Birdathon

September 26, 2024

Updated taxonomies: the Clements/eBird taxonomy v2023b from December 2023 is now the basis for all checklists. Information from the AOS Checklist 65th (July 2024) and ABA Checklist v8.16 (September 2024) are also incorporated into Birdathon. The Santa Clara County, California checklist, created by the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance, has been updated to the June 2024 edition. Support for Dark Mode has been added, making Birdathon easier to use at night or in dim environments. Birds whose names have changed or that have been lumped, now indicate this with "aka' ("also known as") in some views. For example "Pacific-slope Flycatcher" now shows "Pacific-slope Flycatcher aka Western Flycatcher" in the bird detail view. It's now much easier to change the name of a bird species in your checklists. For example, if you have a bird in a list with an older species name, such as 'Pacific-slope Flycatcher,' there's a new "Change" button that brings up Clements Birds of the World and lets you easily switch it to 'Western Flycatcher.' Four-letter 'Alpha' codes can now be shown on your checklist's main screen (previously they were only visible in the detail view). This setting, "Show Alpha Codes," can be turned on in the Birdathon Settings window. Note that Alpha Codes (aka Banding Codes) are only available for birds in the AOS Checklist range (North America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean). The detail view for birds in a checklist will show annotations from the AOS checklist, if any are available, near the bottom of the view. As an example, "Snow Goose" has an annotation "Formerly placed in the genus Chen." Other bug fixes and tweaks to the text were made. Happy birding!

May 30, 2023

A few bug fixes for this release: • The Clements Checklist of birds of the world was missing the following birds: Common Buzzard, Eastern Shrike-tit, Western Shrike-tit, Northern Shrike-tit, Olive-backed Forest Robin • If you have a checklist with a bird whose common name changed in the latest Clements Checklist, Birdathon now does a better job of assigning those birds to the correct family. Previously most would show up as "Uncategorized" when sorting by Taxonomic order (Family). Some birds (such as species that were split) could not be categorized, so they may still appear as "Uncategorized." In those cases, you will need to determine the new common name • You can now import bird lists that were saved from the Summary. The Summary only exports some of the information, so the new checklist created will only have that information Happy birding!

January 13, 2023

Updated to the latest Taxonomy: Clements/eBird from August 2022. American Ornithological Society (AOS) Checklist 63rd from July 2022, Pyle's standard Alphabetic ("alpha" or "banding") codes from August 2022 and the Santa Clara County, California checklist from January 2023. Some bug fixes as well.

November 12, 2021

The latest taxonomy from Clements/eBird, AOS and ABA, smarter searches, more importing options and an "achievements" screen are the highlights of this update. • New sort orders: You can now sort all your checklists by Species Count or by Theme (color) in addition to the previous List Type, Alphabetical, Created and Modified sort orders. • Searches inside a checklist now ignore hyphens, apostrophes, and leading and trailing blank spaces, making it more resilient and easier to type. Thanks to a user who suggested this really useful feature! • Achievements—when you tap on the checklist count at the top of the screen, you'll now see a few fun statistics, such as how many species and bird families you've seen. This feature was suggested by a user. Let me know how you like it and what statistics would be most interesting to track. • Tapping the checkbox in a checklist now defaults to incrementing the observed count (you can disable this in Settings by turning off "Enable One Tap"). • New settings allow you to include/exclude family names and scientific names from searches within a checklist. This was also requested by a user. • In the Settings screen, "About Birdathon" now shows the version, and is blue to make it clear it's a link to more information. • When importing a straight text file of common names you can choose to create a list template or import as a filled-in checklist. The count will be 1 for each species and the date/time will be the time of the import. Files exported from Birdathon using "Export Summary to CSV" can also be imported as a template or a checklist. • Downloaded eBird checklists can now be imported. Note that not all the data in an eBird checklist gets imported into Birdathon — most notably, the map location and the checklist comments are lost, as eBird doesn't export that information. • Files on iCloud Drive that hadn't yet been synced with your device are now handled correctly. • Switching templates in a checklist will now also update the custom rarity of already-observed birds if the new template contains custom rarities (e.g. the Santa Clara County 2021 Checklist). If the new template does not have a custom rarity for the bird, it's custom rarity will remain unchanged. • The List Statistics (button at the bottom of a checklist) now shows you the list name and type. If you've overridden duration in the eBird Report window, the List Statistics will now also show you calculated vs reported duration. • In the Summary view, the button for setting date ranges had stopped working. Thanks to a user for spotting this one! • The Summary view now remembers the last date range you selected. • Fixed a bug in Summary view where the date range calculations could incorrectly use non-bird observations or observations in checklists that had "Include in Summary" disabled. • Fixed a bug on the iPod touch (and possibly other small-screen iOS devices) where the "Start" button was disabled when attempting to create a new checklist. • Improved compatibility with iOS 15. This mostly means fixes for drawing or graphical layout of user interface elements • There are lots of other little bug fixes, performance improvements and adjustments to make things look and behave nicely • I am always looking for ideas on how to make Birdathon better and more useful for your checklisting needs. Please send feedback to birdathon@voyageropen.com with your cool ideas, bug reports or just to say "hello" and let me know how Birdathon works for you.

