Birda has actually been life-changing for me. I didn’t know my life needed changing, but I had got so busy and stressed with work that I didn’t know how to switch off. Birda has gently encouraged me, and with its design, it encourages others to be supportive, helpful and kind. When I go bird-watching now, I’m able to completely switch off and immerse myself in nature, knowing that I can upload my session, share my photos, and enjoy hearing and seeing how others have got on. It’s beautifully and thoughtfully designed by good people. Very little I’d want to change. It would be nice to add in my historic photos and sightings without them clogging up people’s feeds. There may be a way to do this, so don’t take my word! Thank you, Birda team ☺️

I discovered Birda maybe just over a year ago and it’s the best and easiest app to log sightings on etc. It’s really fun to see what other people have seen across the country and across the world. The badges make it fun as well as it encourages you to go out and find birds to accomplish the goals. I find that people are really nice and helpful on there, and the unidentified species/sighting tab is great because people are so willing to help you identify them. Overall the app is great, however I wish there was an option to search a certain bird and see its sightings/recent sightings in a certain area. When it comes to the ‘nearby’ tab, it’s quite a specific issue but since I live by the sea the radius goes over into part of England which in some senses isn’t ‘nearby’ for me as it’s across the sea. I understand why it does that but I mainly look at the tab to see what is actually ‘nearby’ to me and that I can access fairly easily if that makes sense. It is a picky issue to note and it’s understandable if it isn’t necessarily resolvable but I just thought I’d say it anyway. But again, overall it is a great app and I really enjoy using it :).

For nearly a year, this was my favourite app and a great way to engage with nature on a budget. I picked it over others because you could instantly see which birds were new to you in an area and know what to look out for. I also recommended it to a fair few of my novice birding friends for pretty much this one feature as they didn't know where to start. Unfortunately the update has now put this behind a paywall so that you need a subscription.By all means charge for new features but to start charging for previously free ones is a great disappointment, especially when they were the reason I chose this app over a few others in the first place. It also makes me wonder what will be next to disappear behind the paywall, which puts me off investing more time in it.I am looking elsewhere now and even thinking of going back to logging sightings with pen and paper; sad to say I can't recommend Birda any more as it was great while it lasted.

A great app - it’s been such a joy to have this year and I’ve found real interest in the world around me. I’ve learnt a lot about birds that I wouldn’t have done on my own. The app can be a little slow but it doesn’t really matter because it otherwise works great! I would appreciate greater privacy settings, e.g. the ability to set posts to friends-only but still count towards challenges, and being able to turn off comments/delete them etc. Generally the community is amazing but it is at the end of the day a social media and you can occasionally get some potentially snobbish/slightly rude comments. I would like to be able to set my posts to friends-only, but I’m a big fan of the challenges and my sightings wouldn’t count towards these on friends-only currently. I would feel much safer and more comfortable with these sort of privacy settings further developed. :)