Well, anyone who has used voice-to-text to try to message a birding friend knows that it feels as if your phone is intentionally sabotaging your conversation. Chatting about gulls is the worst. It auto-corrects to things like "Great black back to go”, “Ringbuilt Golf", or even more horribly, “Little Girl”. If you wanted to tally migrating birds in the field it would be pretty much impossible. This is why, in the latest release of BirdingApp, we’ve added a voice mode to our Clickr feature that understands that birders are actually talking about birds!

To try it out, turn Birding Mode on and tap the “Clickr” button. Tap the three dots in the upper right and enable Hawk mode and Voice mode. We built this to help tally birds flying by during active migration events, such as hawkwatches, seawatches, or morning flights. Counting birds this way maintains a lot more information about the migration event than a regular list, as the encounter order and time is preserved for each adjustment. There are three primary features:

1. Counting Individuals

   1. See three Bobolinks flying overhead? Just tap the “Bird” microphone at the bottom, say “Add 3 Bobolink,” verify the species match, and tap “Done.” Once a counter is on the list, there’s no need to say “add” anymore. Just “2 Bobolink” or “minus 2 Bobolink,” and it will adjust the tally as needed. You can set your own nicknames like “Becky” for Belted Kingfisher, or “Modo”, for Mourning Dove.

2. Observation Notes

   1. If you’d like to add any other information, just tap “Note” and speak! Notes are saved in a log file that can be exported at any time.

3. Saving a Specific Location

   1. Tap “Note” and say “Save Location” to save your current latitude and longitude into the log file. It’s useful for keeping track of exactly where you saw a notable bird.

After you’re done you’ll have a list of counters with the final tallies. Under the options menu, you can then save the .csv log file to your device, which can be opened in any spreadsheet app.

As a small disclaimer, the core speech-to-text capability varies quite a lot based on your mobile model and version, so it has been a challenge to come up with a reliable way to interpret bird names out of common gibberish. The matching will probably never be perfect, but we will continue to refine it.

As a feature still in progress, we are working on a summary page of the Clickr activity that shows an aggregate view and also possibly a timeline. Further integrations with other apps is also on our list! Initially this beta feature is only available for supporters, but we hope to roll it out to everyone soon. We welcome feedback from anyone who tries it out in the field. Enjoy!

On this year’s trip, we really only had two goals in mind: chase state birds that weren’t too far off the route, and enjoy the birding. With BirdingApp target alerts set, our day-to-day summary follows:

Day 1: Texas City

As I sat munching on an In-N-Out Burger (yes they’ve made it to Texas!), I realized the boundary between Houston and Texas City had grown increasingly nebulous over the years. We decided to stop for food before continuing to the Texas City dike to go for the Red-throated Loon and Western Grebe that everyone was seeing. The landscape now morphs almost seamlessly from sprawling shopping centers to oil refineries. I couldn’t help but think of the 1947 disaster that devastated the city. Thankfully, that tragedy is not even a memory for most locals. The attendant at the entrance simply waved us through after we paid the $10 fee. I decided it was worth it, especially with one county and one state bird all but guaranteed here. Yet looking out at the whitecaps, I felt uneasy about our prospects. We drove all the way to the end, where a Marbled Godwit and Long-billed Curlew loafed side by side, offering a perfect comparison. Before reading the recent reports, we had incorrectly assumed the birds were on the calm side of the dike, but it turns out they were enjoying the wild wave pool on the south side. For the next hour or so, we scanned every area where these birds had been reported. The whitecaps successfully hid just about anything on the water, and after two hours we gave up and headed into Galveston. A Burrowing Owl glaring at us in a restaurant parking lot was my consolation county bird.

Day 2: Galveston to Rockport

I regretted the decision not to re-chase the loon and grebe the next morning until I arrived at San Luis Pass to see hundreds of American Avocets and other waterbirds. Many of the shorebirds were dowitchers. It’s hard enough to identify one, let alone hundreds. Any locals in the BirdingApp nearby chat would know which species is typical, I thought.

When we arrived in Rockport that evening, BirdingApp notified us of a nearby Red-footed Booby, which changed our original plans of taking the ferry to the long-staying American Flamingo in the morning. After seemingly just a few water crossings, Cardinals morphed into Pyrrhuloxias, and Tufted Titmice became Black-crested. This localized and surprising biodiversity is a major allure of birding in south Texas.

Day 3: Corpus Christi to Flamingo

At 11:35, we arrived at the Booby location. For a little over an hour, we watched the birds enjoying the water while the hot sun beat down. Then we tried another spot farther down the bay. Finally the bird appeared out of nowhere, gliding gracefully across the battle-gray background of the USS Lexington, an enormous aircraft carrier. From the shade of a gazebo, we later watched the bird sleep on a rocky jetty, as Monk Parakeets squawked nearby.

