# Birdathon — A birding checklist app

> Birding checklist and observation organizer with mapping and export features. (iPhone/iPad app by Barry Langdon-Lassagne.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/birdathon/id1211977440 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Barry Langdon-Lassagne](https://appshunter.io/developer/730758814)
- Category: Education, Utilities
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.73/5 from 15 App Store ratings · 11 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 16.1 · 192 MB
- Languages: English
- Released: 2017-10-14
- Data updated: 2026-07-27
- Monetization: free
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/birdathon/id1211977440/reviews.md

## What is Birdathon?

Birdathon is an observation-centric tool for creating birding checklists. It helps you organize your checklists and share them with others. Use Birdathon in the field to quickly record whether and where a bird is seen or heard and the number observed. The time and location of each observation is automatically recorded. You can adjust the location, time entries and the count of birds observed at any time to ensure your records are accurate. You can add breeding codes to your observations.

Checklist maps display the locations of your observations. You can overlay county boundaries for every US state. You can add a range circle such as a 5MR (5-mile Radius) to your maps. You can import and overlay custom kml/kmz files onto your maps.

An Overview feature lets you see your combined observations for any time period, and displays a map showing any boundaries you have selected, so you can utilize the map feature even when you are not actively checklisting. You can export Overview data into a csv text file or create a new checklist template from the Overview.

Your checklists can be viewed in taxonomic order, alphabetically, by rarity or as a timeline of species. You can enrich your checklist with field notes and add observations such as mammals, butterflies, wildflowers, etc., to make it a more complete record of your experience. You can organize your checklists into categories such as Day List, Year List, County List, Life List, etc., and assign color themes to your lists.

Bird species may be added and deleted from your lists at any time. You can create new checklist templates from your previous lists or import templates created by others. You can change which template is being used. You can import text files into Birdathon, making them into templates or new checklists.

Different export options for your checklists allow you to import into eBird or another copy of Birdathon.

The bird species source data and other resources used in this app come from the following sources:

AviList, a unified global checklist of birds, is the core data set used for Birdathon. https://www.avilist.org. Some data has been integrated from the following sources: The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world (https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/), the American Ornithological Society's (AOS) Checklist of North and Middle American Birds (https://checklist.americanornithology.org), and the American Birding Association's (ABA) checklist of North American Birds (https://www.aba.org/listing-taxonomy/)

Alpha codes come from The Institute for Bird Populations’ Standardized 4- and 6-letter Bird Species Codes. https://www.birdpop.org/pages/birdSpeciesCodes.php.

County boundary data is from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) TIGER/Line 2019 Shapefiles found on the United States Census Bureau's website at https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/tiger-line-file.2019.html. Boundaries should be used as general guidelines and not be considered precise. Note especially where county boundaries follow creeks, rivers, ridge lines and other natural features, and so are of much finer resolution than can be shown on Birdathon’s maps.

California breeding bird atlas blocks come from the California Bird Atlas, https://www.californiabirdatlas.org. California Bird Atlas logo and breeding code descriptions used with permission.

## Key features

- Observation-centric checklists
- Automatic time and location recording
- Customizable maps with boundary overlays
- Field notes for additional observations
- Multiple checklist sorting options
- Data export to CSV and other formats
- Create checklist templates

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Good Tip | $0.99 | one-time |
| Great Tip | $1.99 | one-time |
| Amazing Tip | $2.99 | one-time |
| Incredible Tip | $4.99 | one-time |


## Recent user reviews (10 of 11)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/birdathon/id1211977440/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Great for California Bird Atlas

*2026-04-11*

Really love the new features that make contributing to the California Bird Atlas easier, including offline block maps and breeding code summaries. An amazing app!

### 5/5 — Birdathon

*2025-11-23*

This is a fantastic app for making lists and keeping track of birds. Outstanding!

### 5/5 — My fav

*2025-05-27*

This is literally my favorite birding app I’ve found. I wanted a personal one that wouldn’t force me to create a new list for each sighting, so this is perfect. And all the export options are amazing!

### 5/5 — Birdathon

*2024-04-28*

This is a fantastic app for making listen and keeping track of birds. Outstanding!

### 5/5 — Best mobile field birding app. No contest.

*2024-03-22*

There is so much to love about this app! I have used it daily for over two years. County list, location list, day list. You can name any list you want. I have site lists. I have challenge lists. 
In the field it provides accurate sighting information associated with a real time map. 
You can pinpoint nest sites. You can pinpoint hawk’s hunting fields. And you can do this while moving. 
At the end of a long day, your app will still leave the battery functioning. Can’t do that with ebird. 
You can generate first sighting records. Last sighting records. Week by week. Monthly. 
If I could ‘fix’ a site for printing summary reports the app would rival the legendary Avisys. 
Thanks so much for the wonderful app. And good birding.

### 4/5 — Everything I need

*2023-03-02*

I keep my birding observations in ebird for the science value, but this app allows me to keep much more information for my own journal. I like to keep track of new plants, interesting insects and animals. Export to ebird is very easy, so I can still contribute my sighting data. And export to email is useful to copy the full report into my journal, which is backed up and available in my desktop. Highly recommended.

