# iBird UK & Ireland Lite — Skinny Guide to UK Birds > Field guide app for identifying UK and Ireland birds with smart search and location features. (iPhone/iPad app by Mitch Waite Group.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ibird-uk-and-ireland-lite/id441884227 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Mitch Waite Group](https://appshunter.io/developer/297644126) - Category: Reference, Education - Price: Free - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 9.0 · 164 MB - Languages: American English, Arabic, Italian, Korean, Russian, Chinese (Simplified, China), European Spanish - Released: 2011-06-11 - Data updated: 2026-08-17 - Monetization: free - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ibird-uk-and-ireland-lite/id441884227/reviews.md ## What is iBird UK & Ireland Lite? iBird UK Lite Guide to Birds is the perfect field guide app to learn to identify birds of the United Kingdom and Ireland. It’s a free 40 bird demo of our advanced iBird United Kingdom and Ireland Pro app which has the full 343 common and rare species designated by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). iBird UK Lite now offers two powerful features found only in our high-end iBird apps: Birds Around Me (BAM) and Percevia™ smart search. Smart search lets you identify birds just like the experts while BAM only shows species that are found in your GPS area. Compare iBird versions: bit.ly/about-ibird In 2008 iBird broke new ground as it turned the iPhone into a field guide that identifies birds and plays their songs. Featured in Apple’s television commercials, it started a revolution that made iBird the most respected birding app in the world. iBird is now completely updated with new species for 2017 and includes exciting new features. Whether you are an experienced birder or a beginner, iBird UK Lite is the best way to get started with iBird’s unique technology such as the Percevia™ smart search and Birds Around Me features More Details of What’s New: bit.ly/ibird-whatsnew Features iBird UK Lite Version 10.06 now contains these exciting features: ● Birds Around Me (BAM) narrows the species being searched to just those found at your GPS location, within a radius and season you specify. ● Percevia™ intelligent search is a patented algorithm that guarantees you will only choose search attributes that narrow the matched list of birds. ● iBird now takes advantage of the high-resolution retina displays of the iPhone and iPad so the screen shows more information than ever. ● Contains the latest 2016/17 BTO checklist. ● View all birds by head which makes identification easier. ● Back up and sync favorites and notes with iCloud and share with all your devices and your friends. ● Fun new birder’s “stickers” to spruce up your text in Messages. Other Features iBird UK contains these time-tested features: ● ‘Birds Around Me’ narrows the search list to just those birds centred on your GPS location, within a specified radius and a specific season. ● The patented Percevia™ intelligent search prevents you from making the wrong choice when searching for your bird. ● The only birding app that includes both Illustrations and Photos. ● Spectrographic audio display brings insight to the structure of bird songs by allowing you to view the sound's frequency components. ● Every species is shown perched and in flight and most show major seasonal, age and male/female variations. ● Identify 40 species of both native and rare birds. ● Save multiple personal species lists and your sightings in Notes which can be backed up and synced in iCloud. ● Includes hundreds of carefully selected and edited sound recordings from the Xeno-Canto Community of bird song recordists. ● Filter birds by countries, regions and coasts, so that you see only the species likely to occur in your location. ● iBird’s icon-driven visual search engine, with 35 attributes, enables you to identify birds using shape, colour, location, habitat, head pattern, flight pattern, bill shape, length and much more. ● Search by common name, Latin name and the BTO 5 band code. ● Comprehensive seasonal and migratory range maps include subspecies. What the Expert's Say "If you’re looking for the most expansive digital key, the encyclopedia-like iBird excels. It has the most sophisticated algorithm, incorporates live location, shows search results in real time (with a slide show option) and has the most fine-grained advanced key choices." -The Quest for a Bird Identification Key by Diana Doyle in ABA BIRDING magazine, March/April 2014 issue We invite all users to share their comments and ideas on our forum at www.whatbird.com/forum/ ## Key features - Birds Around Me (BAM) location filtering - Percevia™ intelligent search - Illustrations and photos of birds - Bird song recordings - Species identification by head - Favorites and notes backup with iCloud ## Recent user reviews (10 of 20) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ibird-uk-and-ireland-lite/id441884227/reviews.md ### 1/5 — Once, one of the best. *2026-07-05* This app has completely lost functionality since last updates. It’s almost impossible to search and the database seems to have shrunk to around just 40 birds. ### 1/5 — Unsupported *2026-01-24* Still selling unsupported apps ### 2/5 — Not enough species *2019-06-01* The app itself is quite useful just missing a lot of UK bird species. I’d rate it 5 stars if it had a bigger variety it’s a shame because otherwise I would of found it very useful. ### 1/5 — Weak *2018-12-03* The lite version is useless, you need to upgrade for it to have any useful number of species. ### 1/5 — Really strange *2017-07-11* I entered a description of a jackdaw which the app identified as a chaffinch. The Birds Around Me feature correctly identified my location but came up with a list of exotic birds which would never be seen around here. Seems to be totally random. ### 1/5 — Not really an app, but a sales pitch *2015-02-04* Thirty birds only, so not much use. There might be a full app somewhere, there might not. Not obvious. No real explanation of this in an easy to find place. I downloaded then deleted. Waste of time for me ### 3/5 — Just a taster *2014-07-12* Only 30 birds to give you an idea of what the full app offers ### 5/5 — Songbirds *2014-06-02* Love this App. I play it in the garden and attract lots of interest...birds and people! ### 4/5 — Good app *2014-03-13* A good app that gives comprehensive info on the birds