The Changing Face of Birding

Let's face it--identifying a bird's species isn't always easy. (Ever tried to distinguish between the various types of flycatchers?)

For novice bird-watchers, the struggle of identification sometimes becomes an obstacle to getting to know birds. Professional bird-watchers have the skills to make quick identifications, but the rest of us can spend hours consulting field guides and online resources, and even then, we may not confirm the species.

A new, free smart-phone app promises to make bird-identification tools more available, giving a greater number of people the chance for full engagement in birding. Birdsnap uses facial-recognition software to identify birds. All a person needs to do is take a picture of the bird in question. The app then uses the bird's physical characteristics to make the identification. For a more detailed discussion of Birdsnap, check out this article by Chelsea Harvey of Audubon Magazine.

In recent years, technology has made the avian world more accessible to us. From nestcams to Web sites like the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds, we have a growing number of opportunities to engage with and learn about birds. With its innovative technology, Birdsnap represents another important contribution to birding.

Thanks to technology, birding might look different than it did twenty years ago, but the changes have turned more bird species into familiar faces.

Finnish-ing off Cars

Maybe my love of ideas, interest in environmental issues, and dislike of cars come from my genes.

Finland has made much news lately for its environmental initiatives. Last month, it committed to a binding 80 percent reduction in carbon emissions. Now, Helsinki, its capital city, makes a move to eliminate the need for individual citizens to own cars. All those plans have left me even more proud of my Finnish heritage.

Helsinki's initiative shows what happens when people commit to the development of ideas. The city plans to capitalize on the country's innovative approach to technology as it makes its public transportation highly responsive to individual needs. According to this article from The Guardian, by 2025, Helsinki residents will have the ability to coordinate, plan, and pay for all their public transportation use with a single smart-phone app.

The vision Helsinki has for its transportation system challenges the need for private car ownership. By making the necessary changes in its infrastructure and embracing the potential of new technologies, the city will trump the convenience of the car, reducing the environmental impacts associated with transportation.

As a Finn, I'm excited about the thriving, environmentally friendly community Helsinki intends to build, but the great thing about ideas like this is that we don't need DNA to pass them on; all it takes is a blog entry and some forward thinking.

Report of the Non-native

For Washington state, the invasion of non-native species stops in cyberspace.

A new app called WA Invasives, which the Washington Invasive Species Council just released, allows the public to report sightings of invasive species. The app gives individuals the ability to send photographs of and location information for their sightings to the council.

By involving the public, the app increases the possibility of removing invasive species from the state. The Washington Invasive Species Council uses the information sent to them through the app to verify the presence of non-native species and eliminate them. Without the public's participation, many invasive species would go unaddressed.

WA Invasives runs on both iPhones and Android phones. For more information about the app, click here.

Let's help the app spread, so the invasive species won't anymore.

A Moment of Wonder

Encounters with wildlife give us a rush. We hurry to record and share them, and they fill us with an urge to learn more about nature.

In fact, the experiences we have with wildlife are so powerful, we often fail to capture and express the full impact they have on us. When it comes to recording, sharing, and learning, however, social media contain great potential, and the National Wildlife Federation has collaborated with the maker of an app called WildObs to make the most of our meetings with wildlife.

WildObs allows us to put wildlife at the center of our lives. Using the app, we can chronicle the wildlife experiences we've had. In addition, we can connect with others who love interacting with nature, and we can contribute to citizen science through the NWF's Wildlife Watch program. For more information about the app, which can be used on iPhones and Android smart phones and is also available on Flickr, click here.

Each moment of interaction with wildlife provides opportunity and inspiration to connect more with nature. To make the impacts of the moment last, we need an outlet for our experience, and WildObs offers such a tool.

WildObs may not be the beginning of a beautiful friendship with nature, but it's a great next step.

Free Bird

This birding app goes cheap, cheap!

The various digital birding apps available provide great resources for both professional birders and people who are simply trying to figure out what bird they just saw. With its latest app, known as Merlin, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has the latter group in mind.

Merlin is a free app. Drawing from the eBird database, it guides people through the identification process and makes suggestions based on factors like size and when and where the bird was seen. Watch the video below to get an idea of how it works:



Merlin doesn't include all the bird species in North America, and it is only available through Apple's App Store for now, but an Android version is coming, and Merlin looks like a great, free option for those who are getting started with bird identification. For more information, click here.

With Merlin, the next time you hear a cheep, you've got a no-cost, handy way of figuring out what made it.

Save the Whales with an App

People have a strong response to whales in distress, and now, that response has gone digital.

According to this blog entry from the National Wildlife Federation, an app has been developed to let people in the southeastern United States report whales that need help. The app, called Dolphin & Whale 911, comes from the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Dolphin & Whale 911 allows people to contact a hotline that sends responders to help the whale. The app also provides a field guide to marine mammals and lists protocols for keeping distressed whales from further harm.

With this app, one of our strongest emotions meets one of our most powerful new technologies.

By the Sound of It

Birds are calling, and smart phones are helping us receive the message.

For bird-watchers, one of the most useful skills to have is the ability to identify birds by sound, but it's not an easy thing to do. To develop this skill, people are turning to smart phone applications.

