Visit the geography of Spain, Portugal and its islands. Through the challenges, you will find lists of birds from the most interesting places. You can start with simple challenges or dive into the most complicated

Source: Android description (translated) / Image: Francisco Montero CC BY-ND 2.0

Useful information

Download: Android 4.1 (12.53MB)

Price: free / pro (€1.99)

Language: English / Spanish / Portuguese

Runs offline: yes (an initial connection is required to download the images, but then these are stored as cached data)

Last update: Android 11/11/2016 (v. 1.0)

Website of the developer: Birds Check (Twitter account)

Description

This application allows birdwatchers to record the species they observe, hear or photograph during their routes through the city or the countryside. It also proposes a series of challenges linked to natural spaces or urban zones where the user must be able to identify the species associated with each area. The progressive identification of the birds will allow you to climb positions in the ranking and reach new accomplishments.

Birds Check offers a fully functional free version (used for this analysis), but also has available a payment version that eliminates the ads and unlocks all the challenges. To operate with the payment version it is necessary to install first the free version.

The application presents the following options accessible from the drop-down menu in the upper left:

  • Complete list, which shows the most characteristic species and the endemisms of Spain, Portugal and their respective archipelagos. In this section you can indicate what birds you have seen, heard or photographed activating or deactivating the small icons at the foot of each species. Each of the birds has a basic data sheet with its main characteristics. The number of species makes reference to the marks of verification that are being indicated, which allows to advance through the different levels.
  • Lists, section in which you can create your own lists by entering the location data, date and time of your observation routes, as well as different characteristics of the different areas (habitat, meteorology, temperature, etc.).
  • Challenges, where, organized in different categories, you can find enclaves or types of habitat in relation to which it is proposed the identification of its species of birds more characteristic or endemic.
  • Accomplishments, section where the different species appear grouped and where the different observations and identifications become badges. In the group of swans, for example, 4 species are included: black swan, mute swan, tundra swan and whooper swan. When you mark the four birds as observed or identified, you get the badge with the green check corresponding to the swans.
  • Ranking, section that, linked to your Gmail account, allows you to compare your number of observations with those of other birdwatchers.
  • Clues, where you can consult the help of the application, including tips on behavior during wildlife observations or how to level up.
  • Settings, from where you can unlink your Google account (disabling, therefore, the Ranking section) or export the lists that you create to csv format.

It is also worth mentioning that the lists of species can be visualized by family, common name or scientific name, also having a search engine in the upper right.

More information

¿Por qué buscar Pokemon cuando puedes buscar aves? Birds Check, la nueva App de aves (in Spanish)

Promotional video of Birds Check (1 min 59 sec)

Images: Screenshots 10/01/2017. © Birds Check

Rating
4

Analysis

Birdwatching, an activity in which the applications are quite effective, has more and more adepts, and, for some areas, it may mean a tourism resource that generates wealth for the local population and promotes sustainability, as is the case, for example, of the region of Extremadura.

Birds Check, therefore, becomes an interesting tool so that fans of ornithology can record the different observations that they make during their excursions, projects of citizen science or bioblitz. It keeps a certain similarity with other applications already analyzed in this web such as NaturaList or even, Natusfera, although Birds Check introduces as a novelty the option to accumulate accomplishments and compare your number of observations with those of other users of the application, including in this way a mechanism own of gamification. No obstante y teniendo en cuenta que la app no incluye archivos de audio o galerías de imágenes, puede resultar necesario emplear otras herramientas de identificación tales como la Guide of Birds of Spain by SEO BirdLife or Ornidroid. Likewise, it would be interesting to include an option to note down the number of viewed specimens, even in a grouped form (1-5 specimens, 6-10 specimens, etc.), as well as a more detailed explanation of the accomplishments, identifying on each data sheet whether it is an endemic species or not.

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User Review
5 (1 vote)
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Técnico de medio ambiente, community manager y content curator especializada en temas de medioambiente - Environmental technician, community manager and content curator specialised in environmental issues