Identify 500 birds with new Birdsnap app

[Martin Wolf]

Cobirders,

Technology gets more & more useful--or scary? I don't have an iPhone, but those who do, have a free opportunity to see how good or bad this latest iteration may be... Take a picture of your bird sighting with your phone and get an ID! Getting the pic with an iPhone may be the hardest part, tho I guess some do that thru a scope... Will we be flooded with false IDs? Or will this end all ID-debates? They're working on incorporating vocalizations into a future version--and talking about incorporating the whole app into smart-binocs. Who needs a brain?

http://earthsky.org/earth/identify-500-birds-with-new-birdsnap-app?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=859a669f59-EarthSky_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-859a669f59-393692797

Marty Wolf,
NW CO Spgs

[Jackson]

I gave this a try today on my iPhone with much excitement!  Being a birder, a photographer and a computer scientist, this app is a pretty good amalgamation of the things I most interested in!

I had some scope shots of a female House Finch and a male Black-headed Grosbeak on my feeder that were fairly clear and large in the frame.  Every single shot of the house finch resulted in an ID of either Mourning Dove or Eurasian-collared Dove.  The Black-headed Grosbeak was IDed as a Henslow's Sparrow.  Those were the only two I had to try so I'll have to give it more of a chance as I get more scope shots, but so far it's batting a big fat 0.  Cool idea though - I hope it does better on my next tests, and they improve its algorithms as well!

Jackson Trappett
Grand Junction