On the way to Port Aransas we spotted an Aplomado Falcon on a wire over the bleak landscape of southern Mustang Island. Finally, we arrived at Charlie’s Pasture, and trekked out to the tower where Alex quickly spotted the pink dot of the Flamingo on the flats. This spot is much better visited in the morning because of the bittersweet combination of harsh backlight, excessive distance, and thousands of birds in the afternoons. So for sunset we hiked out to the end of the Port Aransas jetty, where, of all things, a migration of groups of mainly Tricolored Herons was streaming up the coast!

I looked it up on Birds of the World, which states that “birds move between Florida and Cuba and between Florida and Central America. Regular appearance of migrants in Bermuda indicates this species' capacity to cross large expanses of water.” I had no idea! You never really know what you’re going to see migrating out on the gulf.

Day 4: Port Aransas to Harlingen

Morning birding at the pasture was fantastic now that the light worked in my favor, and I was able to capture a shot of three giant birds in one frame—the resident Flamingo, a lingering Whooping Crane, and an American White Pelican!

That afternoon we continued south through Corpus Christi and then onto a route that was unfamiliar to me. Alex seemed to know exactly where he was going, so I kept quiet until we pulled up beside a vast expanse of grass and I yelled out, “Turf farm!” Texas turf farms are second only to wastewater ponds as favored birding spots. This particular farm turned out to be Alex’s Birding Arena hotspot for the day, netting him 8 points and boosting his position on the BirdingApp leaderboard. We also saw some pretty nice birds, including Upland Sandpipers and over one-hundred American Golden Plovers.

Farther south toward the Valley, we stopped at the Sarita Rest Area, where a creepy dead owl lay on the ground. The folks on iNaturalist identified it as Great Horned Owl. We decided to stay in the Great-tailed Grackle heaven of Harlingen for the next two nights, as it’s centrally located to all of the great birding spots. I birded at sunset at the Harlingen Thicket World Birding Center, as Long-billed Thrashers and Pauraques ushered in the night in a cacophonous musical jumble.

Day 5: Santa Ana, Starbase, and South Padre

I knew we were in for a long day, so I made it even longer by waking up well before sunrise and driving 45 minutes to the legendary Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. After leaving the parking area, I headed toward Pintail Lakes looking for shorebirds. Somehow I ended up walking right in front of a tour group when an Olive Sparrow popped up and perched out in the open right in front of me. Knowing that doesn’t happen often, I waited for the group to catch up and (probably needlessly) pointed it out to the guide. Later, I found myself in front of the same group again, this time trying my best not to flush a large flock of Roseate Spoonbills. As it turned out, a border patrol helicopter took care of that for me and flushed them all anyways.

In the afternoon we drove east to Boca Chica beach, now Starbase. I was telling Alex that on my last visit there in 2010, we drove down a long, deserted road lined with White-tailed Hawks until we finally reached a massive beach where we drove all the way down toward Mexico. Things have changed. The road is now lined with hundreds of Cybertrucks, and the Starship launch site is right at the beach entrance. The sand was too soft to drive on this time. I tried a brief seawatch to look for Gannets but the viewing conditions were pretty awful.

Later in the afternoon we made it to South Padre Island and walked the fantastic boardwalk at the convention center. I had also planned another seawatch for the evening, but the pier was closed, so we gave up and treated ourselves to an amazing dinner at Henriettas instead. As we ate, Black Skimmers and Laughing Gulls streamed past in the fading light, heading to their roosts, as towering windmills churned steadily on the horizon.

Day 6: Crimson Collar

I woke up early again, grabbed coffee at Sovereign Coffee, and drove 40 minutes to the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands World Birding Center with one main goal: finally seeing my lifer Crimson-collared Grosbeak. I had missed it on my last trip to the Valley and wasn’t about to let that happen again.

After paying the very reasonable $3 entrance fee, I wandered the grounds, bumping into other birders on the same mission, some from as far away as Colorado. Eventually I found a mixed flock that included a singing Blue-headed Vireo and several Yellow-rumped Warblers, including a spiffy male Audubon’s. Then I heard a grating, repeated call that sounded oddly like a cowbird. It took me a moment to realize it was the grosbeak! It was notably larger than I had expected, and everyone nearby eventually got excellent looks.

We made a quick, fun stop at Harlingen City Lake and did some driving around for parrots before heading north back to Corpus Christi. The winds were finally shifting, and I wanted to be back on the coast in case any early migrants were arriving. Thanks to the BirdingApp maps, we somewhat randomly found a productive inland shorebird spot south of Corpus where where a mystery Tringa, likely just a Lesser Yellowlegs, was with two Wilson’s Phalaropes, the first Franklin’s Gull of the trip, and several other unexpected species. We finished the day with a spectacular sunset at Indian Point Park, a wonderful spot on Corpus Christi Bay that feels like it was designed specifically for birders.