featured-could do with a few more of the more common birds though. ### 3/5 — Comment *2013-08-05* Shame there aren't many birds to choose from! ## Frequently asked questions about iBird UK & Ireland Lite ### What birds can I identify with iBird UK & Ireland Lite? iBird UK & Ireland Lite allows you to identify 40 common and rare bird species found in the United Kingdom and Ireland. This is a demo version of the Pro app, which contains the full 343 species. ### How does the 'Birds Around Me' feature work? The 'Birds Around Me' (BAM) feature uses your GPS location to narrow down the list of species to only those found in your immediate area, within a specified radius and season. ### Is iBird UK & Ireland Lite free to use? Yes, iBird UK & Ireland Lite is a free application. It serves as a demo for the advanced iBird United Kingdom and Ireland Pro app. ### Does iBird UK & Ireland Lite have ads? No, iBird UK & Ireland Lite does not contain advertisements. ### What devices is iBird UK & Ireland Lite compatible with? iBird UK & Ireland Lite is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod devices. ### How often is iBird UK & Ireland Lite updated? The app was last updated on December 24, 2017, with version 10.06. The app description mentions updates for new species for 2017 and the latest 2016/17 BTO checklist. ### Can I save my bird sightings with iBird UK & Ireland Lite? Yes, you can save multiple personal species lists and your sightings in Notes. These can be backed up and synced with iCloud to share across your devices and with friends. ### What makes the 'Percevia™ smart search' unique? Percevia™ is a patented intelligent search algorithm that guarantees you will only choose search attributes that effectively narrow down the matched list of birds, helping you identify them more accurately. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 10.06 — 2017-12-24 This update from Apple will improve the functionality of this app. No new features are included. Besides compatibility with the iPhone X, this new version of iBird UK Lite has Time of Day, Birds Around Me (BAM) and Percevia smart search features. In our continuing effort to improve our illustrations and photos we have updated the following species drawings with much improved composite illustrations: Barred Warbler, Dartford Warbler and Golden Oriole. You can see these in a matched list by selecting Search->Illustration Update->10.0. Time of Day Search The new Time of Day search feature lets you filter birds by activity intervals. The version in iBird UK Lite is a sample of the full version found in the paid iBird UK and Ireland Pro app. The intervals are during day or night (Cathemeral), dawn and dusk (Crepuscular), during the day (Diurnal) or during the night (Nocturnal). Time of Day Notes which provide additional information about a species behavior are found on each species from a new Time of Day menu. The Time of Day feature is particularly useful for birders who are interested in night birding. Abundance Now you can search on the Abundance attribute which includes: Accidental, Casual, Common, Rare and Uncommon status. ### 10.04 — 2017-08-08 Fixed a crash being experienced by some users. Birds Around Me (BAM) and Percevia Smart Search now available as in app purchases. ### 10.02 — 2017-05-03 Database is smaller. All new sound library. Landscape mode now works for iPad. Photo Center Facebook photo sharing works. Free stickers for birders. Completely updated for new AOU and ABA standards. Splits-History in Search-Basic Group shows AOU and ABA changes for 2014, 2015 and 2016. Birds Around Me (BAM) and Percevia smart search built in. View by Head via Set View/Sort Mode button. Gallery mode now includes Common Names of species. Compare iBird versions: bit.ly/about-ibird ### 6.1 — 2013-03-31 ▶ MWG’s GREATEST UPDATE EVER! This 2013 version 6.1 update has been optimized for the iPhone 5's taller screen and includes hundreds of new photos. ▶ FULL SCREEN & LANDSCAPE VIEW FOR ILLUSTRATIONS – you can rotate the iPhone or iPad from portrait to landscape mode to see wider illustrations with no bars on the side and full zoom and pinch. ▶ IMPROVED LABELS - The species Latin name, order, family and band code are now overlaid on the bottom part of the illustration in a semitransparent band. ▶ iCloud has been made more robust and an extensive Glossary has been added to the species page slider for easy access. ### 6.0 — 2012-07-14 ▶ SAVE & LOAD SEARCH - Now you can save your selected search values and quickly load them later. ▶ RETINA ICONS - Retina Icons. We have updated all our icons to be compatible with the retina display, meaning they no longer have any jaggies. In the process we updated a lot of the icons in the tab bar and on the More page. Thanks to the customers who hammered us on this detail we kept putting off. ▶ COLOR PROMINENT - This is a new attribute we are really proud of because of how effective it is for matching birds. The Color Prominent attribute is the answer to the question, "What color of the bird is most conspicuous?" It’s the color that stands out the most and is the most striking. Secondarily it may be the color that makes up the largest percentage of the bird's coloring. Try this attribute when you see a bird and let us know how much it helps you. ▶ HEAD PATTERN - Big, giant and huge update to the Head Pattern attribute. We have stressed in the Search tutorials how important the head of bird is to identifying it and none are more important than Head Pattern. We went back and fine tuned this attribute adding a new value called Eyebrow. We also made sure the Overviews reflected the values assigned to this attribute. ## More apps by Mitch Waite Group - [iBird Yard+ Guide to Birds](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ibird-yard-plus-guide-to-birds/id297644123) - [iBird Pro Guide to Birds](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ibird-pro-guide-to-birds/id308018823) - [iBird UK Pro Guide to Birds](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ibird-uk-pro-guide-to-birds/id424729739) - [iBird Ultimate Guide to Birds](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ibird-ultimate-guide-to-birds/id872771050) - [iBird Hawaii & Palau Guide](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ibird-hawaii-and-palau-guide/id943689969) All apps by Mitch Waite Group: https://appshunter.io/developer/297644126 --- *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 2026-08-17.*