Birding gear Review: RSPB eGuide to British Birds app
For iOS and Android
There is a very wide variety of traditional field guides available, to suit differing personal tastes and a broad range of abilities. As much of this print content moves online, the same is also increasingly true of smartphone apps. While more advanced birders head straight for the well-known pan-European or Western Palearctic field guides, these can be rather complicated for beginners or those still learning their craft. There are simply too many species covered by these books which can invite confusion.
The RSPB Handbook of British Birds has traditionally served this segment of the book market admirably, with a reduced number of species covering the commonest British Birds and a very small number of rarities. The RSPB eGuide to British Birds brings that same content to smartphone users in a convenient app available for both Android and Apple iOS devices.
The RSPB eGuide to British Birds bills itself as the ‘interactive companion’ to the print version of the Handbook. It takes all the main content from the book and presents them in a digital format, with the bonus of some additional interactive features. As well as search capability, these include audio clips for most species, a comparison function and the ability to keep personal lists.
The species covered are similar to the book, with over 290 included. This is significantly less than a full-blown European field guide – by way of comparison the Collins Bird Guide book and app cover over 700. However, the species which are covered should be enough for most typical days out in the UK, as it includes all the regular British species and a logical selection of the commoner scarce visitors.
The app works on smartphones and tablets, and is set up slightly differently depending on the device, although the basic functionality is essentially same. From the opening page, there is the option to view the index for all species by common name or scientific name, with the list ordered either alphabetically or scientifically. On Android, the search function is rather hidden away under the options button whereas on IOS it is more conveniently located at the top of the list. Searching works very well, quickly narrowing the list down to the options which match as the text is typed. This is certainly a lot faster than thumbing through an old fashioned field guide.
The species layout also differs by device, and is perhaps not entirely logically and consistently presented across all formats and operating systems. On tablets in portrait mode, the text, map and illustrations are all shown on one page and on the iPad this also includes the vocalisations. On Android, these latter are only available via an additional button at the top of the screen, though as a consequence the text is presented in larger font, whereas it is perhaps a little small on iOS. In landscape mode, the text is also only available via a separate button. On Android, the map is perhaps a little small and does not zoom in if you tap on it, as it does on iOS. It all feels like the developers perhaps need to spend a bit more time to work out what is the best way to layout the pages. On an iPhone, given the constraints of the small screen size, all the components (illustrations, text, map and vocalisations) are put on separate buttons and viewed independently, which works best of all.
As well as the text being a little small on iPad, the iOS version also suffers from some rather cramped illustrations. The drawings from the print guide often include different sexes and ages in a composite, and these have simply been separated for the interactive versions. However, on Android more thought seems to have been put in to the amount of white space left around the various individual illustrations, whereas on iOS they have sometimes been rearranged very close together. The drawings would also benefit from some annotation, especially when they are separated from the text, but a consistent drawback of apps which have been taken from an original print version is that the developers simply take the content as it was originally presented and do not interpret it differently for an interactive format.
The RSPB eGuide app is one of the few bird guides currently available for Android users.
Android: Versions 2.1 and above.
Size: Initial download 1.7MB, additional 181MB required to complete installation.
Available on Google Play priced £4.99
Apple iOS: iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch running iOS 6.1 or above.
Size: 240 MB
Available from the App Store, priced £4.99
Aside from the ability to search, the audio clips are perhaps the most useful additional feature. They are generally clear and for many species include both song and call. The omissions are mostly logical (eg Velvet Scoter), but some are slightly less so – there are no calls for Golden Pheasant, for example, and song and calls listed for Black-throated Diver but nothing for Red-throated. In some instances the vocalisations could benefit from a clearer description – some are listed simply as ‘voice’.
The comparison function is also a nice addition. Tapping on the ‘compare’ option allows the selection of two species side by side, and by sweeping up on either side of the screen scrolls the respective species through the various illustrations, allowing the user to bring up corresponding plumages for the two. The iPad version scrolls through illustrations, map, vocalisations and text for the two species, whereas the Android version only scrolls the picture and the map is fixed at the bottom – this works less well, as the map is too big. The songs and calls can also be played alongside or even at the same time, though the way this is done through the vocalisation button on Android makes it less clear what is playing than on iOS. On the small screen of an iPhone the illustrations are too cramped to make the ‘compare’ feature very useful. Again, it would be significantly better in all versions if the illustrations had annotations.
If there is one criticism which can be levelled at many (if not most) of the bird apps which are currently being released, it is that they try to cram in too many additional features and do not focus on doing the core function as well as possible. The RSPB eGuide is exactly the same, in that it includes a ‘My List’ function. This allows the user to add species to a personal list, with notes on where the bird was seen and when. However, the function is fairly rudimentary and would rapidly become clogged with records if used frequently. While possibly of interest to a beginner in compiling a basic list, it is likely that most would rapidly outgrow it as their hobby developed.
Like so many other apps, the RSPB eGuide feels like it could do with a bit more development work to iron out those annoying niggles and to ensure it has a consistent presentation across different formats and operating systems. It also has an annoying tendency to close unexpectedly and unannounced at times. However, despite that it has a generally nice look-and-feel and is easy to use. All-in-all, it is a competent migration of the traditional print guide to a digital format with some nice interactive features.
For Android users, this app is arguably worth getting for the audio clips alone, given the lack of other similar content, at least until the Collins Bird Guide app is finally released for this this platform. At £4.99, compared to £12.99 for the Collins even before investing in the additional content (on iOS - presumably the eventual Android price will be the same), it is competitively and appropriately priced.
Otherwise, the RSPB eGuide is best suited to a different audience, compared to the likes of the Collins app. Where it really comes into its own is for beginners or those still learning their way round the more regular British Birds, and with less interest in species inhabiting the extremes of the Western Palearctic or the more occasional rarities. For those users it can be recommended as a valuable addition to their smartphone or tablet.
Marcus Nash
06 January 2014
