Birds of the Western Palearctic – BWP – is the definitive reference for everyone with a serious interest in birding and ornithology. Fifteen years ago we published all 11 printed volumes on DVD-ROM. Now we have fully overhauled this renowned BWPi for iOS and macOS. We have refreshed the design, breathed new life into the plates, added a comprehensive video library, integrated unique breeding birds content and updated taxonomy with new species and splits.
Comprehensive coverage of every species that regularly occurs in the region, with sections on Field Characters, Habitat, Breeding, Distribution, Population, Movements, Social Pattern and Behaviour, Voice, Food, Plumages, Moults, Measurements and Geographical Variation.
The app covers every species known to have occurred within the region, and we will be updating the app as new species occur (latest is Horned Puffin!).
BWP integrates with Collins Bird Guide app so that you can switch between the two seamlessly.
• 1,056 species covered
• 5,473 illustrations
• 1,066 songs and calls
• 916 videos
• 643 distribution maps
• 10,176 photos of breeding stages
• 1,557 line drawings showing behaviour
• 288 life cycle diagrams
• 2,446 tables
• 37,690 references
• 5,250,000 words of text!
• Species names are translated into 25 languages
The distribution and population data have not been updated since BWP was originally published, and some species have changed significantly since then. Compare species is available on iPad only.
I have often wanted to see the renowned BWP, and love the app version of Collins, so what better than an app version of BWP that can interact with Collins, each way. Initial use is promising although the linking doesn’t always seem to work, especially Collins to BWP direction after the first one or two species. I would also like links removed where there is no reference in the other book, e.g. Ostrich of course isn’t in Collins, so there should be no link in BWP to the Collins app, and there may be some going the other way too. Edit: recent update seems to have solved this.It would be nice to be able to scroll through the images once enlarged on screen.It does look a nice expanding upgrade to Collins though, and I look forward to using it, especially with a few niggles ironed out and more images added for the newly added species.
Excellent app
PhilofUK
Three weeks in and still very happy that I bought this app. Not sure why there are those complaints about the age of some of the stats, the developers have been totally upfront that this is based on the original work from that period with some tweaks. Not had any problems going between this and the Collins guide and they compliment one another very well. Is it perfect? No, of course not, there are some minor niggles such as the mode of scrolling through the illustrations rather than having them full screen as in the Collins guide, but such things aside I cannot recommend this app highly enough.
Developer Response
Thanks for your review. You can now also swipe between full-screen assets :)
Great body of work, poor experience
TeaBoy63
I appreciate the enormous amount of work and knowledge that has been captured here. However, it’s translation to an iPad app is a poor user experience. A number of obvious features are missing: after selecting images it should be possible to swipe through all images for that species (these images are low resolution); more detailed explanation of indicator plumage should be given on images; it should be easy to navigate between family accounts and the corresponding species descriptions; distribution maps and annual cycle diagrams must have keys and explanations readily to hand, in fact there is no explanation anywhere in the text of the orange on maps (I assume this means resident). Overall the BWP feels like a very flat book and not an interactive app.
Developer Response
It's now possible to swipe between assets. Tapping the info icon on the maps brings up the key.
Doesn’t include BWP Update
Jon.Bryant
Disappointing that the text has not been modified to include BWP update, which was made available as separate text with BirdGuides BWPi product many years ago.For some species the updates are important, providing completely revised text to BWP (e.g. for Red-necked Grebe the update provides replacement text for Habitat, Distribution, Population, Movements, Food, Social Patterns and Behaviour, Breeding, and Geographical Variation plus new section on Cause or Mortality and Related Species. Without these updates the early volumes and the text in this app is now over 40 years old (vol 1 was first published in 1977)The statement the this is a revision and update of BWP seems incorrect, for example Manx Shearwater uses the original text and includes Yelkouan and Balearic (although separate accounts for these species are also provided). Although photos have been added, as BWPi included text for BWP update and BWP Concise edition, I would argue that that version was actually more current - this versions seems a step backwards.Also would have been nice if the app allowed text size to be altered, which I find too small for a phone app.
We've fixed several bugs, including the app opening to the Mute Swan on launch.
Version 1.3.10
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