Collins Bird Guide

Name: Collins Bird Guide
Price: 14.99 USD
Rating: 4 (28 reviews)
Author: NatureGuides Ltd.

A field guide to Europe

$14.99 · In‑App Purchases · Designed for iPad

28 Ratings
Ages

4+
Years
Category

Reference
Developer

NatureGuides Ltd.
Language

EN
+ 5 More
Size

1.3
GB

‘It’s much more convenient than taking a big book with you...the Collins app is fantastic.’ – Chris Packham, Metro ‘The Collins Bird Guide app is destined to become a real triumph, the ultimate in field guide apps — and deservedly so.’ – BirdGuides The Collins Bird Guide App combines world-class illustrations and comprehensive information with intuitive design to create the ultimate field guide for passionate birders and casual birdwatchers alike. The app is based on the landmark book by Lars Svensson, Killian Mullarney and Dan Zetterström, universally acknowledged as the standard European field guide. This definitive work has been reimagined for iPad and iPhone by birders for birders. The Collins Bird Guide App provides everything you need to identify a species quickly and learn about it thoroughly. Immerse yourself in the exceptional illustrations, maps, calls and concise text. Use the powerful search filter and curated confusion lists to focus in on a species. The Collins Bird Guide App is an essential companion always to hand on your iPhone, and available to browse in full glory on your iPad. Features include: ‣ 973 species covered - 843 illustrated ‣ 3,700+ beautiful illustrations by Killian Mullarney and Dan Zetterström ‣ Detailed text covering habitat, range, identification and voice by Lars Svensson ‣ Record sightings, location and date with the listing tool ‣ Powerful search filter ‣ Intuitive design to quickly and easily swipe through species ‣ Curated lists of confusable species ‣ Over 1,100 carefully selected songs and calls – many by Lars Svensson ‣ Select species names from 30+ languages ‣ Expertly edited video clips for 811 species in the app (require in-app purchase) ‣ Available in English, Swedish, Norwegian, French and German ‣ Weighs nothing! Identify Assist is our brand-new subscription service. Instantly identify species from photos and recordings with cutting-edge AI. As well as this and the optional video library, the app incorporates British Trust for Ornithology/BirdWatch Ireland/Scottish Ornithologists' Club Bird Atlas 2007–11 mapping data as an in-app purchase, providing the most comprehensive location mapping of any bird guide app. The latest version of the app requires iOS 17.0 or later. If you like the app, don’t forget to share the app, rate it and leave a review. Privacy Policy natureguides.com/privacy-policy Terms of Use apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Ratings & Reviews

4.0

out of 5

28 Ratings

North America NOT
07/05/2017

GetAlongPlease
No where is it mentioned that all the location features are for Europe only. I'll give it a go living in the US, but not ideal. Seems pretty powerful. The drawings are super detailed and clear with a lot of supporting information. Not sure how conclusive my findings will be, but excited to try it out. Nice introductory guide to get started and the intuitiveness of the app takes it from there. Fun to track/record bird sightings within the app.
North America NOT
07/05/2017

GetAlongPlease

No where is it mentioned that all the location features are for Europe only. I'll give it a go living in the US, but not ideal. Seems pretty powerful. The drawings are super detailed and clear with a lot of supporting information. Not sure how conclusive my findings will be, but excited to try it out. Nice introductory guide to get started and the intuitiveness of the app takes it from there. Fun to track/record bird sightings within the app.
Excellent Format!!
05/31/2019

Chrsptrk
In North America I use the mobile app from Sibley, iBird Pro, and Audubon. My recent trip to Europe was not a birding; bird watching was incidental. Nevertheless, I needed a guide for those times when I encountered birds. In a brand new place and with new birds, the most fulfilling is to be able to ID on my own. The Collins Guide was excellent. The home page has groups or families of birds which makes it very easy to navigate to a groups, e.g. waders or finches, and then to scroll through the group and compare different, but similar species. I found this format far superior to any NA bird app. Species info could be expanded some, but I can’t imagine any other app format which makes it easier to find and identify new birds - the European birds were all new to me.
Excellent Format!!
05/31/2019

