Having a look around the net for a decent review of any kind of birding software proved completely fruitless for me. I noticed a fair few people were having the same problem. Seeing as I really wanted a good piece of software to use for birding, I thought I would just grab a few different titles that were available and try them out for myself. The best looking, cheapest and therefore most attractive software I could find was Bird Journal, so here is my review of it.
Note: I am not a professional ornithologist or even a jet setting world traveling amateur. I am an average Joe that really likes birds. Birding, in one way or another, is something that I do every single day. Please let me know if there is anything else you would like to know about.
Purchase and Trial
One of the great things to come out of the growth in popularity and use of the internet has been the birth of the ‘trial version’. Today, this is an expected must have for any software developer wanting to market their product. Gone are the days when a developer can make a pretty box, run a few ads and watch the customers line up. For whatever reason, this has escaped the major producers of birding software. Thankfully, Bluebird Technology have taken the opportunity to try before you buy to the next level. Offered on the website is a fully-functional trial version that anyone can download without any kind of registration. The trial comes with sample database to let you explore the programs feature set without having to enter your data. Of course, if you wish to enter your data, that option is also open to you, albeit limited to 15 entries.
Once you have sampled enough and decided you like the program, the purchase process is straightforward. The program comes in three versions although this just relates to taxonomic licensing. The version I have is the local edition with the up to date 2008 Christidis and Boles taxonomy. Bluebird go on to offer a 60 day money back guarantee if you are not satisfied with the product for any reason. You can’t really beat that from a customer service perspective!
The Program
Installation and setting up
From download to first entry, this program was a breeze. It comes with a PDF user guide but I doubt you will find a need for it. The way the program is laid out, you will be able to figure it out just by poking around the interface. There are no strange nuances or unnecessary features like the talking parrot with speech recognition in Birder’s Diary, it is straightforward and is all about getting the job done.
I had no installation problems whatsoever and that program did not crash on me once. I haven’t got any strange error messages and even the uninstall (I reinstalled it to test) was smooth and without hiccup.
Entering a new sighting
The entry method is fairly stock standard, although it will require a little extra work in the long run (no checklist entry). The entry is split into two section, the “entry” and the “sightings”. The default data collected for the “entry” section is:
- Date
- Start and end time of sighting
- Location
- General photos
- Weather
- Notes
- Ebird required fields
This data is all customisable so any of these entry fields (apart from date and time) can be added or removed. The default data collected for the “sighting” section is:
- Species
- Count
- Sighting photos
- Notes
- Properties (“Heard only”, “Interesting” and “Good view”)
Of course, all of this information is also customisable. I added with ease extra fields for sexes, plumage information and maturity.
The species field is particularly well designed with an auto search function that form fills in a way similar to what you might see on an internet browser. It is a much friendlier auto search function than what I saw in Birder’s Diary. Unfortunately, like Birder’s Diary, you are limited to searches by common name. Not too big a hassle really, but I can’t understand why the ability to search this way isn’t offered for those of us that prefer using scientific names as opposed to common ones when we can.
Overall all the data you would want collected is there (and what isn’t you can add) but there are a few things missing. When entering a new sighting, the only method of entry is to manually enter every bird you saw that day. It would be an easy fix to include a checklist entry method like that seen in other birding software. I don’t really fancy writing Common Myna, Willie Wagtail and Magpie-lark in every single entry I make for the rest of my life. I don’t like the absence of the “min max” count either. There is the option to remove the count altogether from your sightings, but I do like the “min count – max count” option. It would also be nice if the data entered into custom fields transferred to the filter options when later looking at entries. If this were the case, it would be easy to group entries into specific trips or periods without the need for Bluebird to recode the software.
Finally, and this is a surprisingly big issue, Bird Journal desperately needs an option to change the date format. As much as I enjoy the American Month/Day/Year system, I don’t think my computer keyboard can take much more fist slamming. I’m just kidding of course, but it is shocking how annoying something as little as this can get.