Day 7: Mangrove Yellow

On our last day we were finally able to take the ferry across (missed the Frigatebird) to Port Aransas, and revisited many of the same spots. We received a BirdingApp alert about a Mangrove Yellow Warbler at the legendary Willows hotspot, so we headed there as soon as possible after getting some obligatory Waves Coffee frappes. I’ve learned from experience that this tiny patch of willows can be packed with a dozen birders lining the edges and three or four sitting inside, and it can still take at least an hour to find a bird you know is there! This visit was no different. After a couple false alarms, the patience paid off when I heard a soft zeep that is not given by the other warblers I had already seen. I looked up and saw the bright red head of the Mangrove Yellow Warbler! This was one of only a handful of records for Nueces County.

Final Thoughts

I honestly couldn’t imagine taking this trip without BirdingApp—the maps, the real-time alerts, messaging people I haven’t talked to in ages because I found out they’re also in Texas, the fun of the daily hotspot challenges, etc. Texas is one of our fastest-growing states, but if you know birders who still aren’t using it, we always truly appreciate folks spreading the word! And I hope all of you will make it out to Texas some time soon.

The Tennessee River widens into Chickamauga Lake just north of the city above the dam, a feature that concentrates migrating waterbirds—especially Common Loons and Horned Grebes. Loons are among the most frustrating birds to count, as they spread out across large areas and are rarely in a single scannable raft. Fortunately, we recently created a handy tool in BirdingApp to help with this: the clicker. Simply turn on birding mode from the home page and tap the “clicker” button in the upper left to access this feature.

It is straightforward to use and produces satisfying sounds, as if it were a real mechanical clicker. When it is cold, you can keep your gloves on and simply use the phone’s up and down volume buttons to increment either clicker. Hold the minus button to reset. Sometimes there are so many birds that counting them one at a time simply is not practical. In such cases, just set the multiplier to 2, 5, or even 10,000, and BirdingApp will increment the count for you.

When steady streams of birds are flying past, such as gulls or blackbirds, use the timer at the top. Count the number that pass during the timed period, then, for the final tally, multiply that figure by the total number of minutes the flight continued. For more information on how to properly count birds for the CBC—or any time—refer to eBird’s classic Bird Counting 101 articles.

For the CBC season you can also add your count circle—or any noteworthy bird locations—to the map using our favorite pins feature that was introduced in our January Update.

Finally, in case you missed it, be sure to listen to Tim’s recent appearance on Ed Pullen’s Birding Banter podcast.

Happy Holiday Birding!

Black Belt Birding Festival

To kick off the season, I recently accompanied local Chattanooga birder and budding world traveler Luke Thompson down to the Black Belt Birding Festival in Alabama. Events included sparring with opponents blindfolded while identifying as many birds by ear as possible within twenty minutes. OK, just kidding—The festival is actually named for a unique region of southern Alabama with dark, limestone-rich soil that is ideal for agriculture. I’d heard about this festival last year and was curious enough to attend this time, wondering why anyone would hold a birding event in sweltering August heat with minimal birdsong.

I quickly learned the Black Belt Birding Festival holds hidden gems for birders. On the way down, we stopped at the Talladega National Forest to see the endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker. The entire area features catfish ponds that rival even sewage ponds for bird diversity, without the unpleasant smell. I’ve never seen so many Wood Storks in one place! Apparently, these birds wander here from Florida in late summer to molt while feasting on catfish. It wasn’t at all unusual to spot the mischievous Mississippi Kite or the spectacular Swallow-tailed Kite, even right over downtown Greensboro.

BirdingApp recently added basic support for festivals, which displays a banner at the top of the app “Welcome to the Black Belt Birding Festival!” to anyone nearby the festival. Due to a developer error, this banner briefly appeared for everyone on the app as soon as I arrived at the festival! Once the free advertising snafu was fixed, the feature proved handy, offering a quick link to the festival schedule right in the app. Handing out stickers is easy, but convincing birders to pause and download a new app is tough. If they had, they’d have seen a fantastic monologue about my birding adventures in the nearby chat, plus my rare bird alert for the first Marengo County record of a Sanderling!

The wayward Sanderling found a fantastic and under-birded place called Spillway Park, featuring a dam with a vast area of shallow rushing water beneath. This area was filled with over a hundred Least Sandpipers, several Pectoral and Semipalmated Sandpipers, and waders of all sorts around the edges—all easily scopeable from an elevated trail. A nearby nature trail had a mix of breeders and migrants, including Acadian Flycatcher, Northern Parula, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and even a Swainson’s Warbler. This spot would be interesting to bird at any time of year, I’m sure. The weekend ended with exactly 100 species on the tally—not bad at all for early August!