Chrsptrk

In North America I use the mobile app from Sibley, iBird Pro, and Audubon. My recent trip to Europe was not a birding; bird watching was incidental. Nevertheless, I needed a guide for those times when I encountered birds. In a brand new place and with new birds, the most fulfilling is to be able to ID on my own. The Collins Guide was excellent. The home page has groups or families of birds which makes it very easy to navigate to a groups, e.g. waders or finches, and then to scroll through the group and compare different, but similar species. I found this format far superior to any NA bird app. Species info could be expanded some, but I can’t imagine any other app format which makes it easier to find and identify new birds - the European birds were all new to me.
Definitely most comprehensive birding apps
08/16/2018

McAfrican
Thanx and thanx again to all the folks who made this app and keep all the improvements. No other try within this field could dare to compete. I wish you luck, dudes, keep on keeping on. Translate your app to as much languages as you can and add more and more features. Voices! Add more misc calls, voices, alarm calls, etc. As well as complete translations to all the languages you’ve covered for all the species names. If one day you’ll be ready for put all the texts localized — that’ll be definitely my day. Till then I just want to thank you at least for all the work you’ve done. Waiting for often updates.
Definitely most comprehensive birding apps
08/16/2018

McAfrican

Thanx and thanx again to all the folks who made this app and keep all the improvements. No other try within this field could dare to compete. I wish you luck, dudes, keep on keeping on. Translate your app to as much languages as you can and add more and more features. Voices! Add more misc calls, voices, alarm calls, etc. As well as complete translations to all the languages you’ve covered for all the species names. If one day you’ll be ready for put all the texts localized — that’ll be definitely my day. Till then I just want to thank you at least for all the work you’ve done. Waiting for often updates.
DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!
07/30/2017

khb54321
I think the good reviews were seeded here when the app was first released. This is a pretty app, but the interface is sparse (as in it doesn't have many features) and the search engine is useless--you can choose a variety of criteria but it's not clear that what then appears is a subset or just an entire section (e.g. "Raptors") repeated without other criteria applied. The descriptions are thorough and the drawings are nice. But there is no indication of names other than the English bird book one and the Latin name. No hope for those of us in non-English-speaking countries who want to use a bird book in English, but need to search based on what locals call a bird. Look at the version history. I'd hoped, unreasonably, that it had been such a great app when it came out that it hadn't needed an update. Wrong. It needs attention and hasn't gotten it. Compare the version history to iBird Pro (North America) and you'll see what a living app's history should look like. I really wish I could get my money back. Within 5 minutes of not being able to figure out how I'd use it productively (i.e. as a field guide, not to memorize birds), I knew I'd wasted my money. And I still need a Swiss or Europe field guide app!

Developer Response
The app contains species names in 18 languages and these are fully searchable. You can also change the species name language in "settings". We do regularly update the app, but given the size of the download we prefer only to do it when we have a significant update to bring to users.
DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!
07/30/2017

khb54321

I think the good reviews were seeded here when the app was first released. This is a pretty app, but the interface is sparse (as in it doesn't have many features) and the search engine is useless--you can choose a variety of criteria but it's not clear that what then appears is a subset or just an entire section (e.g. "Raptors") repeated without other criteria applied. The descriptions are thorough and the drawings are nice. But there is no indication of names other than the English bird book one and the Latin name. No hope for those of us in non-English-speaking countries who want to use a bird book in English, but need to search based on what locals call a bird. Look at the version history. I'd hoped, unreasonably, that it had been such a great app when it came out that it hadn't needed an update. Wrong. It needs attention and hasn't gotten it. Compare the version history to iBird Pro (North America) and you'll see what a living app's history should look like. I really wish I could get my money back. Within 5 minutes of not being able to figure out how I'd use it productively (i.e. as a field guide, not to memorize birds), I knew I'd wasted my money. And I still need a Swiss or Europe field guide app!
Developer Response 08/06/2017
The app contains species names in 18 languages and these are fully searchable. You can also change the species name language in "settings". We do regularly update the app, but given the size of the download we prefer only to do it when we have a significant update to bring to users.