Several apps exist for training to make sound identifications, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has rated them according to ease of use, audio content, expert help, and fun. For more information, click here. Below the ratings, the lab goes on to discuss other apps that help with identification.

Think of the sound training apps as caller ID for calls from the avian area code.

A Truly Smart Phone

My cell phone is eight years old. In other words, it's from a time before smartphones were all the rage.

I don't like to buy a lot of stuff, and despite all the cool gadgets on smartphones, I have thought the smartest thing to do was stick with my old phone. After all, I really didn't need what a smartphone could give me. In addition, smartphones seem to be another piece of technology that requires, either through software or hardware updates, constant replacement.

Admittedly, smartphones do provide some benefits and can actually eliminate the need for other devices, so if they could be made to last with easy fixing and updating, they might become truly smart options.

FairPhone is a new idea that is taking steps in the right direction. Watch the video below:

Fairphone: Buy a phone, start a movement from Fairphone on Vimeo.

I like that FairPhone is working to put consumers back in control of their stuff. The company is also addressing concerns about resource use, pollution, fair trade, and the entire life of a product. Importantly, the phones are made to be opened up and fixed. For instance, an owner can easily replace the battery when it dies. For more information, visit the company's Web site.

It would be great if the company applied its approach to other devices (like computers) as well.

Hopefully, FairPhone is successful. Maybe it'll be the option I turn to when it's finally time to replace my current phone.

Growing Knowledge

Plants aren't the easiest things to know by name, but now residents of the Pacific Northwest can have the names of more than 870 regional plants in the palm of their hands.

In this news release, the Burke Museum Herbarium at the University of Washington announces a new smart phone app that people can use to identify plant species in Washington state and the surrounding area.

It is great that the app works without Internet connection and that part of the proceeds from the sale of it go to conservation.

Apps like this plant the seeds of greater knowledge of and connection with the environment.

Seek and Report

Fulfillment is doing what you love and having it make a contribution to the world.

For bird-watchers, doing what they love is pretty easy because birds usually aren't too far away. However, technology is even making it easier to find birds, and that same technology is providing birders with a chance to add to science by reporting their sightings.

BirdsEye is a bird-watching app for Android, iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. It is the work of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and is dedicated to providing birders with resources that help them do what they love. Through the lab's eBird program, which collects information about bird sightings around the world, BirdsEye allows bird-watchers to find places where birds are congregating. Birders who want to share their sightings can purchase the BirdsEye companion app, BirdLog.

For more information on these apps click here and discover the potential of using and contributing to the science of bird-watching.

Look What We Found

Technology certainly creates some challenges for the environment. It often leads to new machines and devices that use up and level nature, and spending too much time with technology can keep us from connecting with the natural world.

However, technology can also benefit the environment. In the past, I have blogged about using smart phones and Web sites to connect with and help nature.

Now, TreeHugger reports a very cool story involving technology and the environment. To summarize, a picture on Flickr led to the discovery of a new species of insect. That's really awesome.

TreeHugger talks about how the story shows the increasing value of technology in things like citizen science. (Another example is the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's eBird project making its 100 millionth observation.) I think the insect story also provides proof of the power of people connecting around environmental topics. That connection can be aided by technology.

App Reporting

One of the most disheartening experiences I have when I'm out in nature is finding a place where people have dumped their trash.

The dump sites ruin the land, break my connection with nature, and leave me feeling powerless. After all, the offenders get away, and the number of dump sites is increasing.

However, technology might be providing a way to fight back. As TreeHugger reports, a new smart phone app allows people to report illegal dump sites. If tools like this are used successfully, I think they could help cut down on dumping by providing information to law enforcement and letting dumpers know they are being watched.

I also think the app can be a tool that empowers us to "build our environment," which is an idea I blogged about last week. For those of us who enjoy the outdoors, the environment is our community, and it would be great to take it back from those who are ruining it with their trash.

This App's for the Birds

Birders who just can't wait to share their sightings now have a new app that allows them to make reports on the spot.

BirdLog, designed for both iPhone and Android, brings the citizen science of bird-watching into real time, or if your phone is not getting a reception, the app lets you store the information about your avian discoveries until you can send it.

Information sent through BirdLog goes to the Cornell Lab or Ornithology's eBird program. For more information about the app, click here.

Local Eating in the Palm of Your Hand

Eating foods that are grown and sold locally is an important part of sustainability, and the Natural Resources Defense Council is trying to make local eating easier with a new app called Eat Local, which is available for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

The app allows you to determine what foods are in season in your area, find where local farmers' markets are, and discover seasonal recipes. For more information, click here. Eat Local is another tool from the NRDC's collection of resources for Smarter Living.

Natural App-titude

I know that's a horrible pun (it even incorporates some redundancy). But oh well.

For those who are both tech lovers and nature lovers, a number of environment-related smart phone applications have popped up, and Danielle Brigida of the National Wildlife Federation has reviewed some of them.

As a group, the apps allow you to do quite a range of things, including identifying animals and plants and participating in citizen science by sharing your findings. Some of the apps are even free.

Brigida's review looks like it provides a good introduction to the various apps, so if you're interested, check it out.