Waite's Guide to Birds of America for iPad app review: a field guide to bird watching

Waite's Guide to Birds of America by Mitch Waite Group is a reference app for those who love bird watching. You'll want to act quickly on this one as it's available for free for a limited time only.

Introduction

Waite's Guide to Birds of America by Mitch Waite Group is a reference app for those who love bird watching. You'll want to act quickly on this one as it's available for free for a limited time only. This app was designed specifically to use with the iPad and is meant to act as a field guide and is from the creators of iBird, which happens to be one of the most popular field guides for the iPhone. This app was released on June 21, 2013 and is available in English.

The best iPhone and iPad apps for bird watching

User Experience

With so many apps out there it's sometimes hard to create one that manages to stand out. Where this one differs is that it was created for the iPad so that it can take advantage of the large screen and the Retina display. It even makes full use of the processing power the 4th generation offers.

Best iphone and ipad apps

Features

Features of this app include being able to use it in portrait or landscape mode, HD high resolution images, and a Smart Search Engine. The search engine actually uses patented Smart Attribute and Value Elimination as its algorithm. This provides the user with accurate and fast bird identification. The HD photos feature a graphic icon which you can then zoom in on to see the details.

There are topographic maps that show specific feather groups, a Field Mark layer that you can either turn off or on, and a slideshow. Go ahead and import your photos and put them in a specific species account using the My Photo area. There are six view modes, a Help Me Identify a Bird Forum, backup support, and it's compatible with iBird Journal.

It should be noted that the free version offers 50 unlocked species. If you upgrade to the pro version you'll be given 919 species.

In-App Purchases

The full version of the app is available for $24.99 giving you access to the information for all the species.

Update Info

Because this is a new release there are no updates at this time.

Customer Ratings and Feedback Comments

There are no customer ratings or comments at the time of publishing.

Personal Comments by Reviewer

I really liked that this app was able to capture a different market/user by appealing specifically to the iPad user. As the developer said there are so many apps for the iPhone/iPod but not much in terms of being built specifically for the iPad. Information was quick to look up and find, the photos were stunning, and I liked that you could add notes, your own photos, and mark favorites. If you’re serious about bird watching the upgrade to the full version seems like a good option but that doesn’t come cheap.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Provides you with accurate and fast details on 50 species of birds
• Was built specifically for the iPad
• Offers a search function to quickly find species
• Plenty of stunning looking HD photos

Cons

• The lite version only offers information on 50 species, to unlock the other 869 you will need to upgrade to the full version
• This is only available for the iPad
   

For: iPad with iOS 5.1 or later