Collins Bird Guide

Easy to use, but difficult to get a good result. If, like me, you're new to birding, this will be a frustrating app. My main gripe is the scattergun approach to searches, especially bird size. I input Tiny and get birds of almost every size in a huge list! I think it would also help beginners a lot if there were example images of bars, masks, barred, striped, etc. when searching, as I have no clue what these mean.

Fantastic app, just like the book only you can zoom in closer, super sharp text, sounds and very easy to use. Obviously a lot of work has gone into this. BUT, im still waiting for a slider on the side to speed up scrolling through the long list of species and also a filter in the settings to be able to view birds only seen in Britain. But, it doesn't seem like they read these reviews. I would've got the videos but a bit pricey. This app now lays the benchmark as one of the best bird guide apps.

More convenient than the book but far from intuitive to use. Good, clear illustrations and the list function is handy. The Compare function could be really good but it's all to easy to tap into a species and back again, and then end up having to re-input the comparison species all over again. The app would benefit from further user testing and a feedback option - especially as it's quite costly to download.

I wish for the possibility to arrange "my list" alphabetically or/and by type. Also to be able to see my notes fully, not just the editor with the beginning of the first line. The settings seems to be just an afterthought, not many options there. Apart from that, I like the app and have used it a lot since i got it a few months ago.

A good app for quick reference, if you know the categories. The information is good, but the distribution information is weaker than I expected it to be. I have one major problem with the app: The scientific names, located beneath the common name, are almost completely covered by the image plates, which means that they are unreadable.

Very good texts and drawings. The groupings are very handy and useful (though the order sometimes eludes me, see eg. pied stonechat). Sounds are very nice to have. Seriously missing 2 features: 1) flipping to next species, without having to go back to the list 2) exporting the list. This list feature is now useless. Version: 1.2.3 Android 8.1.0 Samsung galaxy tab a (2016)

I have been using this app for several years professionally and find it to be an essential bit of kit. The app can be slow and clunky to search through birds however I think that is an issue with my phones processing power rather than an issue with the app. To get round this, there is an excellent 'My Lists' app which can be used to group sub folders of birds to easily compare and contrast.

Excellent app for European species, better than any website or other app I've tried, very user friendly. Identification options are fantastic. Would have given 5* however in the personal bird lists you are unable to see the bird info/info page, only edit your sighting. Would be much more useable if you could go to your personal list and be able to look at the full information of each species you have sighted.

Have had the book for many years. Bought the app 2 years ago. It has good information on the birds but it's very expensive considering the crappy features in it. Forget deciding which language you want the information on, like you can do on most other apps, this app does not allow you to set the language you want it on. You can create your own watch lists in the app. I had very long and structured lists. You can export the list but you can't import it back, how messed up is that?

Brilliant App. Downside the videos aren't included and are too expensive. But overall a great app and so more useful than a book in the the field. Enjoy watching the videos at home. However , would be great if these had an option to lengthen the videos. Overall a great app from this developer , downside too expensive for additional content. Looking out for more apps from this developer.

I've just started identifying the birds around me and this app is helping massively, especially with identifying bird calls. My only gripe is that the my list function doesn't seem to have a view mode, it's all editing. Sometimes I want to go to my list and just view the details of each bird

I love the app and I use it constantly. The paper version stays now home most of the time. I would love it even more if I could add personal comments to each bird and mark that i have seen it. Plus, once the bird is in a "list" it would be nice to click on the bird in the list to see the info. E.g. If i show a list from a good birding day to a friend and I want to brag about all the cool sightings. I would love to click on the bird and retrieve the info. Anyway, thank you for this great app!

Good guide for use in the field. However, use this on tablet/mobile phone and it would be more practical if the search bar was at the bottom of the screen but would need to be above the keyboard.

Good app. Best part for me is the bird songs AND calls for each bird. The app would be greatly improved by being able to refine down to countries and regions. For example, if trying to identify a Warbler when in Wales during March do we really need to know about a bird then normally only seen in the Mediterranean? Finally, I'm annoyed at being asked for another £25+ for the video clips and bird map. After buying the book and the app why should we have to pay so much more for the videos?

Excellent app for birdwatching, saves carrying the paper guide. The one thing I would add, for convenience, would be a year list. As you add your Sightings to 'My list' there could be a tick box to add it to your year list. Just an idea!

I have this app on my Android phone and Chromebook. For some inexplicable reason it's just stopped working on my Chromebook. Any attempt to search for a bird just sees the app repeatedly closing. It used to work perfectly, I've changed nothing, now it's useless. Very disappointed. Hoping someone at Collins can help.

Comprehensive info on European birds, as in the book. So far feels pretty nice to use. I reduced two stars for lacking the Finnish translation of the app, even though the book is translated. Even if I can read several of the other included languages, the information written in the said language is localised to the same country. Thus, no accurate information about birds in Finland, just the names of the birds.

App started off ok and would have warranted 5 stars but will no longer open. Keeps giving an error message relating to an expansion pack and asks to uninstall and reinstall and try again. Must have done that 30 times. Support have been of no help at all and have given up replying to my messages. A complete waste of money. Time to ask for a refund. Updated 14 December 2019 The latest update to v1.4.22 appears to have solved the expansion pack issue. Being told about it would have been helpful.

This is simply a superb app. My only wish is that you could search in multiple languages without needing to change the app language. I often try to look up birds in Finnish and English, sometimes Swedish, and need to change the language in Settings each time.

Absolutely brilliant. I no longer carry a field guide when out, everything I need for identification is on this app. Plummage details, comparison between similar species, bird calls/song, it's all here. As good as the book (and the book is top notch) but much lighter.

This app needs modified to be able to back up sightings data to the cloud. The sightings feature is useless without this option because a use may have a lot of sightings data. A decent reference tool though although I would like to see photos in addition to the illustrations.

Very useful app when it works. Uninstalled and reloaded at least 3 times. Images take up too much phone memory, tried loading to sd card and app crashes. Currently reloading again due to update crashing out. 14.30 New App downloaded 3 times, additional files causing problems, 5 mins to download. Then nothing, no icon, no install, nothing. Emailed developer. Finally, 4th attempt to download and i get the icon.

You cannot back up your records which are lost if you change your phone or reinstall, so this feature is pretty useless. Otherwise can't fault it. We need to be able either backup or save to cloud.

spent two weeks using the app and made a list of all birds seen on holiday in Italy. suddenly the list has disappeared and there seems no way of restoring it. Disappointing for an otherwise great app.

The app is a great way to take the book out on your phone. The pictures and descriptions are very good. Why not 5 stars? While you can create lists of sightings but they are not searchable or flexible. I'd love to be able to tick off birds that I have seen.