Reviews for eBird by Cornell Lab

Great app, love the Cornell Lab of Ornithology! Only issue is that on Android, ebird won't import previous observation from before installing the app, or of you delete and reinstall the app. Also, I cannot share the checklist after I have submitted the checklist. Another bug is that you cannot upload photos on the ebird app. Not a huge issue for me, since I process photos on my computer before adding it. I think that would be a huge plus if you could optimize these things for Android! Thanks!

Have always enjoyed the app, but the last update did not improve it. In the past you could choose quickly from recent hotspots or locations. Now it forces you to use your location and then you have to change it from there. They claim this update gets you birding faster, but I have not found that to be true. Also, when I try to change location to a hotspot, it often says I don't have network connection and can't do so, even when network is working fine.

I love eBird, no question about it. However, to do literally anything with the app, location has to be on, which is very unnecessary except for recording track. It should be possible to set a default location for Explore and My eBird, rather than being forced to turn location on every time I open the app. It's incredibly annoying that you have to use 24-hr time if you change the time of the checklist. Being able to upload media would also be helpful.

SO CLOSE to being great. This app is packed with information, making it particularly valuable for new birders like me. That said, I only watch in my backyard and do not wish to "record track." I made sure to toggle "record track" off. Still, the app attempts to "determine my location" as soon as I change tabs. I end up stuck in a loop until I turn location on and it's very frustrating. I'd love to have an "offline" version where you can navigate without messing with location settings.

NOT USER FRIENDLY! It's difficult to quickly add a single bird without doing the whole checklist business. You have to "name" the locations for whatever reason, even though they have the gps data. You can't download all 50 states at once, it's state by state. Viewing your life list is way too complicated as well. The only thing that's good is it's the only app that has a complete list of all birds worldwide. If you're just in the US, however, Audubon is far superior.

The app is one of the best resources to start looking for bird species. Been using the app for over a year and never had anything major to complain about. But just today, something seems to have broken. There's a "download error (unable to update)" dialog showing up at every startup. Haven't been able to use the app on Android today.

Easy to use app that helps you submit your birding checklists. The newly added "My eBird" functionality shows you how many species you have seen in a given area that year, how many you were at in previous years, etc. The automatic GPS tracking for time and distance in traveling checklists is also a bonus. Every year the app gets better! Can't wait to see what they add next.

After taking the "eBird Essentials" course, I found the app easy to use in the field. It is extremely helpful when there are more than a few birds, or when you will be moving around the site for more than a few minutes, because it offers quick data entry and automatic tracking of time and distance. Initially I encountered an error about downloading a bird list when trying to choose a location but this later disappeared. Recommend that developer removes the bird list download at this point.

Could be great but there are a lot of problems. The new update was meant to bypass entering a location until you were ready. The problem is, you still have to have your GPS on before you can start a list. If you don't use your GPS, it now takes longer to start a list than before the update. Merlin is a great app on its own, but it should be a part of ebird. You should be able to ID a bird through Merlin on the ebird app instead of switching back and forth. Also, life list? No, Merlin has it?

Since the update, the app is hardly usable out of cell range. Today, with location on and GPS apps working fine, Ebird struggled for 3 minutes and never was able to find a location though I was in open country. I then was able to scroll through all the countries in the world to find a US list. Why not let us open a recent location first and then edit it later? Very frustrating. Pixel 3/Android 10.