Chirp! Bird Songs & Calls USA

It’s a great concept but frustrating in practice. I was mostly looking for for a way to learn the birdsongs of the rich bird life in my area. While there is an option to make a selection for a slideshow to include your own regularly seen birds, there is no way to save this selection as a list, despite there being a button for “Saved lists” which remains frustratingly blank. Pre selected lists such as “Habitat” and Region miss many many local birds and include too many not found in my locale. Maryland and Delaware are not in included in regional lists for some reason. The overall list is also rather incomplete. Although they probably have to stick to more commonly found birds due to file size constraints, more than a third of birds found in my own neighborhood are not represented. If you are ok with simply learning what the app offers, then you will probably enjoy it just fine.

This app is good, but it needs some improvement in two major areas. First, it needs more birds. I downloaded the app so I could improve my birdsong ID skills. But I can’t do that when it has only four species of shorebirds, which include one species of gull, one species of sandpiper, and one species of plover, plus the American Woodcock, no species of swallows, and no species of Egrets, to name a few. Quite frustrating. On a similar note the Level 3 quiz that says it’s supposed to include 50 birds, actually only includes about 10-20. If you took the quiz several times, most of the time it would only quiz you on the same 10 birds. Again, frustrating if you’re trying to learn bird songs. This app might be good for a beginner to learn bird songs, but you will eventually get to a point where your skills and demands of the app will exceed its limitations.

I came for the quiz...it’s fun and has improved my ability to identify birds by song. But I also really like the “listen” section. Very easy to use and it has helped me figure out birds that I can hear but not see. There is another app I use that plays a greater variety of songs for each species, but it is a little harder to use, in my opinion.