Learn Bird Watching—Larkwire 4+

First: the support for this app is excellent. I was unable to get the product to work at first. The developer worked with me over a period of days to resolve it. I had to uninstall and reinstall the app to get the purchase to load. I don’t know why that happened, but the support was patient and dedicated to solving my problem. I’ve used it a few times now and – now that I have the proper packet loaded – I am quite pleased with it. It’s not perfect, but is very, very good. And honestly, the tech support alone would be enough to make me recommend it. The product has good quality recordings and good photos. The game set up makes it a little more fun and rewarding to push through. The songs are grouped by quality of sound, allowing you to compare similar songs that can tricky to differentiate. This is one of the best aspects. If you’ve ever switched between taxa to compare the songs of a Chipping Sparrow and a Pine Warbler and later thought, “but wait! That’s a lot like the Dark-eyed Junco!” Then you know why this is helpful! It can get a little tedious and repetitive, but that does get the job done. I’ve only been using it for a few days now, but I’m leaning what I wanted to learn.

I'm so glad we were able to get you up and running and thanks so much for the thoughtful review! I'm always happy to help, so don't hesitate to reach out if you run into any further issues or if you have suggestions for how to make the app better.

I have struggled for a bit with bird song, and this app definitely helped more than I would’ve ever thought. I purchased it late one night as an impulse buy after seeing it recommend on a blog, and I absolutely love what it’s done for me and how different birding actually is when you can recognize calls. Even if all you learn is the most basic and common local birds calls, you have this entirely different element to birding, and you’ll notice more birds when you are out and about more than you ever did before. The app is easy to use, gives you two different game modes, tons of birds, progressively more difficult levels, and offers a written description of each birds call for those who paid words better with birds than they do just sounds on their own to a bird. There’s nothing more satisfying than confirming a bird based on call. Best thing I’ve ever bought on the App Store. Thanks to the developers for such a wonderful app.

Wow, thanks so much for the really thoughtful review! It's always great to hear that Larkwire doesn't just teach a skill, but really changes the experience of birding--I know it did that for me, too!

In the words of the Yellow Warbler, this app is sweet sweet sweet sweet so-so-so sweet!!!

I don’t usually pay more than .99 cents for an app, but I took a chance on this one: and it turned out to be probably the best app purchase I’ve ever made! With the help of this app, I have made the plunge into birding by ear, and it has truly changed me from a casual birder to a serious one. I love that each bird has multiple recordings, which prevents me from memorizing a specific recording rather than the pattern of the song. I love that it is not intimidating to a beginner like me, but is also useful to the seasoned veteran.

One feature which I would like to be added is a search bar in the section where you choose which birds to feature in your next game. Sometimes it’s difficult to find a specific species. I wish I could just type in “wrentit” rather than searching through every group and eventually finding it in “sparrows 6”.

Thanks for the review, that is so-so-so great to hear! And thanks for the excellent suggestion, I've added it to our enhancements list for future consideration. Excellent idea!