Shorebirding with BirdingApp

On the way home, Luke and I took a (not insignificant) detour to the famed Fowler Rd. Irrigation Pond, which was just starting to dry out enough to attract some Caspian Terns and Pectoral Sandpipers. As we near the end of August, this place has already attracted Wilson’s and Red-necked Phalaropes, American Golden-Plover, Upland Sandpiper, and even a Piping Plover!

Unfortunately, the best shorebird spots are typically far away from where most birders live. How can BirdingApp help you at a time of year when the places you like to bird are so distant? One thing you can do is browse to a hotspot on the map and open up the hotspot chat, to share and read messages that were sent nearby that spot. BirdingApp is also the only app that provides an inclusive and universal solution for real-time rarity sharing. For more on this, please see our February update:

If you’re lucky enough to find a rarity this fall, be sure to post an RBA in BirdingApp! For the rest of the fall, we’ll continue making improvements to the app, and we will as always be posting fun and challenging quizzes in the Birding Arena.

Happy Fall Birding,

Tim and Alex

Chattanooga, TN

Highlights from the spring in Tennessee included a random American Barn Owl from my yard, and many unusual small herons and egrets, plus a very intriguing flyover Egretta that may have been a Little Egret! I joined the statewide ornithological meeting, leading field trips and connecting with birders across the state—many already active on BirdingApp. We had record rainfall for May, and thanks to the storms all morning long, we heard the county’s first documented Whimbrel record, its “pipipipip” call echoing overhead.

Pensacola, FL

Over Easter weekend, Alex and I visited Pensacola, Florida, to see coastal birds. We missed the continuing Red-billed Tropicbird by only an hour after arrival, which gave us false hope that we would see it again at some point during the weekend. After we got back home, Alex set up a regional target bird alert in BirdingApp so he would know when the tropicbird appeared again. I would have preferred not to know, but eventually took solace in the fact that it was not ever seen again that month. Spring birding can be a stressful tug-of-war between the birds that are around you and the ones you want to chase. That’s one reason why BirdingApp emphasizes local alerts and chats, while still offering updates on more distant birds for those who want them.

Presque Isle, PA

In mid-May, we drove up to the incredible Festival of the Birds in Erie, PA. Presque Isle State Park is a magical spot where a birder can spend an entire day and barely scratch the surface of its vast bird and habitat diversity, from shorebirds to warblers. I gave a talk on eBird and BirdingApp, sparking some excitement about possibly using the app for official festival communication next year. I was also inspired by Bridget Butler’s keynote address on “Slow Birding”: the value of presence, deep listening, and connecting with birds and fellow birders. It’s a challenge in practice—do you admire the bright red male Cardinal at eye level, or spend five potentially fruitless minutes scanning treetop leaves for migrant warblers? These are the philosophical dilemmas birders navigate daily.

Chautauqua, NY

After the festival, we returned to our cottage near Chautauqua, NY, facing a disappointingly wintry weekly forecast. Mid-week, I joined friends for a big day in the Finger Lakes, highlighted by phenomenal shorebird habitat at Montezuma NWR and an unprecedented number of Whimbrels migrating through. We tallied a very respectable 165 species despite unsettled weather and sparse warbler migration. On our final day in Chautauqua, Alex set up the elaborate bird feeder system, with many hung on ropes to deter squirrels and a hand-carved vertical log for woodpeckers to stage on while they decide which feeder to visit. Within five minutes of adding seed, five Rose-breasted Grosbeaks descended, feasting eagerly. The wintry conditions must have been tough on the birds, and they seemed grateful for the food.

Big Birding Weekend at Mosquito Lake, OH

Before returning to Tennessee, we went to Mosquito Lake in northeast Ohio for the “Big Birding Weekend” festival. Inland lakes are often overlooked and under-birded in spring, so I was thrilled to attend a festival celebrating one. Ohio is now also the state with the most BirdingApp users, so this felt like a big opportunity for us. The Whimbrel spectacle continued through the weekend throughout Ohio, and I was able to spot a flock over I-90 on the way there, and another migrating group over the lake the next morning. I was honored to meet and hear the keynote speech by Greg Miller, the down-to-earth birder famous from “The Big Year” book and movie. He shared stories of cold-calling birders for help during his big year—something that would strike dread into the hearts of most young birders today. Thankfully, for socially awkward birders, BirdingApp makes this really easy with the nearby chat.

After Greg’s talk, professor Sean Williams delivered a captivating talk on spring birding, highlighting that south- and east-facing edges are the best spots to focus on. One slide I remembered in particular: a Blackburnian Warbler pauses at Lake Erie’s edge under moonlight, its reflection shimmering on the water. With only its fat reserves to guide it, the warbler must decide—cross the vast lake or wait? On cloudy nights, it might not even sense the water below, facing a dangerous dawn with nowhere to land. This is the heart of birding: a blend of instinct, chance, and wonder—for the birds, and for ourselves.