March 23, 2021

Updated checklists, improvements to eBird export, better searching and lots of small improvements. See full list below. Fixes include: • Updated to ABA Checklist 8.0.8 (March 2021) and Santa Clara County 2021 checklist • Checklist templates now includes Clements of Birds of the World, so you can easily make checklists with all 10,722 world species • Searches will now match common name, family name or alpha code (aka 4-letter banding code). An option in Settings also lets you include scientific name in searches. Searches formerly only matched common name and alpha code • Searching Birds of the World will also show bird names that match common name, family name or alpha code (aka 4-letter banding code). An option in Settings also lets you include scientific name in this search • eBird export now lets you choose a latitude & longitude for the checklist if it can't determine a location (for example, if you have disabled Location Services) • Show Scientific Name in list when a bird is selected • Fixed a few bugs where importing checklists and checklist templates sometimes failed • Fixed a bug where you couldn't email a checklist or eBird export if iCloud Drive was disabled • Birdathon now asks if you want to create a checklist template when importing a .csv file • If the imported .csv file's first line is a header, that line is now skipped • For eBird exports, the Location Name in the file now includes the date and time to make it unique. This helps work around a bug in eBird where two checklists with the same name will be placed at the same location no matter what latitude & longitude is included • eBird export now remembers more of your settings (e.g. "Yes" vs "No" and your checklist location), and you can view and edit your Checklist Notes in the export view. Changes to the notes are saved to the checklist • Fixed a bug in the Date Picker where it would forget the new date if you dragged the view down instead of tapping "Done" • The detail view for birds in a checklist now shows the alpha code (4-letter code) near the top of the screen • You can now clear a location for a bird observation • You can now change the date and time for timeline notes • Fixed a bug where Birdathon would sometimes fail to import Custom KML and KMZ overlay files • For imported checklists, the import information now shows at the top of checklist info (was near the bottom before) • Other bits of tuning, refinement, cleanup and minor bug fixes

October 13, 2020

• Updated to the latest AOS (61st supplement, 2020) and ABA (v8.0.7, July 2020) checklists • McCown's Longspur is now Thick-billed Longspur, as ruled by the AOS in August 2020 • Fixed a crashing bug when choosing Checklist Type on the eBird export screen on some devices • Fixed a problem where you couldn't email a checklist if there was a "/" in its name • In the Summary View, you can now choose a range of dates (including times) precisely to see a summary for that timeframe • Fixed a bug where eBird exports contained distances in kilometers. EBird requires import files to use miles for distance • In the eBird Report view, all settings are now remembered, and when you choose a checklist type (Traveling, Stationary or Incidental) your checklist is now set to be that type • Export Checklist: You can now export a checklist summary as a .csv file for viewing in spreadsheets or importing into databases • Export Checklist: You can now export Birdathon checklists and import into any copy of Birdathon. Export files are saved in .json format • Enabled bulk exporting of all checklists under Settings. You can later import each checklist into any copy of Birdathon. Export files are saved in .json format • Improved the user interface for adding notes to the timeline • Fixed a bug where the bird detail said "No Locations" even when there were locations • The French name will now show below the English name in the detail view for a bird, if available

