Discover eBirding apps that will enhance your birding experience!

Presented in partnership with the Salisbury Association Land Trust.

Birdwatching is one of the most popular and fastest growing outdoor activities around. Smart phone apps provide many resources for novice and experienced birders alike that are literally in the palm of your hand. This talk will provide an introduction to birding phone apps with an emphasis on apps that are both effective and free, in particular those offered by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: Merlin and eBird. George Wallace will also talk about his work for the America Bird Conservancy.

George Wallace has been active in wildlife research and conservation for over 40 years, working on projects from bird migration monitoring in Canada and California to seabird breeding biology in Antarctica to protecting habitat for endangered bird species throughout the world’s tropics. George recently retired from American Bird Conservancy where he served in multiple capacities over 18 years including as Vice President for International Programs, Vice President for Oceans and Islands, Chief Conservation Officer, and Director of International Programs and Partnerships. In an emeritus role, he is now an ABC Ambassador assisting with public outreach and web and print publications. George met his wife, Beth, while studying South Polar Skuas and Adelie Penguins in Antarctica. They live on Puddlers Lane in Amesville, which serves as homebase for outdoor pursuits including birding, skiing, hiking, canoeing, and fishing. 

This event is part of SML's Luv-A-Bug celebration.

Resources (provided by George Wallace)

Apps

All of the apps below are available from the Apple App Store or Google Play. I have provided screenshots here of what these apps look like in the App Store so you can see the icon for each one. There are LOTS of apps, and you want to be sure you are getting the right one. All are FREE.

• Audubon Bird Guide
• Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab
• eBird
• Seek by iNaturalist
• iNaturalist

Websites 

• History of North American Field Guides by Laura Erickson: https://blog.lauraerickson.com/2011/09/closer-look-at-field-guides.html
• Pre-Peterson Field Guides - An Annotated Bibliography by Ian Paulsen: https://www.aba.org/pre-peterson-field-guides/
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Merlin website: https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/ Lots of background, tips and tricks and videos.
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird website: https://ebird.org/home Info about eBird and how to get started with eBird. The “Explore” tab is a wonderful archive of the world’s birds with thousands of photos, video and audio.
• Cornell’s All About Birds: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/ An online field guide to North American Birds and birdwatching.
• BirdCast: https://birdcast.info/ BirdCast is a collaboration among Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Colorado State University and U Mass Amherst which uses weather radar to predict and record the timing and magnitude of bird migration throughout the migration seasons. Fascinating!