Birdwatcher's Diary Manual

Birdwatcher's Diary User Manual

The Species Screen

To display the species information for a species, hold your finger down on the name of the species for a second or so until the Species Info screen appears. You will see displayed the Name, Scientific Name, Local Name, Bird-banding Code, and Notes for that species. You can edit this screen (perhaps you want to add a note about the species, or a local name in your own language).

You also may see your own photo of the species. If you don't, you can add a photo from your device's photo library by tapping the Select Photo button and choosing the photo of the species. When you come back to this screen in the future, you'll see that picture.

You can also add photos directly to your SD card. On your SD card (which may be physical or "virtual", accessed only by plugging your device into a computer), you will see a Birdwatcher's Diary folder, and in that folder you'll see a folder named Photos. Into that folder, you can put either .jpg or .png files whose name is one of three things – the "local name" of the species, the name of the species, or the 4-letter code of the species. So if you put a file named American Kestrel.jpg (spaces are ok) into that folder, when you display the species screen for American Kestrel, that picture will be displayed.

The software comes with pictures for two species — Anna's Hummingbird and Marbled Godwit – preinstalled, so you can see how this feature works. Of course you can replace these two with your own pictures if you choose.

Adding a Species

Sometimes you'll be working with a master list (perhaps for your state or county) and you'll want to tick a species which isn't on the list. Perhaps it's a first sighting for your state (!), or perhaps just something that got left off the list, or perhaps you want to record "gull sp." but "gull sp." isn't on the list. Or you may want to record a sighting of a butterfly, or a snake, or anything else, which is perfectly permissable. You can do this by selecting Add Species from the Options Menu, which will bring you to a blank Species Info screen. You can fill in all the fields, but if you just fill in the name, the software will automatically look up the remaining information when you tap Save to save the new species (as you can verify by returning to the screen for that new species later). When you tap Save and return to the main screen, you'll find the new species sorted into place as you expect, ready for you to tick.

Removing a Species

If you want to remove a species from the list, tap the Remove Species button. When you confirm that's what you really want, you'll be reminded that the removal is only temporary. To permanently remove a species from a particular list, you need to then go to the Output screen (via the Options Menu), select Master List as the Output Type, and then save the revised list.

Read the other sections of the manual: