H.J. Ruiz – Avian101

First, I am delighted to announce that Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle, co-authors of The Warbler Guide, are collaborating with the ABA and NYC Audubon on a race to see and photograph as many bird species as possible 24 hours. We are, by now, familiar with the concept of a “Big Day,” where teams race to see and hear as many birds as possible in a single day, but these teams are made up of elite birders and many of the “sightings” are actually made by ear. The Photo Big Day is an attempt to level the playing the field by reducing the reliance on ear-birding and limiting species counts to actual photo-documented sightings. Tom and Scott will be part of Team Warbler and their inaugural Photo Big Day will be held on April 22 in Southeastern Texas. You can read more about the Photo Big Day, join the fun, or support a team at this site: http://www.photobigday.org/

Second, a while back we solicited opinions on a birding app that will identify birds by song with greater than 90% accuracy. Thanks to the feedback from that survey we now have a terrific name and logo for the app that captures the magic of this awesome new technology.  BirdGenie™ will be available later this spring (exact date tba) and I am excited to share the new logo with you. You can read more about this pair of apps (Backyard Birds East, Backyard Birds West) at the following links:

East: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10411.html

West: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10412.html

The apps will be available on supported Apple® or Android® smartphones or tablets and will contain approximately 60 species for each region. Essentially, users will record bird songs with their built-in microphone, the app works its Shazam®-like magic and provides you with the closest match or a list of suggested matches. These recordings can be stored in the app and your findings can be shared directly from BirdGenie. The app is self-contained so once it is downloaded, you don’t need internet connectivity to use the app in the field. Our goal is to put easy bird identification in the hand of everyone in North America and introduce the excitement of bird watching to a larger segment of the population much like popular SkyView or Star Chart apps have created a new audience for astronomy.

Best,

Jessica

Jessica Pellien

Assistant Director of Publicity

Princeton University Press

BirdGenie™