Summer

As summer sizzles in and spring’s sleeplessness fades, keep connected with us on BirdingApp. Test your skills with fresh quizzes in the Birding Arena, and get ready for more exciting updates on the horizon!

Happy Birding,

Tim and Alex

That’s where BirdChirp comes in—a new, experimental feature we’re building into BirdingApp to keep birders connected, even in the most unforgiving of places like Adak. BirdChirp lets your messages travel off-grid via a compatible radio. It’s powered by Meshtastic®*, an open-source project that turns small LoRa radios—some as tiny as a credit card—into a long-range, decentralized communication network. Connect one to your phone with Bluetooth, and you’re sending encrypted messages or location pins to nearby birders, no cell towers required. Depending on terrain and hardware, you usually get a couple miles of range—or even dozens with line-of-sight or if other Meshtastic nodes are around to relay the signal.

After weeks of hard work—mostly Alex’s wizardry—we had a beta version of BirdChirp ready just in time for the trip. I packed several radios, and to my delight, discovered some locals already running Meshtastic nodes, boosting our odds of message relay. The winds on the first few days seawatching brought us some great birds in addition to allergies and colds, which worsened as the week progressed.

Two afternoons later, it was just Lizzie and me. We each grabbed radios and split up—she trekked the rarity-rich shores of Clam Lagoon, that she lovingly names “the awesome walk”, while I perched at a sheltered, elevated seawatch on the dunes above Candlestick Bridge. An hour in, BirdingApp chirped: Lizzie had a Garganey mingling with the Green-winged Teal! She dropped a pickup spot, and I hustled over across the dune down the gravel road. We relocated the bird and pulled out a few documentation shots at frighteningly low shutter speeds before it got too dark. That moment made every ounce of effort worth it—proof BirdChirp worked. Without it, Lizzie (camera-less) and I would’ve missed documenting it, and my Alaska list would be one Garganey short!

To get started, you’ll need a Meshtastic-compatible radio with Bluetooth. You can connect and pair it from BirdingApp’s convos menu. We’re still smoothing out a few kinks in the initial setup, so you may need to reconnect a few times at first. BirdingApp stands alone as the only birding app offering fully offline location-sharing on a map. Imagine that you’ve trekked into the wilderness and just found a Naumann’s Thrush, but now you have to radio home, trying to explain your whereabouts. With BirdChirp, you can simply drop a pin in the chat and you’re done. To support the offline maps, we incorporated offline Google Maps, so make sure you first download the data for where you’re traveling to before heading out.

Compared to other radio solutions, BirdChirp’s LoRa backbone offers some serious advantages. Traditional voice radios are more annoying to carry around, and often come with shorter ranges, cumbersome licensing headaches, and no privacy—your chatter’s out in the open for anyone to hear. Satellite radios, while great for emergencies, hit you with steep upfront costs, ongoing subscription fees, and spotty reliability when clouds roll in. Meshtastic-compatible radios, on the other hand, are often a fraction of the price with no recurring charges, and it shrugs off bad weather since it doesn’t rely on orbiting tech. If you go with a waterproof model like the sleek SenseCAP Card Tracker T1000-E from Seeed Studio, you don’t even have to worry about the weather.

We’re excited to get these radios into more birders’ hands. For a more detailed overview, visit our FAQ page. If you’d like to purchase pre-configured BirdChirp radio(s) for your next off-grid outing, just reach out to us directly on the app. Or, if you know any tour leaders travelling to remote areas who might want to test these out, we’d love an intro.

Happy Birding, wherever you happen to travel!

* Meshtastic® is a registered trademark of Meshtastic LLC. BirdingApp is not affiliated with or endorsed by Meshtastic.

BirdingApp solves this problem with a universal approach: our geospatial nearby chat and rare bird alerts (RBAs) ensure that you stay informed no matter where you are. If you’re not interested in certain species, simply exclude them from future alerts:

At the same time, we recognize the value of the pre-existing birding communities built around counties, states, and country listing regions. That’s why we’ve long offered a “state” RBA option, which periodically pulls in new rarities from eBird, that you can enable in your settings. Now, these alerts will jump to a new activity feed filter, allowing you to react and comment on RBAs from anywhere in your state or region. When a rarity pops up in a remote corner of your state, you can drop a heart on it to show your excitement—and signal your intention to chase by tapping the car icon!

Additionally, regional RBAs are now fully timezone- and daylight-aware. Instead of a fixed number of daily alerts, the system dynamically adjusts based on available daylight. When day length exceeds 12 hours, you’ll receive up to four alerts per day, strategically timed relative to sunrise and sunset. Shorter days will still provide two or three alerts, ensuring timely notifications while avoiding early-morning or late-night pings. This ensures you get the latest eBird rarities at optimal times throughout the day.

