One of the challenges all bird watchers face is the decision to or not to take a field guide on any birding excursion. Leaving home without one could be a serious mistake but if one is to be taken, which one should it be. Small size also means smaller images and less information available. Of course, no printed field guide contains audio files of bird vocalizations. Even more, none of this takes into account the possibility of needing to consult a bird identification reference when simply going about your daily routine (face it, most bird watchers are bird watchers around the clock, not just on designated field trips). As an active bird watcher who has faced all these challenges, I was indeed intrigued to have recently received, and quite pleased with the results from my examination of, an innovative new product from the good people at WhatBird – the Winged Explorer.
Operating on the Microsoft Windows Pocket PC operating system, the Winged Explorer is an ideal application for use on such popular devices as the Hewlett Packard iPAQ 2495, iPAQ Classic 100 (the model upon which I tested it), iPAQ rx 1950, HTC Touch, and mobile phones such as the AT&T Tilt, and Verizon XV6800. It loads quickly and is fully functional in a matter of seconds. Throughout all my examination of the Winged Explorer, I did not experience a single processing error or crash.
The central function of the Winged Explorer is to aid in the identification of birds to the species level. Using a tabbed interface and simple stylus input, the identification of most any bird species can usually be positively made in a matter of seconds. For those few species where definitive species identification cannot be made by the Winged Explorer alone, the possibilities for a positive identification can be reduced to such a small group that the final identification can easily be made by the user. In cases of very challenging species, Empidonax flycatchers for example, the inclusion of vocalization files playable at the touch of the stylus is especially helpful.
For the beginning bird watcher, the Winged Explorer accomplishes two important tasks. First and most obviously, it assists in identifying the bird seen. However it also does something far more subtle yet far more useful in the larger perspective – it teaches the user how to think about making a positive identification when encountering an unknown species. In a sense, it is a decision engine, using each successive entry by the user to break the list of potential species down into increasingly smaller groups through the process of elimination. This “identification search engine” is precisely what occurs in the minds of most experienced bird watchers; a skill they have developed over years spent practicing the craft.
To the bird watcher possessing greater experience or more highly developed identification skills, the Winged Explorer serves as a tool to assist in teasing out possibilities when faced with challenging identifications. As bird identification is often an exercise in knowing all the possibilities and then applying deductive reasoning to reach a final conclusion, the Winged Explorer serves as an invaluable assistant to ensuring that “all the possibilities” are explicitly present from the start.
Offering, as it does, both large and easy to view species illustrations (including alternate / basic and life stage plumage depictions when relevant) as well as vocalization files, the Winged Explorer may also serve as a valuable tool to field trip leaders, teachers, interpretive naturalists, and all others who find themselves leading others in any type of field experience. The addition of range maps for each species as well as textual identification data further supplements the educational and instructive capabilities of the Winged Explorer.
Of course, most everyone venturing into the field in search of birds creates some form of record of what they saw, either individually or as a group. With its built-in life list function, the Winged Explorer makes it quick and easy to record not only the species sighted but to quickly add additional details of the sighting as needed. As adding a species to the listing feature can be done directly from the main menu as well as from the search results, sighting lists compiled using the Winged Explorer have the potential for a higher level of both accuracy as well as detail (especially important elements when rarities are sighted that may require defense before a rare bird record committee).
Finally, but my no means of little importance, the Winged Explorer includes a very comprehensive Updater program for the user’s PC. This program runs in the background and appears in program tray on the user’s desktop. Its purpose is to provide updates to both the Winged Explorer program itself as well as the database. Since the database is derived from the constantly updated WhatBird database, any changes made there will be pushed out to all Winged Explorer devices. This also means new program features created by WhatBird (such as eBird compatibility, search by song, etc) will be provided seamlessly and free of charge. As WhatBird constantly updates their database for things like illustration improvements, species that are lumped or split, new family taxonomy (as recently occurred) you could say that Winged Explorer is the only field guide that never goes out of date.
With its easy-to-use interface providing access to a wealth of bird illustrations, range maps, detailed species descriptions, and audio vocalization files, as well as its record keeping capacity and its ability to be loaded onto a wide selection of Microsoft Windows Pocket PC operating system mobile phones and PDAs, the Winged Explorer is without question a welcome addition to the tools now available to the modern bird watcher. In addition, as its applicability spans such a wide spectrum of bird watching experience levels, and as it has such a high potential for use by guides, teachers, and natural history interpreters, it is quite possible to call it, without fear of hyperbole, one of the best new bird watching products of the year.
Peace and good bird watching.
THIS JUST IN! Apple iPhone and iPod Touch users can now get all these great benefits from the iBird Explorer.
