JP48

OK, thanks. I just hadn't heard anything quite like it before, nor had a few other experienced local birders.

Has anyone ever heard a Wood Thrush making this vocalization? At about 11-12 seconds in. Recorded last week in Vermont, a little south of Burlington. It was doing the same thing when we were there this morning. thrush.wav

I'm not aware of any way to expand the 'similar' list on iBird Pro. I just spent a few minutes poking around in the app and any documentation I could find, and didn't see any reference to anything like that. I doubt it exists.

You can enter it. Somewhere there's a 'Show Rarities' box to click in the right-hand column. Because it's eBird this will open you up to a bit of bother, as it needs to get through the local reviewer. I know the reviewer for Addison and Chittenden counties, but I don't know who does it in other counties (probably know them too, just not who they are). They may or may not approve the sighting (photos or a recording helps), but it will stay on your personal list regardless, just won't show where others can see it (Isuspect not a big deal for you).

I'm interested to know something about iBird Journal, and how you use it. I just spent a few minutes reading a little about it. I suspect most people use eBird for the functions you're looking for. I didn't see anything in my research that looked like more than what we all get from eBird.

To me it is more of an attempt to define the birds within a particular region, sometimes with an attempt to narrow the field with a specific trait. Here in Vermont we have the Vermont Breeding Bird Atlas. Nice book, if you're into that sort of thing. This link gives some examples. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=bird+atlas&t=newext&atb=v255-1&iax=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn2.penguin.com.au%2Fcovers%2Foriginal%2F9780241412794.jpg&ia=images

Having been in the business of software creation and maintenance, I can see where there is a growing likelihood that changes to one program might require maintenance to another that is being linked. Might never happen, but eventually it probably would. Removing the link keeps them from having to worry about that.

If you look at the Update History for iBird, it states that they removed the link to iBird Journal in version 12.6.2. It doesn't say why the change was made, but to me it sounds as though this is a permanent change.

When you click on the 'Countries' tab, what do you see? Have you done something with 'Search' that would limit the selections?

Am I the only one here that likes iBird?

Charlie, I'm older than you (barely young enough to be called Boomer), and if I'm remembering correctly, spent my career in a similar profession. In general, I agree with what you've said here. E-guides are not ready to replace paper guides. I have several (one for the car, one for the truck, one for the coffee table, and several other books and guides, including Crossley. However, there are things that iBird does for me that my paper guides don't or can't. For instance: I can change the presentation from a sort of first or last name, or to family (either alphabetic or taxonomic

When I first started using this site shortly after it was re-incarnated, it was primarily a bird identification site, plus people posting in the photo section (this was nice, because it doubled as a learning experience for me). I tried to read every post. As it shifted toward social networking I started being selective, and now read primarily the bird ID questions and being choosy about the rest. It's really a matter of what is interesting to me personally, and frankly much of the content here does not interest me. I hope there's no arrogance to that. And I wish everyone could have my

I know a lot of people here disagree with the idea that electronic field guides are a good idea. I happen to think that they are better in many ways, partly for the reasons listed above. In fact, iBird is my go-to field guide.. Some things that I think could make them better. Species comparisons including females would be helpful. Also, as mentioned above, expanded similar sounding species would be nice.

I have that Peterson Guide, by Rick Wright. It is very good, in a different way than the Warbler Guide. It describes each sparrow species in detail, including sub-species, and goes into a lot of information about the naming history for each one. Good to read, if you're that patient, and good for a reference.

Maybe a song sparrow.