Sometimes you find a rarity in the field, and the last thing you want to do is finish your eBird list in a rush just to get the word out. In BirdingApp, you can create your own RBA posts that will notify everyone nearby and optionally everyone in the state. BirdingApp user Sean Williams recently posted a statewide RBA of a Barrow’s Goldeneye he found on Lake Erie in Ohio—the first chaseable one in 34 years. There was even an article about it in the Cleveland news!

Looking ahead, we’re working on expanding aspects of the nearby chat feature to a regional level. Stay tuned—more exciting updates are on the horizon!

Birding Update

In September, we set up a table at the inaugural Headlands Birding Festival, on the shore of Lake Erie northeast of Cleveland, Ohio. It was a fantastic and laid-back outdoor space to engage with birders, look at neotropical migrants, and enjoy the early fall lake breeze. Naturally, we had BirdingApp’s birding mode ON the entire way there and back!

After Hurricane Helene, an unprecedented backlog of birds led to daytime visible migration of typically nocturnal migrants over east Tennessee, such as Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and Gray-cheeked Thrushes. The birds are outside living their lives every day, whether we’re out to observe them or not. Thanks to a timely message in the nearby chat, many local birders were able to step outside that morning and enjoy the spectacle.

Sometimes, as with Christmas Bird Counts, we dedicate an entire day to spend with the birds. I was invited to participate in the Reelfoot CBC, at Reelfoot Lake in the far northwestern corner of Tennessee. It’s the only natural lake in the state, formed by a series of powerful earthquakes in the 19th century that caused the Mississippi River to briefly flow the opposite direction! Chatting with other CBC birders sparked some ideas for new features in the app..

New App Features

Save Favorite Pins on the Map

How often have you been out in the field and had someone spit out directions (wanted or not) to Bald Eagle nest locations, parking areas, or special birding locations? Or perhaps the place you typically park at a hotspot is confusingly not where it is plotted in eBird. Now, you can quickly save these spots as favorites on the BirdingApp map. Simply long-press to add a new favorite or toggle pins on and off, or tap the menu in the upper right corner for more options. Tap on the pin to either get directions or share it in a convo with a friend. For those participating in “five-mile radius” yard competitions, you can optionally save a radius with your spot to see which nearby birding hotspots fall within your area of interest. You can even use this feature to display an entire CBC circle!

Share Birding Arena Hotspot Visits

Another feature we’ve recently added is the ability to quickly share a post about your visit to your daily Arena Hotspot. After attaching the eBird list, simply tap “Share and Post”. It’s a great informal way to share your birding without the effort of a long write-up.

RBA Improvements

When you needed to post an RBA from the field, it used to be a bit clunky if the bird wasn’t at a hotspot. Now, you can add a custom location name to help reduce confusion for others receiving your alert.

It’s winter, so we’ve also adjusted the timing of statewide alerts. Previously, they ran at 10 AM, 5 PM, and 9 PM. However, since it’s often dark by 5 PM, that second alert wasn’t very useful. For now, we’ve shifted the 5 PM alert to 3 PM, giving you two hours to chase that statewide rarity before dark. Additionally, we’ve stopped checking for rarities between midnight and sunrise depending on where you are. After all, is it worse to wait until then to post your rarity, or to wake up and chase it at such a ridiculous hour?

Theme Updates

Finally, we’ve been busy updating color themes and adding a few new fonts for extra fun. Most themes have received improvements, but supporters should be sure to check out the awesome new Macaw theme!

Wishing everyone the best for 2025!

Despite the silence, we've still been busy developing exciting new features for the app! The recent release of hotspot detail pages powered by birdinghotspots.org has inspired many to photograph and suggest content at their favorite local spots. During the hot summer days, staying motivated to bird or deciding where to go can be challenging. So, we thought, why not turn exploration into a game and reward points for visiting new spots? Enter the Birding Arena!

Though the name might sound a bit intimidating, we envision it as a place for both friendly competition and solo challenges, with cute little birds looking on from above. The Birding Arena is the place where you can earn points via the Daily Hotspot Challenge and Quizzes, and compare your rankings with others. We distinguish “experience” from “points” as the total points earned. You can spend points on target bird alerts, and possibly more fun things in the future.

Daily Hotspot Challenge

The main feature of the arena is the “Daily Hotspot Challenge”, where you can earn points for visiting a random nearby hotspot. The number of points you get varies, with a small bonus if the hotspot is farther away. If you’re given a hotspot that you don’t care to visit, you can spend a point to get another one—potentially one that’s worth even more. To get your points, all you have to do is be near the hotspot with birding mode set to “ON”. A manual check-in button is also available. By submitting an eBird checklist at the spot, you will also receive an extra point.

