5 best bird listing software to fuel your passion

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by Milan Stanojevic 

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Key notes

  • Having birds grouped by species or whether you have seen them in a year or on a specific continent is one of the most exciting things for birders
  • Our top list presents the best software for bird listing currently available
  • Audio recording software helps you keep track of bird sounds
  • Check our Family and Lifestyle Hub for more top lists and reviews
Most birders like to keep lists, or world life lists, of all bird species they’ve come across or seen wherever they go. Some even keep bird listing of their own home countries, with separate ones for each country they visited. There are also birders who keep year lists of bird species they saw in any one year, while others indulge in bizarre ways of bird listing, probably as a way of competing with other birders, but it is still a form of collecting. One of the most exciting parts of a birder’s life or an aspiring birder, is starting their own life list, and finding out how many birds they know or are familiar with. However, knowing which birds to add, what counts for the list, and what doesn’t, as well as prerequisites for a bird to be added to a list is important to consider. Bird listing is a record of the bird species identified by an individual birder, and keeping one is the easiest way to track the birds sighted. But to do this, you need to ensure that you properly and positively identify the bird, observe birding ethics, ensure the birds must be alive and observed in the wild, ensure the bird is free and not in rehabilitation, and that it has an established viable breeding population of several generations at the least. Keeping a comprehensive and cumulative list of birds can be tedious if using Excel spreadsheets, but listed below are the best bird listing sSoftware that will help you organize yours better.

Best bird listing tools for your PC

eBird

This bird listing software lets you find more birds, keep track of your own bird lists, photos and sounds, explore the most recent sightings from all over the world, and contribute to science and conservation.

It started by the idea that every birder has special knowledge and experience, so the goal is to collect the information in form of bird checklists, archive and share it to contribute to and power science and conservation, as well as education, while making birding rewarding.

Birders can see lists, photos, real-time maps of how bird species are distributed, audio recordings, and alerts that inform birders when species have been sighted, with the most current and useful information to the community.

It is the largest bio-diversity related citizen science project, with more than 100 million sightings added annually by birders worldwide. It also partners with organizations, regional experts and thousands of birders.

Among the things you can do with this bird listing software include:

  • Document bird distribution, abundance, habitat use and trends via checklist data
  • Enter when/where/how you went birding
  • Fill a checklist of the birds sighted
  • Use the mobile app for offline data collection in any location in the world
  • Explore and summarize your data and other observations
  • View a list of likely birds for your region and date
  • Explore birds and hotspots near you and where you go based on global sightings
  • Engage with other birders in the world’s largest birding community
  • Archive your bird lists free of charge

Get eBird

Bird Journal

With this bird listing software, you can record experiences for birds smoothly on an intuitive interface, which is available on all devices you use, including those with Windows operating system.

Among the tasks you can fulfil with Bird Journal for bird listing include:

  • Recording bird observations, photos, habitats with the software’s library that has hundreds of checklists and taxonomies of over 100,000 species and subspecies all over the globe
  • Explore your data with reports, lists, graphs, maps and photos
  • Search instantly by date, species or location among other variables
  • Share records by exporting or printing them, as well as your species lists to be used anywhere
  • Support for eBird and BirdTrack systems to contribute to science and conservation
  • Access and enter your bird list records from all devices you use
  • Safely and securely store your data
  • Bring your data by quickly importing your existing ones from any other app or system, like directly from eBird, BirdTrack and Wildlife Recorder

Get Bird Journal

Thayer

This is much more than a field guide, but one of the best bird listing software that is easy to use, with clear instructions for installing and extensive help that shows you how to use it with guides from YouTube videos, help manual, FAQs, newsletter to keep you updated, and a Facebook page for its users.

With Thayer, you can do the following:

  • Compare any birds side by side
  • Learn birds and their songs
  • Use the 700 quizzes included or create your own
  • Use the Sightings feature to track your bird sightings
  • Print life lists
  • Use Identification Wizard to identify mystery birds sighted and learn the parts of the bird for easy identification
  • Use Filter to see birds in a specific area like your own home region
  • Display a bird’s name in 10 ways and 4 different languages
  • Use The Birder’s Handbook to learn more on bird listing and become a local expert
  • Use detailed range maps beside individual bird descriptions

Thayer bird listing software can be used by anyone interested in bird watching from yourself, to your family, friends, and other birdwatching groups or clubs – anyone interested in birds.

Get Thayer

Scythebill

If you want a lifetime of birding data freely available, then this is the best bird listing software to use.

Scythebill lets you access a lifetime of sightings anywhere in the world, plus it is easy to use, lets you enter data fast, import from other areas like eBird, BirdBase and Avisys among others, with hundreds of built-in country and state checklists.

It is a desktop app for birders who can track their life lists and birding records, plus it is free of charge, powerful with loads of features, cross-platform, open source so anyone can contribute to its development, with extended taxonomies for tracking butterflies, mammals, reptiles and other wildlife.

Other features that make it powerful for bird listing include:

  • A full eBird/Clements checklist with subspecies and groups
  • IOC World Bird list support
  • Subspecies and names in 20 languages
  • You can flip between taxonomies fast, not just one
  • Fast entry of species with more than 7000 alternate names
  • Fast reports and instant processing of thousands of records
  • Hundreds of checklists in nearly all world countries
  • Built-in geocoding to find latitude and longitude details around the world for you

Get Scythebill

Birder’s Diary

This bird listing software lets you maintain detailed records of your bird sightings by capturing unlimited data about each, and reporting it in various ways.

With Birder’s diary, you can print checklists, maintain list counts automatically for any region in the world, recall and report on trends, and enjoy the extended taxonomies feature.

Having been on the scene since 1995, this tool provides the world’s birding community with the latest in software technology, products and services, plus you can try it for free before paying to use the service, as it is available for immediate download in one click, and for one month.

Some of its great features include:

  • All the data needed at your fingertips including latest photos, outings, checklists, charts and graphs etc
  • Import/export from other sources such as eBird and mobile apps
  • Best customer support in the world
  • SmartSearch keyboard entry, Voice recognition, and simple checklist entry
  • Easy attaching of unlimited number of any types of files with a photo viewer to see your photos and files
  • Define unlimited data fields such as numerical, date, time, lists etc. to record any data you want for each sighting
  • Predefined political and standard geographical entities
  • Flexible report builder
  • Support for multi-lingual bird names
  • Modern software app for conversion from other listing software programs, and much more

This is perhaps one of the most comprehensive bird listing software you can use, and you can test run it for one month using the free trial.

Get Birder’s Diary

Got a favorite bird listing software you use? Share with us yours, and how it works for you by leaving a comment section below.

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More about the topics: software for windows 10

Milan Stanojevic

Milan Stanojevic Shield

Windows Toubleshooting Expert

Milan has been enthusiastic about technology ever since his childhood days, and this led him to take interest in all PC-related technologies. He's a PC enthusiast and he spends most of his time learning about computers and technology. Before joining WindowsReport, he worked as a front-end web developer. Now, he's one of the Troubleshooting experts in our worldwide team, specializing in Windows errors & software issues.