regardingjohn

Mobile Birding App and Geologger 

Let’s call this idea “BirdApp” and make it for the iPhone (or any location-aware handheld computer with internet access).

[Update: Apparently I didn't get this posted soon enough. There's already an iPhone bird guide App called iBird (of course). It doesn't include my Shazam-like idea to help identify birds by their song, but it does include wiki-pages for birds, and info uploaded to ebird.com.]

Identify Birds

BirdApp users would be able to use their iPhone or mobile device to identify birds,

• By Location: BirdApp matches the user’s GPS coordinates to return a list of ‘likely’ birds, so the user doesn’t have to wade through descriptions of birds that only live on the other side of the world. In other words, penguins won’t be on the default list of birds near Boston. However, because many birds are migratory the list is adjustable, so users have the option of including more exotic birds.
• By Song: Hear a birdsong, but can’t identify it? Whistle or hum it into the iPhone microphone and BirdApp will check it against an online database (similar to Shazam). BirdApp returns a list of possible bird matches sorted by likelihood (number of sightings in geographical area, similarity to tone, etc.)

BirdApp returns a list of potential matches with thumbnail image, short description, and likely locations. Clicking on an image brings up multiple images (from Google images?), a song sound file to match the birdsong, more detailed descriptions of the birds, details to look for, number of that species’ sightings in the area (Google map with markers) etc. 

Log Bird Sightings

Once the bird is identified, BirdApp users can log their sightings. The GPS coordinates, time, and date are automatically logged. The user can manually enter the number of birds. This information then appears on the map.

Contribute to Community

Logged information is uploaded to the online database. Based on the uploaded information, related information is displayed (other birds to look for — mates, offspring, prey, predators, etc.). The logged data is incorporated into the database (according to best practices/protocol for such databases). In this way, users directly contribute to the birding community, the local community, and the scientific community.