Reviews for Morcombe's Birds of Australia

A fantastic app. I use it regularly. The drawings are superb and the large number of different bird calls per species is invaluable.

Full-time action wildlife photographer with a bird focus for the past 9 years. My wife and I use this excellent app almost daily. It is detailed and wonderfully informative in both words and images. The sound element is less polished and perhaps less comprehensive with samples of birds in my area of SW Victoria. Sound quality is also sometimes poor (Diamond Firetail). The latest update which we both received on our S20+ and S21+ has an unreliable repeat function. So frustrating.

Overpriced for what it does particularly since it is only for a limited time. Now unusable asking for more money. Comprehensive list of birds with calls for each. Drawings with limited poses(mostly perched) per species. Will be using other guides in future.

Had the old version of this app, which had a few glitches but could work with them. Decided to update hoping to fix the problems and now it does not work at all. Have emailed developers numerous times and still not working. They said a few days, it is now 5 months. Bad app, poor developer response, big money wasted. Don't waste your money on this one, get one that works.!!!!!

Well unlike other recent reviews, I can compare two birds on one screen quite easily and there is a search bar at the top of the page to type in a species without having to scroll through the alphabet. I am very satisfied with this app and recommend it. Drawings are good to very good but not quite 5 star accuracy.

Super convenient and precise tool for identification of endemic and migratory aussie birds.Good for pros, enthusiasts and budding birders.The app supports the soft cover field guide of the same name perfectly. Thankyou for assisting me to keep increasing my "newby" Australian bird encounters regularly especially with the high canopy dwelling species I can hear but rarely see long enough for a good ID

Great app but strange that bird calls are included but can't be matched to recorded calls in the field. I have a frog app that can do that. I got a new phone but this the app didn't load like all my others. I tried 4 times to get it fixed with the app supplier and got all sorts of reasons none of which were logical or worked. After a year without the app I have given up and re-purched it at the high price. I don't think dishonest , just incompetent. A shame considering the quality of the app.

Had it for years and i love it - the recordings, the distribution maps and the illustrations of the birds' nesting habitats. Pencils drawings of birds make me nostalgic for childhood atlases, and i love these. All birdwatchers have their favourite bird books. I prefer a Pizzey, but definately would recommend the Morcombe app for it's nice UI and usability. An investment, but worth it.

Basically a very useful app, but the indexing should be improved so that, for example, "fairy wren" doesn't produce the answer "nothing found," It is essential to set your geographical area in the "My location" part of the app, since the default setting, for some reason, doesn't include all Australian birds.

Developers need to stop responding to gushing 5 star reviews and fix the huge bugs on this very expensive app. For months the search engine has been broken. I have the current version and it's worse than ever. Example: I try to look up Bell Minor using "bell miner", "bell", "minor", "manorina" and "honeyeater". Nothing!!! Bell minor doesn't seem to exist on the app anymore, or at least is unfindable. This has been the same for numerous searches. Developers take your money then zilch.

GPS doesn't work unless you have a wifi or phone signal. (All my other apps that use GPS do work under these conditions).That makes the app useless for recording sightings in the field. Unfortunately, the developer doesn't bother to respond to emails. That's a shame because apart from this issue it would be a good app. If this issue gets resolved I would rate this app a lot higher.

The latest update has made this app worse. Moved the buttons for sound, text, map etc to the bottom, not the top. Font size of the calls had increased, covering more of the screen and hiding more of the info behind it. But the worst thing is that now, when playing a call, you cannot leave the app - as soon as you do, it stops playing. Useless!

I've loved using this app for several years now. But now I hate it. I don't know why the developers have changed a perfectly good app, but the reasons I hate it now are: 1. General appearance (colour) is gaudy. 2. It's fiddly to use now, and difficult to navigate. 3. ALL audio files for a given species have the same title, making it now a matter of trial and error as to whether I select the one I want. 4. Even if the titles of each recording did describe the call (gender, region, behaviour etc), the way they are displayed is such that only part of the first word is visible anyway... back to trial and error selection again. 5. In the "compare" mode, it's now only possible to play one recording at a time. I have often found it very useful to play two tracks simultaneously, but now can't do this. 6. I was never asked if I'd like to install the update. 7. There doesn't appear to be an option to reinstall the older, better version. I'm inclined to ask for my money back.

I wanted to be able to see two birds on the same screen but no matter how many times I follow the instructions it doesn't happen as described. And there's nowhere to go for more help until I find someone who has the app and uses it. Otherwise it's great but I've got the pictures and descriptions in a book and I can flip between the pages but this was supposed to give me the comparison in the field without the book.

This app could be 6 star but until the developers respond to constructive feedback emails dont waste your money. They ignore emails!! The GPS doesnt work. (every other app GPS does). No ability for GPS logging add/edit after the event. Currently a bird sighting / recording needs to be logged onsite as against "off site" at a later date. We don't always carry the device on which the app is installed so the ability to paper record and then do so on the app is important.

Until the latest update (25th Feb 2020), I would have given this app 5/5. However, unless I am blind, the search bar (indicated by the magnifying glass symbol) has disappeared from the top of the list when you open the app, rendering it almost useless! You used to be able to type 'bowerbirds' for example and it would narrow he list down. Please reinstate the search bar! Edit - thank you for the fix - very prompt!

Excellent!!! Easy to use. I love having the bird sounds available. I really wish the list wouldn't count multiple sightings of the same bird in the number - if you can change this I would really appreciate it. I record seeing the same bird at the same location but different times or at different locations so the app is counting the same species multiple times. I don't think anyone wants to count the number of individual birds they see so I don't know if anyone would use that function.

This was a great app until the latest update. I used to be able to search by inputting a bird name, now I can't. This has rendered the app a failure in my opinion. I could search for robin and have all types available to select which was closer to the observation in the example results. Now i have to manually scroll through the list which detracts from the experience and somewhat wastes a lot of time if the bird is at the end of the alphabet. Not happy anymore and would not recommend.

Recommended by a friend, and it doesn't disappoint with coverage of species or ease of finding the bird you're looking for. The one feature that seems arbitrarily limited is related to entering sightings. It has an entry for GPS, but you can only have it entered automatically, based on your current location. If you're like me, and typically enter sightings at the end of the day, this means you can't manually record the actual GPS coords of the sighting, only have it enter *where you are when you enter the sighting*. Pretty limited, and doesn't afford any integration with Google Maps. Add those bits of functionality and I'd go 5 starts, as it is, it gets 4.

It is not ineffective for identifying, learning, and recording birds. However, considering the price and in light of the free app Australian Birds it leaves a lot to be desired. The UI is clucky. Smart search is not useful at all in my experience. And it is a bit painful and restricted if used as your primary bird list. However, it is nice to be able to export and save your list separately to the app. The bird calls and descriptions are useful.