UPDATE: Export to email is not completely polished. I hope to be able to copy the report to my journal soon. A direct share would be most useful.

### 5/5 — Love it 😍 just what I wanted

*2023-01-07*

I have been looking for an app like this, easy and fast to log birds on the go

### 5/5 — Great bird list app!

*2022-06-25*

I love this app!
It’s so easy to record sightings (and hearings) or species.
You can create multiple lists based on different birding criteria and it has cloud backup.
It is easy to use and well-designed.

### 5/5 — Great app for our bird list

*2021-11-15*

We love this app and use it to log as we go the birds we see in our yard and on many of our outing. We also Like the the location marking and have shared lists with birding friends from time to time. We use in combo with ebird when we need help to narrow down a species to our location. We have made some suggestions to improve the text searching by ignoring spaces or hyphens which the author is hoping to implement. Thanks for a great app.

Downloaded and used the recent update. Love the improved search capabilities. Thanks for including this feature in your update.

**Developer response:** Take a look at version 1.5, which just dropped today! Among other changes, it incorporates your excellent suggestions: searches in a checklist now work even if you don't type the hyphens or apostrophes and extra spaces are ignored. Let me know how it works for you!

### 5/5 — Great App!

*2020-09-20*

I’ve been using this app for the last two years to documents my birding group’s trips. It’s very easy to use, allowing lists to be exported for email and also as a file.  The developer is very responsive.

I highly recommend Birdathon!

## Frequently asked questions about Birdathon

### How does Birdathon help with birding observations?

Birdathon is an observation-centric tool that helps you create detailed birding checklists. It automatically records the time and location of each sighting, allowing you to easily adjust entries and counts for accuracy.

### Can I see where I observed birds with Birdathon?

Yes, Birdathon's checklist maps display the locations of your observations. You can overlay county boundaries for US states and even import custom KML/KMZ files to visualize your sightings in context.

### What kind of data can I add to my Birdathon checklists?

Beyond bird sightings, you can enrich your checklists with field notes and add observations for mammals, butterflies, wildflowers, and more. This allows for a comprehensive record of your outdoor experiences.

### How can I organize my checklists in Birdathon?

Birdathon allows you to organize your checklists into categories like Day List, Year List, County List, or Life List. You can also assign color themes to your lists for better visual organization.

### Can I import or export my checklists from Birdathon?

Yes, Birdathon offers various export options, including to CSV text files or for import into eBird or another copy of Birdathon. You can also import text files to create new checklists or templates.

### What are the data sources for Birdathon's bird species information?

The app utilizes AviList as its core global bird checklist. It also integrates data from sources like the eBird/Clements checklist, the American Ornithological Society's checklist, and the American Birding Association's checklist.

### Does Birdathon have ads?

No, Birdathon is ad-free, allowing for an uninterrupted birding experience.

### What devices is Birdathon compatible with?

Birdathon is available for iPhone and iPad devices, making it accessible for a wide range of Apple users.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 2.0.3 — 2026-07-22

General changes:
- Tapping on maps now prioritizes pins over the underlying county boundaries and custom overlays
- The duration of a checklist is now consistent wherever it appears (in the statistics at the bottom of a list, in the eBird report, and in the email report). Duration is the difference between the time the checklist was created (which you can adjust) and the time of the last observation or comment made in the checklist
- When making an eBird report, if your list is marked as Incidental it will automatically check "No" for "Is this a complete checklist?" Basically just a slightly smoother workflow
- On iPads, the Breeding Code view now fills the screen rather than being relegated to one-third of the screen
- When tapping a Breeding Code the list automatically scrolls so that the code selected is still visible
- The Checklist Statistics view (shown when tapping on the bottom middle button in a checklist) has been cleaned up
- Birdathon has been migrated to a scene-based architecture to ensure compatibility with future versions of iOS

California Bird Atlas (CBA) Tools updates:
- You can now create and name pins on the Atlas Blocks Map. This can be handy for personally marking interesting locations (e.g. nests) you might want to check up on, or marking blocks you plan to bird, etc. Pins are persistent, editable, movable, and deletable. You can copy the latitude & longitude from a pin. You can get Map directions from a pin
- The About tab has been significantly refined. There are new and updated links, videos, custom icons, and pointers to new tools including Blockboard and Code Check
- “Always Show Current Location” is now on by default for the Atlas Blocks Map
- For new installations, the county for displaying Atlas Blocks is now selected automatically based on your current location. If it can't figure out your location (or you don't give it permission), then it defaults to Santa Clara County

