Princeton University Press's video: Wonder - BirdGenie : ID Birds by Song App by Princeton University Press

Software written by Tom Stephenson, Stephen Travis Pope and Scott Whittle BirdGenie™ is a breakthrough app that helps anyone with an Apple® or Android® smartphone or tablet accurately identify birds in the backyard, local park, or on the nature trail—all with the tap of a button! It’s like Shazam® for birds—just hold up your phone, record the bird singing, and BirdGenie™ helps you identify the species. The app’s highly developed sound identification ability and expert matching system enable bird enthusiasts to achieve an accuracy unheard of in the birding field. It’s perfect for anyone who wants to learn more about the birds around them. BirdGenie™ includes up to two hundred vocalization types for one hundred species: literally all of the birds likely to be encountered in a backyard or local park, or on a hike, in North America at any time of the year. And the app is easy to use. Just point your smartphone or tablet at a bird, and tap the screen when the bird starts singing. The app’s automatic pre-record feature ensures that you won’t miss the beginning of the song and BirdGenie’s™ patented, highly accurate expert system matches the recording to the closest species. The app’s sophisticated noise-reduction feature means that even in noisy environments, where there is conversation or traffic, you can discover what bird you’re listening to. Beyond specifying a bird species, BirdGenie™ provides sample songs and spectrograms to compare with your own recording and to guarantee a confident match. The app also includes pictures of all plumages, information about habitat and behavior, and links to further reading. It even has 3-D models for some of the species so you can match different views of a bird. You can share your recordings, photos, and matches with friends and other users, and if you’re so inclined, you can anonymously share recordings to a scientific database to help researchers learn about birdsong variations. No internet connection is required for anything but sharing, making the program accessible everywhere. Perfect for anyone who wants to know what birds are singing around them, BirdGenie™ takes bird identification to a whole new awesome level. With BirdGenie™ you can: - Quickly identify most birds just by recording their songs - Look at vivid images of the bird—some in 3-D! - Listen to samples of the bird’s various songs and compare them with your recording - Keep a log of all your recordings - Share your recordings, matches, and photos with friends and family - Browse the built-in catalog to learn about local species, their other songs, their habits and diet, and much more - Use the app anywhere, as no internet connection is required! Important features of BirdGenie™: - The matching expert system beats anything in the market today - Easy-to-use guided user interface - Effective noise-reduction system helps users make identifications in less-than-ideal environments - Complete species accounts with multiple photos for all plumage types (some with 3-D models) - Comprehensive spectrograms (voiceprints of songs) Technical Specifications: - Requires iOS 10 or later. Compatible with all iPhones after iPhone 6 including 7, 8, X and iPad, iPad Mini, and iPod Touch. - Requires Android 5.0 and above. Compatible with most common Android phones and tablets. - Shazam® is the registered trademark of Shazam Entertainment Limited and is not affiliated with Princeton University Press in any way. BirdGenie™ is a trademark of Princeton University Press.