Hotspot Visits

Hotspots where you’ve checked in, or where you’re nearby with birding mode set to “ON,” will be saved and can be accessed by clicking “Visits.” This is a great way to quickly go back to places you’ve been and add photos or suggest content to birdinghotspots.org.

Bird Quiz

Building upon our polling feature, we added a quiz section for photo quizzes, map quizzes, and other educational challenges. A correct answer will get you 3 points, but you’ll always get a point just for trying. Unlike regular polls, we won’t show your name on the results, so there’s no need to be shy.

Arena Leaderboard

See where you rank in terms of total points earned compared to other participants on the app.

Target Birds

Everyone has that nemesis bird that somehow manages to keep away from your binocular view wherever you are. To make things more frustrating, it’s often reported casually by others and is not even considered a “rare” bird. These birds are perfect to add as a “target” , so you’ll get notified whenever you happen to be nearby a recent sighting. You can use points that you earn in the arena to add more target birds. There are two kinds of target birds, detailed below:

Regional Targets

These can be set for any state or province, and should generally be reserved for birds that you would be willing to travel for, that you may otherwise miss on the rare bird alerts. A perfect option for state and year-listers.

Nearby Targets

This will notify you whenever a sighting comes into eBird of a target bird near your current location. Ideal for that nemesis lifer or county bird.

Regional Leaderboard

This shows the top birders in your state or country for the current day from eBird. This page is especially fun to look at during birding events like Christmas Bird Counts, Bird-a-thons, or Global Big Day. The date can also be changed to explore results from any day in history.

As always, we love hearing from our users and are open to any suggestions on how to make these features more fun for everyone. Happy birding!

March does have its share of avian spectacles. Perhaps you live somewhere that massive rafts of Aythya ducks can be observed while hundreds of thousands of Snow Geese move overhead. The premier shorebird of the month is surely the American Woodcock, as it performs its rhythmic sky-dance at dusk. Overnight rainstorms can drop unexpected ducks on lakes and rivers.

However, many days in March seem just the same as the day before. We remain immersed with a varying number of the same birds that have been living with us all winter. When a warm day eventually comes, it is ephemeral with maybe only one new arrival, perhaps a Tree Swallow.

Thankfully, the month is almost over. We’re thrilled to introduce exciting new features in BirdingApp, that will throttle you forward into April and beyond.

Topic Chats

A perfect place to discuss birding-related things that aren’t as relevant for local birders in the Nearby Chat. Share an interesting article in Bird News, or post a question in the Bird Identification chat. There’s even a chat to discuss optics and gear or for sharing news of exciting rare birds that may be farther afield.

Polls

Create a poll for your followers, or even for all BirdingApp users! These can be humorous; educational, such as a map or photo quiz, or you can just ask anything about birding that’s been on your mind.

Events

We’ve made it possible to schedule a quick birding trip or event, without the need to create a formalized itinerary or route. Simply go to your schedule, click a date, and choose +New Event. You can then add a name, start and end time, and optionally a description and meeting point, and you’re done! These events can then be shared in a post or in the Nearby Chat, and booked with one click, so you’ll have an idea of how many people will be attending.

Supporter Features

We are thrilled to introduce ABA rarity notifications in BirdingApp for supporters! Supporters will also be able to see all of the current ABA rarities plotted on a map. This will help you decide whether or not the drive is truly worth it for that next lifer.

To turn on the ABA alert notifications, go to Settings..Notifications..Regional Alerts.. and choose “All + ABA”. This will notify you whenever an ABA rarity appears at a new location in eBird.

We’ve introduced renewing and non-renewing subscription options for you to show your support and to help cover the costs of running the app. Please consider supporting BirdingApp!

If you spend enough time around birders, talk will inevitably drift to upcoming trips to exotic locations or rarities in far-away locations. “Did you hear about the Icterine Warbler on St. Paul Island?” someone might ask. You could respond with a polite “No, I didn’t!”, while internally shrugging because, let's face it, you’re not there and jet-setting across the globe isn’t in your immediate plans. As birders, we should also learn to embrace the present and appreciate the birds that grace our immediate surroundings. By closely observing local birds we can glean universal lessons that that enrich our understanding, regardless of where our birding trips might take us in the future.

One thing I love about BirdingApp is that you're a local no matter where you happen to be. Recently, I was back for the holidays in my hometown of Reno, NV, but it has been so long that I felt like a stranger. I had the contact information of only one local birder on my phone. When I found an immature Black-legged Kittiwake at the city park I knew it was critical to get the word out as soon as possible. It would be dark in half an hour, so if I waited to submit my eBird list it could be too late. This spot also has a history of rarities leaving overnight.

