50 Ducks

This app is incredibly disappointing. The bugs shutdown the app if you forward through a timeline too fast. There are only a handful of ducks actually giving off “live” data and as far as I can tell, that just means birds that were active this year—in numerous cases, they haven’t pinged since May or August. Obviously should be removed from the live dataset. Furthermore, raptors are a significant portion of the 1,350 birds they advertise… so either rename the app or make it actually waterfowl centric. It was cool for about 15 minutes, until I realized all these things. There’s huge potential in this if a real effort is made to co-sponsor satellite information with wintering birds, ones that would cover a significantly variable portion of the flyways. Jack Miner hosts birds local to the Great Lakes region and very few waterfowl enthusiasts could give a rip about that. To summarize, this app is nowhere near worth a 9.99/month subscription.

I’ve really been enjoying a lot of the historical moments. On the live/ active birds you can’t zoom in enough to click on new data points if they are close to each other. Leaves a bit to be desired as you click repeatedly trying to hit the pin you are hoping for. Overall it’s a great program and mission but would like to dive deeper into the data and zoom in more.

As a wildlife enthusiast, I came for the tracking data but stayed for the interactive platform. This app really makes bird tracking mobile and fun!