Exsiccatae

Photograph or listen for a bird and Exsiccatae names it on your phone, then presses it onto the page like a specimen, filling with watercolour the more you see it.

Exsiccatae is a field journal that paints itself in.

Photograph a bird, or listen for its song, and Exsiccatae names it entirely on your iPhone, then mounts it on the page like a pressed herbarium specimen. See a species once and it's a faint graphite ghost; see it again and again and it fills with hand-painted watercolour. Your life list becomes a living collection.

IDENTIFY, ON YOUR DEVICE • Photo identification runs on-device. Nothing is uploaded, and it works offline. • A continuous listening session identifies birdsong from the microphone in real time, on-device, and the birds you hear settle onto the page as you listen. • Not sure? Pick the closest match, or search by name. The app is always usable.

A JOURNAL THAT REWARDS RETURN • First sighting: a pencil underdrawing. By the fourth: a full watercolour plate. • A living collage grows with your collection. Pinch to lean in over the sheet. • "Expected nearby" shows the species recorded around you as ghost plates waiting to be found.

REAL FIELD METHOD • Start a timed, located outing (Stationary, Traveling, or Incidental) matching eBird's protocols, with optional GPS distance for traveling counts. • Correct a finding's count, date, or notes; add your own photos and recordings.

DONATE YOUR DATA TO SCIENCE • Export any outing in eBird Record Format and upload it yourself to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's eBird, the same dataset that trains birdsong models. Exsiccatae never submits for you; you always review and choose.

YOURS, LOCAL-FIRST • No account. No cloud copy. Your photos, locations, recordings, life list, and journal live on your phone. Sharing a sighting or exporting an outing is always your explicit choice.

Exsiccatae is a free portfolio project, built solo end to end. "Exsiccata" is a bound collection of dried, labelled specimens: a herbarium of everything you've seen.