June 14, 2020

Birdathon 1.4 contains many improvements and bug fixes and has been updated to use the latest ABA (v8.0.6 December 2019), AOS (60th, 2019) and Clements (August 2019) checklists. Major changes include: US county boundaries are much more accurate and based on USGS 2019 Shapefiles. County lines now extend offshore. US territories are now included. You can now tap on a county to highlight it and see its name. Maps can now display custom overlays in kml or kmz formats. Three custom overlays are included in Birdathon as examples. You can create new overlays in other applications, such as Google Earth, and import them into Birdathon. Maps can also now show traffic. Exporting to eBird and creating email reports have been enhanced. For eBird export, you can now specify miles or kilometers for distance traveled, pick a list type (Traveling, Stationary, Incidental), set the location for the checklist, set the duration and preview the list of observations. For email, you have full control over what information is displayed: summary statistics, timeline, map, taxonomic list, etc., and have the option to export to a file instead of emailing. The Checklist View now lets you add a number in the search field to easily bump the count of a species. For example, typing "10 blph" in the search field, then tapping on the seen button for Black Phoebe will increment the seen count by 10. Typing the number last, as in "blph 10," also works. The species Detail View has been reorganized to highlight individual observations and allow you to add notes to each observation. Observation notes will be included alongside species notes in eBird and email reports. You can also easily switch an observation between seen & heard by tapping on the seen or heard icon. Setting the location of an observation by dragging a map pin is easier now and there is an option for typing in latitude & longitude. Other changes: • Main view now shows the total number of checklists at the top or the number of matching checklists during searches • Can now switch templates after creating a checklist • ABA Rarity and Custom Rarity now display when you tap on a bird name in the checklist • Easier to add a bird from Clements Birds of the World • Easier to add "spuhs," e.g. "blackbird sp." • Easier to add an animal or other non-bird observation • Tapping the list total at the bottom of the Checklist View now brings up statistics for your list (total species, total tally, time started, duration) • Added a Setting to turn off section headers for Family (Taxonomic) and Alphabetic sorting • Added a "One Tap" Setting that allows you to increment a bird by tapping the checkbox to the left of its name. Useful for quickly tallying birds in a checklist • New icon • Other bug fixes, performance and user interface improvements

March 1, 2019

Fixed a bug that can cause a crash when viewing checklists.

February 22, 2019

• Fixed the missing "Done" button when setting Rarity for a bird • The search bar is now automatically shown when you create a checklist. You can change this in Settings • For new users, the ABA Checklist is selected by default the first time a checklist is created (previously, no checklists were selected) • Rearranged items in the New Checklist and Checklist Info views for easier list creation and modification • County boundary lines are drawn slightly thicker, to better display in Satellite and Hybrid map views • When uploading to eBird, the version of Birdathon is added to the comments • Fixed a crashing bug that happens after searching all lists for a bird • Fixed a problem where Uncategorized birds could cause a crash in the Summary view • Improved error reporting for some types of errors • Fixes to avoid potential crashes • Other minor tweaks and changes

December 31, 2018

Improvements in Birdathon 1.3: • You can now show county lines for any US county or for all counties in any US state • You can draw a circle of specific radius around any point on a map, making things like 5MR (5-mile Radius) and CBC (Christmas Bird Count) circles easy • Maps now aggregate nearby observations, reducing clutter and making them easier to read • iPad is now supported • Updated the ABA Checklist to version 8.0.5 (December 2018) • Rotation is now supported for many views. This is especially useful for maps, note fields and email reports • Checklists now remember which tab (All, Observed, Starred) you have selected • When viewing checklists by Observed or Starred, searches now encompass the entire list. This is settable in Settings • Reorganized Settings for easier customization of Birdathon • There's a new color picker for choosing color themes for your checklists and a theme name is now shown • You can now adjust the creation date and time when creating a new checklist • Non-bird observations now show a count on the map • You can now view a full-screen map when editing individual observations, making it easier to adjust the pin location • A new debug setting lets you see the GPS accuracy of the observations recorded. Green rings around map pins for high accuracy, yellow for moderate accuracy and red for low accuracy. You can turn this on under Settings • The Summary view has improved logic for restricting the range (now uses a circular range rather than rectangular) and shows a restricted-range circle on the map • A bug in the Summary view where non-bird observations were always displaying on the map has been fixed • When importing a checklist template, it now shows up immediately in the New Checklist view • Updated the Santa Clara County Checklist to November 2018 • Lots of user interface cleanup, tuning and bug fixing

Good Tip

Birdathon is free, but users may choose to tip the author via in-app purchase. The about box has buttons for tips of varying amounts.

Great Tip

Birdathon is free, but users may choose to tip the author via in-app purchase. The about box has buttons for tips of varying amounts.

Amazing Tip

Birdathon is free, but users may choose to tip the author via in-app purchase. The about box has buttons for tips of varying amounts.

Incredible Tip

Birdathon is free, but users may choose to tip the author via in-app purchase. The about box has buttons for tips of varying amounts.