Photos
This is fairly unique feature so really, any functionality is a plus. Just the same, I am particularly fond of the way that this program uses the photos you input into sightings. Rather than maintaining an index of the inputted file’s location on the computer and then linking to them, it actually copies the files, shrinks them and keeps them in a separate database. This prevents problems every time you move a photo on your computer. The only real let down is that the Bird Journal does not use a tagging system for the photos, so you are limited to associating only one species with each photo. Pretty much rules out group photos unless you want dupes. The ultimate feature would be a Facebook like tagging system where tags could be associated with specific sections of the photo, although I may be reaching on that one!
The gallery system works well although eventually I could see it becoming quite slow to load. The default filtering on the gallery screen is to show *all* photos, fine to start with, not good after 5 years. I can envisage waiting ten minutes for the gallery to load before being able to filter out what I don’t want to look at. Easy fix though, hopefully future versions will load the gallery empty and then allow you to initiate the actual loading of images after filtering.
Reviewing entries and generating reports
Unfortunately, this is where Bird Journal falls a bit behind its competitors. It is simply not possible to generate reports to the standard that is achieved in Birder’s Diary or other software. There is little control in how your report is presented. If I want to get a list of birds seen on the Cairns Esplanade in May 2009, it will generate a list of common names with when the species was first sighted and last sighted. Nice list, but too bad if I want to see scientific names, dates sighted that month, number of observers or comments.
Hopefully this will mature in future versions.
One the plus side however, if I was to want a report for a specific entry, the reports look seriously snazzy, with all the information entered (including photos) included in it. Again though, not customisable whatsoever.
Graphs
The graphs are a nice touch and they really add to the professional feel of the application. To really get all you can from them though, it is important that you keep very accurate species counts of everywhere you visit. It is also important to take the counts consistently every time you visit a location, something I don’t currently do. Inaccurate or partial counts will produce disappointing charts which slap you in the face with the holes in your data.
“So, why is there a complete absence of House Sparrows in Cairns starting one month after you bought Bird Journal?”
Missing features
While I have found Bird Journal a very worthwhile piece of software, there are some things which would really give an edge on the competition. Some others were mentioned during the review which I will not mention here.
Taxonomy Editor
This is an absolute must. As much as I trust that Bluebird Technology is immortal and will be with us forever, I don’t really want to be left out in the cold if this company goes bust or stops developing Bird Journal. If Bird Journal is to stand the test of time, this feature simply must be added.
Taxonomy Viewer
Understandable that Bird Journal is targeted at the amateur birdwatcher, but the absence of a taxonomy viewer is inexcusable. This would surely be a relatively simple thing to include and it is truly invaluable learning resource.
Import/export functionality
Here is where Bird Journal is completely impotent. If you are currently using AviSys, Birder’s Diary, Wildlife Lister — heck, if you are using a spreadsheet, forget about importing it into Bird Journal. The ability to import data, even from its own backup databases, is nil.
Similarly, there are simply no satisfactory options for exporting data. You can export to ebird, but the csv export functionality is poor. While I can easily export a page of data from Bird Journal and import it accurately into a spreadsheet, trying to export a whole range was a complete failure for me. This particular aspect was really disappointing as import/export functionality can really make or break a database application. I mean really, that is the point of a database application is it not? Otherwise it is about as useful as a paper notebook insofar as what you can do with the data.
Conclusion
Bird Journal, at $58AUD for the local edition, is currently the cheapest decent option as far as birding software goes. It lacks several of what I consider to be crucial features, but ultimately it is a good piece of software for the money. It’s pretty, it does the job, the email support is brilliant and it comes with a money back guarantee. The best option is to try it for yourself, but I don’t think many of you will be disappointed with it. From the sounds things, it is very much in active development and the future looks bright. I think provided the developers don’t get distracted with other projects, this will truly become a wonderful solution for birders, amateur to professional.
This is the first review I have done so perhaps I will update it once I finish poking through Birder’s Diary and I get a proper look at Avisys. Let me know if you even care!
