button to allow the user to consult the vocalizations included for the species in question ( a handy feature here is that when selected, along with the vocalization of the species being considered, graphics tiles to play the vocalizations of other species that may sound similar will also apprear here when appropropriate). Speaking of similar, next to the vocalization button, the “Similar” button presents the user with a list of birds having similar characteristics that might be encountered in the field. “Facts” presents some very interesting information about the bird perhaps not immediately needed for identification but very much necessary for a greater understanding of the bird (field tr
ip leaders will love this feature to help with their “color commentary”).
Last, but certainly not least among the series of option buttons offered on the individual species page is the Birdipedia feature. Selecting the Birdipedia button launches the browser of the device, opening the Wikipedia page for the bird species in question. Of course, this feature requires connection to a WiFi network when using the iPod Touch; however as the iPhone can access the Internet via both the cell network as well as via WiFi, users of the iBird Explorer Plus will no doubt make greater use of this feature when in the field. In either case, the direct linking to the collective knowledge of Wikipedia is indeed an ingenious feature integrated into iBird Explorer Plus by its designers.
As this is intended to be the first of multiple articles chronicling my adventures in Florida using the iBird Explorer Plus as my only field guide, I will close here and save the explanation of the “Search” portion of the application for the next installment. Suffice it to note that having examined the iBird Explorer Plus, as well two of its more localized family members, iBird Explorer Western and iBird Explorer Backyard, ($9.99 and $4.99 respectively; iBird Explorer South, North, Midwest, and Canada are also available for $9.99 each) I am already quite impressed and have high expectations from the application.
Peace.
