Big Year Birding ABA

Big Year Birding offers all birders from novice to expert a fast and easy way to record sightings in the field.

Big Year Birding offers all birders from novice to expert a fast and easy way to record sightings in the field.

Whether you are doing a Big Year, local Christmas Bird Count or simply keeping track of the birds in your own backyard, Big Year Birding makes recording your sightings easy, fun and fast! You can even create eBird upload files with the simple click of a button!

You spotted a bird? Click “add sighting” and the App. immediately records the time, date and the exact location using GPS coordinates (including city, state and nation). Your bird will be displayed with a photo icon on a map and in a sighting table, sortable by date or bird. Start entering the name of the bird in the “bird search” bar and the app will pull up a list of birds.

Recent e-Bird Sightings . . . identifies species reported nearby your current location (or a user specified location). Recent sightings are reported in a table (sortable by name, location or date) and plotted on a map. Tap of a button provides turn by turn directions.

Not sure what bird you’ve seen, click the "Local Birds" Button and see what birds are historically seen in your current location (all USA counties, Canadian provinces and territories), by month. Helpful photos and sighting frequency plus links to on-line resources make identification a breeze.

Planning a vacation or have downtime on an out of town business trip, the "Local Birds" feature lets you research what is commonly seen this month, next month or any month in the future anywhere in the ABA region.

Out in the field or a vehicle? Tap the eBird Button and recent bird sightings in your vicinity. Another tap gives you directions to that recent sighting.

Identified the bird by ear? In the “comments” section, click on the “identified by ear” button and it will be noted. The same can be done with buttons for male, female, and to identify the setting as a public or private site. There is also plenty of space to enter your own comments. Tap the “count” button and scroll to quickly enter the number you have sighted.

The App works great in remote areas without internet and/or mobile connections.

Every North America bird species recognized by the American Birding Association is available in the Big Year Birding database. When you enter a bird, you will see its photo. Like your own photo better? Simply click “Your Photos” and you can add it. There are links to the Cornell and Wikipedia web sites for more information about your bird.

Chose the wrong bird? No problem, you can easily delete it before adding it to your list by choosing “cancel”. If you’ve already added it, swipe to the left and you will see an option to delete it.

You can manually enter very, very unusual North American erratics but you shouldn't have to as the app currently lists 1059 birds . . . with 126 erratics. Now that the ABA has added Hawaii in the ABA Region, we've added 76 "Hawaiian birds" to the App.

Export your sighting (or a subset) to another device with Big Year Birding installed. Ideal if you use an iPhone in the field and an iPad at home or if you're sharing lists among family and/or friends.

If you use an Apple Watch (not required):

• You can now check your Sightings (do I have an Anna's Hummingbird?)
• Check you counts (How many birds to I have this month?)
• And even add a sighting from your wrist (Your phone is in your backpack)

Big Year Birding is highly customizable. Set the app to display your sightings by date, location or bird. Choose to view all of your birds, those spotted on specific dates, by specific location or display your unique birds only. With one tap you can get your life list, your year to date list, your home state list, or review your sightings in previous years

Your sightings can be shared through text, email, social media like Facebook, and uploaded to your eBird account.

Created by birders for birders, Big Year Birding is sure to become as indispensable in the field as your pair of binoculars!