Reviews for Sibley Birds 2nd Edition

The Sibley Guides to Birds have been the premiere guide for birders all around. David Allen Sibley makes his guides succinct, intuitive and easy to understand. He makes bird identification a snap, with bird songs, calls, ID markers, plumage, colors, patterns, range maps, etc. It is an essential tool for birders of all ages.

Excellent on the go field guide. Has detailed illustrations, information, range maps, and audio for every bird, and a compare similar birds feature. My only complaints are with search. You can't search by scientific name (ex: Dryobates), and you must include dashes in names (ex: Red-tailed hawk).

This has always been my go to app for birding. However I can no longer get it to give me common birds in my location. Used to work like a charm but now it is a nightmare. Bi have uninstalled and re-installed and even switched phone with no improvement. Yet my husband's runs fine. Ni do t understand and am so disappointed!!

It's complete, but it has its anoyances, because it's primitive, at best. It crashes randomly. Any change in device status (screen rotating, screen going black) causes the calls to stop. Also, the playback interface doesn't work well, especially the loop function. For $20, I expect better functionality, period.

Almost 10 months now (1/29) - Extremely disappointing. Dev team has still not fixed the issue. After every update I get a generic msg to check, and the issue still exists. They don't even verify at their end before asking me to check - shows the poor quality processes at their end. Issue - App keeps crashing when I click the similar species button. Issue occurs when using 'my location' setting. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling, issue still happening. My app is set for auto-update.

Good content but usability / interface sometimes flakey. Sometime you can't scroll a list in portrait mode. Also when listening to songs and calls things get interrupted when phone is turned and screen switches between portrait and landscape mode. Yellow-breasted Chat still shows up under New World Warblers is search function. It was moved out of that family five years ago.

This is still the app that I use the most in the field, mostly because of Sibley's amazing illustrations, the descriptions and physical info, and the comparison feature. But the app is really clunky. Cons: - limited amount of options for comparing one bird to another seems strange, eg you can't compare whippoorwills with nighthawks. - if you're comparing two birds, in order to search a new bird, you have to press back 5 X. - Update: sounds no longer work in compare mode after new update

Incredibly buggy and almost unusable. I used this app for years on an iPhone with no problem, but recently switched to Pixel, repurchased the app for $20 and have had nothing but issues. As others have said, the compare function does not work and the search bar often doesn't work as well. Incredibly disappointed as this is used to be my go to bird ID app

Have been using this app for years, and I particularly like the comparison feature. What I continue to be frustrated with is its inability to find a species because of a minor spelling mistake, such as Red naped vs. Red-naped. Is this not a fix that is relatively minor? Please improve this, Sibley's.

It used to be have the best search tool, now the first smart search criteria that I enter, becomes permanently saved. Using the X at the top and selecting Clear All, does nothing. I have de-selected items, I have used the clear button on the bottom of the page. Selecting new features also does nothing. Going to Android - Apps and close application occasionally helps. I am using a Pixel 5, but I have tried the app on both a Pixel 4a and a Samsung Tablet and I have the same problem.

There was a big ordeal with the 1st printing of the 2nd edition of the book, requiring a second printing to fix the color problems and other issues. Oddly, it appears that 1st printing was used for this app!! Oof! Various errors exist... it would be great if the app developers setup an easy to use website to report these (multiple maps are incorrect, things like 1st and 2nd year Black-tailed Gulls are mislabeled, etc) or build it into the app. As with the paper copy of the 2nd edition, I recommend waiting until the second version comes out before buying. That said, the app doesn't uninstall the old Sibley app, so you CAN have both on your phone if you buy now. Glad to see the update, and the new layout, I just wish the v2 launch wasn't so full of errors.

Have to downgrade my review to 4 stars because of more errors and bugs lately. For example, swiping left-right to change species is sometimes too sensitive, sometimes not enough; missing/swapped range maps (e.g. WEWP, WEGU); and app menu has wrong descriptions for options. But still a very useful and well-envisioned app. Based on the book, but layout and navigation is totally reimagined to be much more powerful and easy to use than an eBook, plus of course you get the sounds too.

Simply the best bird guide app. Has everything you need, great description of the birds, a range map and sound recordings of their calls and songs. Has Regional variations of calls and birds plumage. You can set it on the state you are in which makes it easier because it filters out the ones that you will not see. The artwork truly represents the birds. Yes you can find free and cheaper apps but they're not going to do you any good out in the field when you're trying to ID a Sparrow!!

Really nice app for on the go birding! It's better suited for the intermediate and advanced birders, seeing as its laid out in a scientific manner, but its also good for beginners who need to compare birds who look so similar. I really like the ability to sort birds by location and time of year too. The support staff is also super nice! I just moved operating systems and they were able to help me re-download this app.

Overall this app is solid. I like how it gives illustrations of birds in flight as well as posed, the diagnostic cues, and the way it can compare birds. The only gripe I have (a very small one) is that I can't omit a hyphen when inputting a species name, and it bothers me that I have to hit extra buttons to switch my keyboard layout on my phone to get the hyphen in there. It would be so much simpler if I could just put "yellow throated warbler" without the hyphen. Can that happen?

I like the new layout of the app and the new added features. There are numerous errors in the app. Some of the range maps don't match the species shown and the plates used to create the app are too dark which misrepresents the true colors of the plumage. Hopefully these errors can be fixed quickly, but untill then I will keep using the first edition of the app.

The source material is great. The app is buggy, has typos in the menus, and is hard to navigate. When comparing birds there's no way to go to the compared bird's page. When using the smart search feature, it can sometimes get stuck with a given setting and not allow you to clear it - it will appear to have cleared an option but then apply it to the search and it will show up when returning to the search settings. Unfortunately it seems the developers have abandoned it. Edit: now crashes often.

I've used the earlier version of this app and am glad it got an update. However, on the beta version of Android Q on my Pixel 3 XL, the app won't load, including after a reinstall. It shows a blank screen with a progress bar stuck a "0MB/0MB" and below that a "pause" button that doesn't do anything. Force-quitting and reinstalling the app didn't help. I know it's a beta, but almost all my other apps work with no bother, and I'm hoping this gets resolved before the final release.

Like the first run of the book, some of the plates are off color. Also the map for Key West Quail Dove shows the bird in California! These are pretty egregious errors! I look to apps like this to help figure out difficult birds, if I can't trust that the maps or birds are represented accurately, the app is of no use. At best this could be considered a beta version. It works, just not for bird I.D. What's the timeline for correcting these problems?

Overall im impressed by this app, the information and the picture quality is as good as if not better than whats in the books. The addition of being able to listen to the sounds is a big deal. My recommendatiom is that you do not turn on the 'filter by location' feature, because I notice the search bar only works about half the time when this is on. Also when I try to turn on the 'show my list info' or the 'show sighting indicator' feature nothing happens. Otherwise the app works perfectly.