In desperation, I posted an RBA on BirdingApp, with a quick digiscope and a pin of where the bird was. Fortunately, one birder nearby had BirdingApp, received the alert notification instantly, and called everyone he knew! I also used the "share post" feature to send a link to the contact I knew, which eventually got posted on the local listserv. Several birders were even able to see the bird at night, proposing that “night gulling” should be a new Olympic sport.

Luckily, the bird was found again the next morning and continued throughout the day. But things took a turn for the worse. By the afternoon it was clear the bird was sick, as it sat motionless on a quiet corner of the beach, watching the movement and life all around. Did it have memories of its chaotic birth, on crowded ocean cliffs in the gulf of Alaska? What were the factors that caused it to drift so far from its ocean home, over the mighty Sierras, to end up in this bustling high-desert city, surrounded by California Gulls, strange lights and casinos?

Sadly, the next morning it was found dead. In the last days of its only months-long life, this beautiful bird imparted memories upon dozens of birders that will last a lifetime.

As Joyce would say, “A gull. Gulls. Far calls. Coming, far! End here”.

In May, we embarked on a new move to Chattanooga, Tennessee—a location I've always sensed had immense birding potential from my brief visits. My affinity for Chattanooga may partly stem from its winter-long abundance of two of my favorite birds: the serene and mysterious Common Loons and the buoyant and energetic Bonaparte's Gulls. Beyond that, I had an intuitive feeling about the presence of an untapped birding community waiting to be explored.

Following a particularly hot and dry summer, we launched BirdingApp for Android on September 1st. Early users likely laughed at my expense at the flurry of messages I sent through the Nearby Chat, even when no one else was around to read them. Then, just a month and a half later, we were thrilled to extend our reach with the launch of BirdingApp for iOS. This proved to be a good strategic move, as iOS accounts for about 75% of our 400+ users so far. As the Christmas Bird Count season approaches, let's highlight some of the exciting new features in BirdingApp that promise to enhance your birding experience:

Nearby Birders Chat: This feature can be a vibrant hub for real-time birding updates in local communities, but it does require a critical mass of birders. It has begun to take off in a few localized areas, so if you are in an isolated area you can help by making a comment or inviting your friends. Share photographs of unique places or birds (like a Leucistic White-throated Sparrow I recently spotted!), or let others know what birds you are seeing or looking for. There is no need to be shy, as notifications for this chat are off by default.

Rare Bird Alert (RBA) Posts and Sharing: Found a rare bird? Unsure about its identification? Start with the Nearby Chat for confirmation. Once you're confident, go to “New Post”, choose “Rare Bird Alert” for the post type. This streamlined process includes selecting the location, species, rarity level, and adding notes or photos. Nearby birders with the app then immediately get a push notification! For birds where you want to get the word out right away, you no longer need to stress about prematurely ending your eBird track or writing a hasty description for the reviewer. We believe this approach has several advantages to existing rare bird alert platforms such as Discord, GroupMe, and Telegram:

1. Only one notification for the rarity is sent out. Any further discussion about the bird takes place in the nearest hotspot chat.

2. This feature is available for any traveling birders in your area with BirdingApp, most of whom likely have no idea how to sign up and join the local rare bird group.

3. Birds ignore state lines, so notifications of their presence should as well. Why miss a life bird just because you didn't sign up for the rare bird group across the border in a neighboring state?

4. A standardized format including all relevant fields for an RBA means less ambiguity about the precise location and species. Just click “directions” and you’re on you way!

5. Customized reactions to RBA posts, including "chasing", "seen", and "missed" are not available in these other platforms. These reactions can provide crucial information to those interested in trying to relocate the bird.

Enhanced Map Functionality: Our map now displays recent rarities from eBird as little red triangles. The hiking trails layer on the map should be especially helpful during the CBC.

Itins, Trips, and Routes: While these features may seem intimidating for the casual birder, they offer great potential even for informal gatherings. For example, if you have a local lake-watching spot this winter, just make a Route (can just be a parking area and the scanning point), press "Create Itin from Route" from the menu in the upper right, and set a schedule of when you plan to be there. When it comes to lake-watching, the more eyes the better!

Finally, I have to mention the star of the fall season in Chattanooga, this Ancient Murrelet that appeared at the Chickamauga Dam on November 24, while we were on Thanksgiving Break in Texas. For the next five days, it was a perfect time to practice gratitude, until we could take it no longer and drove straight home from Baton Rouge with the intent to see the bird the next morning. Miraculously, it lingered and fed on small fish through December 3rd. Then, on a night graced with gentle winds, it took flight. Its next destination remains a mystery. Will it make it back to its home in the Pacific Ocean? Or will its presence thrill birders elsewhere, perhaps even in your local Christmas Bird Count circle?

We hope you enjoy these updates and that you will have a fantastic CBC season! Your feedback and ideas are crucial for our continuous improvement in 2024. Please share your thoughts and help us make BirdingApp even better.