Like most people who are enthusiastic about a particular hobby or past-time, I naturally take great joy from helping any and all who come to me with questions pertaining to one of my favorite interests. In the case of birds and bird watching, these questions come fairly frequently – from both friends and, more often than might be expected, strangers alike. When the questions come from those with a bit of background in the subject of birds, providing answers is often fairly straight-forward; however when answering the curiosities of those new to the subject the process of providing answers was up until recently quite an involved exercise. I write “up until recently” as a dividing line between the time periods before and since I have had the iBird Explorer as a resource.
Aside from being interested in bird study and partaking of the natural enthusiasm to share an understanding of that subject with others, I am also a teacher at heart. The opportunity to share any bit of knowledge I might be able to with others, as well as the chance to help another person to discover something that neither one of us might separately know but potentially discover together, is something that resonates deeply within my very soul. Because of this, questions put to me can never be simply answered in a cursory manner – they must be answered in a way that ensures that the greatest amount of understanding between my questioner and I has been achieved.
As one might expect, the most common questions about birds involve the identification of a bird seen briefly, or even sometimes at length, by someone not familiar with the topics of bird anatomy or field mark identification. Prior to my having iBird Explorer readily available in my iPod Touch, carried with me at most times for an assortment of reasons and uses too long to list here, answering such questions could be a long process of trying to determine for myself just what the person is describing to me; the ambiguity arising not form a lack of intelligence on the part of the questioner but simply from the lack of common collections of ornithological, biological, or field craft references between us. However with the iBird Explorer, the process becomes exceptionally simple.
Using iBird Explorer Plus, for example, I simply open the application in the iPod Touch and select the Search function. A series of drop-down menus for various pertinent points of data that will help to identify a bird are displayed. Location, the first menu, is one to which all will have an answer. Shape asks for the shape of the bird to be identified in simple and familiar terms – Duck-like, Owl-like, etc. Size simply asks for a rough estimation into one of five categories of overall size. Running down the list of other possible questions, of which some may be left unanswered as needed, the number of birds that might possible have been seen by the questioner is steadily decreased as more answers are provided. (By the way, if this sounds like the same thought process pattern used by experienced bird watchers when they identify birds in the field, it is – and using it as a teaching tool can help instill this very process in the minds of beginners.) The final result is either a single bird species is determined or a small group of species is presented from which the final selection can be made quickly and easily be referring to the illustrations and photos of the possible birds.
Once a bird is identified, I can use the iBird Explorer to help make firm the identity of the bird in the mind of the questioner (remember that “greatest amount of understanding between my questioner and I” point?) by displaying illustrations, photographs, maps of territory and migration, or playing a recording of the birds song or call. Should I find myself at a loss to answer a further question about the bird, there is a wealth of information available to both my questioner and I through the Identify and Facts “onboard features, or the Internet-accessible Birdipedia and Flickr features (iPod Touch units connect to the Internet via WiFi, iPhone units connect via either WiFi or through their mobile network connections).
While I have said it many times before, I have no hesitation of saying it again and, so long as the iBird team continues to produce innovative products of such remarkable utility, saying it long into the future: the creative team behind the iBird Explorer product line has truly provided the community of bird watchers specifically, those possessing the vocation of education more generally, and most widely the vast community of the generally curious with a tool of astonishing practical and educational value, the effects of which may indeed yield a paradigm shift in popular natural history comparable to that last caused by the publication of Roger Tory Peterson’s original 1934 A Field Guide to the Birds.