### 2.0.2 — 2026-03-31

- Checklists now have the ability to record breeding codes for each observation. The Breeding Code view includes a text description of each code. When saving an eBird report to import into eBird, codes will be included
- A button on the Home Screen leads you to a new California Bird Atlas view, specifically designed as a resource in the field to support this five-year breeding bird survey. Three tabs show (1) general information and links, (2) an annotated list of Breeding Bird codes, and (3) a map with CA county boundaries and Atlas blocks that you can display for any county
- When saving an eBird report to import into eBird, you now have the option to include GPS coordinates (latitude & longitude) for each observation. Use with caution to avoid endangering sensitive species or nest locations
- Also for eBird reports, if a bird was only marked as heard, Birdathon will add "Heard only" to the details field for that species in the eBird checklist
- This release also includes several layout improvements, especially for smaller screens, and fixes bugs

Additional changes include:
- Changed the sort style button to show icons instead of text
- Made the species/item count button be much more compact
- Settings button now shows gear icon
- Added checkmarks to indicate the currently selected item in the sort style menus (both the main view and checklist views)
- Separated bottom and top buttons that were merged together due to lack of spacers
- Improved the Dark Theme app icon
- App now asks if you want to use location services at all appropriate points, such as when tapping the “current location” button on the map
- Tweaked the color themes and the color theme picker
- Checklist items now extend underneath the bottom buttons
- Fixed a bug where indeterminate birds (birds where "?" was tapped) sometimes lost their indeterminate status
- Made sure all fields are included when exporting checklists to JSON files

### 2.0.1 — 2026-02-15

Bug fix update, see previous version's release notes for the recent feature changes.
- Fixed alignment and color issues with the buttons on the main screen with older iOS versions
- Now supports down to iOS 16.1
- County lines now show up immediately on first display
- Range circle centers are more visible
- App Icon no longer clipped in the Settings view

### 2.0 — 2026-02-14

This release changes Birdathon’s reference taxonomy from Clements to AviList. AviList is a unified global bird checklist that is the result of a collaboration between the major organizations responsible for classifying birds. More info at https://www.avilist.org. Because the eBird/Clements taxonomy is still in the process of aligning with AviList, Birdathon makes some accommodations to help smooth the transition. For example, the built-in sample checklists (e.g. “California 2026 Checklist”) still use the eBird/Clements naming, to ease export from Birdathon into eBird.

A new “Overview” feature shows not only your combined observations for any time period, but contains a map that can display county boundaries, range circles (e.g. “5 mile range”), and custom overlays simultaneously. As you travel, you can see your current location relative to these overlays, whether or not you are currently checklisting.

Support for a new initiative called the California Bird Atlas has been built in to this version, most especially the ability to display atlas blocks for any California county on the maps, and show your location within those blocks. You can also specify whether a checklist being exported for eBird import is part of the Atlas project.

US county boundaries, custom overlays, and range circles all work smoothly in the map views whether or not you have any network connectivity. Even if map tiles cannot load, due to lack of a cellular signal, boundaries, overlays, and range circles will still display on the map along with your current location.

Other changes and fixes include:

• Maps now show a dotted-arrow path connecting all the observations in a checklist. You can now tell the direction of travel and the order in which each observation was made. This can be turned off and on in the Checklist Info window for any checklist
• Dark Mode now has better and more consistent support
• Overview contains two tabs: Summary and Map. Birdathon remembers which tab you had open last and next time you go into Overview it will show that tab. The map in Overview remembers your position, zoom level, style, whether county lines are drawn, etc.
• Fixed an obscure bug in Summary where the year would display incorrectly, but only in years (such as 2025) where the last week of the year crosses over into the next year
• Saving Summary as Text now honors the current sort order in the Summary and suggests a filename indicating the sort style
• You can now email the Summary information. In the email, items are sorted the same as they appear in the Summary and include information about the date range, any geographic restrictions, and other optional settings
• Lists now remember the location and zoom level that you last set for their map. When switching lists, each list’s map will remember its location, zoom level, etc.
• You now have an option to sort lists by “Newest First”, basically the reverse of the Timeline order
• Better import of files exported from eBird. Birdathon now preserves the Location Name, the original observation date & time and Submission Comments
• Maps now show a button to take you to your current location
• Fixed several places where attempting to show a window on an iPad could cause a crash
• Many windows that appeared small on iPads now appear the same size as the main view. For example, Settings is now as big as the main window
• Rarity picker now shows colors when you are changing the custom rarity for a bird
• Observations on maps update more reliably and remember their color
• Improved support for larger font sizes, especially in the main and checklist views
• Birdathon is completely free: no ads, no subscriptions. Options for tipping the author have been removed. You can help the birding world by supporting your local Bird Alliance or Audubon Society!
• Many other bug fixes and user interface refinements throughout the app

### 1.5.3 — 2024-09-26

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!

## Apps similar to Birdathon

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| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Gullable](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/gullable/id6737456195) | 5.0 (9) | Free | Education |
| [Learn Bird Watching—Larkwire](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/learn-bird-watchinglarkwire/id544499991) | 4.8 (1,274) | Free | Education |

## More apps by Barry Langdon-Lassagne

- [Mood-Log](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/mood-log/id730758811)

All apps by Barry Langdon-Lassagne: https://appshunter.io/developer/730758814

## Related topics

[birdathon](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/birdathon) · [birding life list](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/birding-life-list) · [ebirdie](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/ebirdie)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-07-27.*