# iBird Ultimate Guide to Birds — North America, UK Hawaii Palau > Comprehensive AI-powered bird identification and field guide for multiple regions. (iPhone/iPad app by Mitch Waite Group.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ibird-ultimate-guide-to-birds/id872771050 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Mitch Waite Group](https://appshunter.io/developer/297644126) - Category: Reference, Education - Price: $9.99 with in-app purchases - Rating: 4.50/5 from 568 App Store ratings · 116 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 14.7 · 1.8 GB - Languages: American English - Released: 2014-05-15 - Data updated: 2026-08-27 - Monetization: paid - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ibird-ultimate-guide-to-birds/id872771050/reviews.md ## What is iBird Ultimate Guide to Birds? Behold, the most comprehensive and awe-inspiring fixed-price birding app for the iPhone, has undergone a stunning transformation! iBird Ultimate has risen to new heights with the addition of the 2019-2020 American Ornithological Union (AOU) standard, making it a true birdwatcher's dream. It is now 100% compatible with iOS 16 and Silicon-based Macintosh. It boasts a vast database of 967 species of birds in North America, 343 species from the United Kingdom and Ireland, 228 species found in Hawaii, and 169 bird species from the enigmatic island nation of Palau. But this is not your ordinary digital field guide, for iBird Ultimate has an incredible new feature that will leave you breathless. iBird Photo Sleuth is powered by artificial intelligence using a neural network, which enables you to identify any bird from any photo you take or upload. Imagine the possibilities! With just a snap of your iPhone or iPad camera, you can unlock the secrets of the winged creatures that soar above us. iBird Pro is a birding encyclopedia at your fingertips, with more information on each species than in any app. And that's not all, for iBird Ultimate offers both photographs and field-marked illustrations for every species. What's more, it has composite illustrations that highlight the important identification markings of the bird family, something that photographs cannot do. But fear not, as iBird Ultimate also includes multiple photos of every species of bird - including the male, female, juvenile, and subspecies - so you can see how they appear in real life. But the real magic lies in Percevia™, the only parametric birding search engine that can turn anyone into an expert birder, with over 35 characteristics that can be searched, such as body color, GPS location, habitat, bill shape, and song type. The beauty of iBird is it always gives an answer; no more “bird not found” messages. Another unique feature of iBird Ultimate is that no internet connection is required to use iBird Pro in the field, making it the perfect companion for birding adventures. And now, with its consolidated architecture, iBird Ultimate’s default North American database can be supplemented with databases of other countries, such as Hawaii or the United Kingdom. You can instantly switch between them inside the app, making it easier than ever to explore the world of birds. But that's not all! iBird Pro offers a range of features that will elevate your birding experience to new heights. With Birds Around Me (BAM), you can see just those species within a radius surrounding your GPS location. Time-of-Day lets you search for birds by activity levels during the day or night, dawn, dusk, and more. And let's not forget Owls of Mexico, which includes illustrations with field marks, range maps, songs, and calls for 16 remarkable Owl species. So, what are you waiting for? Version 13.2 of iBird Ultimate is waiting for you, with 38 new illustrations just waiting to be discovered. The birding world will never be the same again! EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ (https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/) ## Key features - AI-powered photo bird identification - Extensive bird databases (North America, UK, Hawaii, Palau) - Parametric search engine with 35+ characteristics - Offline functionality for field use - Detailed species information with photos and illustrations - Birds Around Me (BAM) feature - Time-of-Day bird activity search ## Pricing and in-app purchases Base price: $9.99. **One-time purchases** | Purchase | Price | Type | | --- | --- | --- | | Time of Day | $0.99 | one-time | | Mexican Owls | $1.99 | one-time | | Photo Sleuth | $4.99 | one-time | ## What do users think of iBird Ultimate Guide to Birds? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Great app for birding - 👍 Comprehensive information on birds - 🎨 Excellent photos and illustrations - 🔊 High-quality bird sounds - 🗺️ Useful location-based features - 💻 Replaces physical field guides **Cons** - 🐛 Crashes and bugs - 🔍 Search function needs improvement - 💰 Expensive, with in-app purchases - 🔀 Confusing updates and app versions - 🗣️ Poor customer support - 📱 Compatibility issues with newer devices **Commonly reported bugs** - User notes and lists disappearing after updates - Playback of bird sounds not working as expected - Crashes and freezes when using certain app features - Incorrect or outdated information for some bird species **Most requested features** - Ability to disable intrusive ads and banners - Improved syncing and backup of user data - More detailed information on female/juvenile bird appearances - Smaller search radius for location-based features - Comparison tool to view similar bird species side-by-side ## Recent user reviews (10 of 116) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ibird-ultimate-guide-to-birds/id872771050/reviews.md ### 5/5 — Tremendous app! *2026-06-02* I have had this app for years. Happily purchased it a long time ago while I believe it was in its infancy. It is very comprehensive with a LOT of information that I have not yet seen in books. I would gladly purchase all Mitch’s stuff, and I hope he will one day come out with an app on all the birds of Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, pretty much everywhere! It is my hope and desire to have a complete reference app/guide to ALL the birds of the world. I have no idea why no one has put an app together quite like Mitch’s. I have not seen its kind in the App Store at all. Please, Mitch, please make another app or two on the birds of other continents. **Developer response:** Thank you for your incredible support and for being with iBird since the early days! We're honored that you find the app so comprehensive and useful, and it's especially rewarding to hear it compares favorably to traditional field guides. Your enthusiasm for expanding iBird to cover birds from around the world is appreciated and has certainly been shared by other birders as well. We'll be sure to pass your encouragement along to Mitch. Thank you for being part of the iBird community, and happy birding wherever your adventures take you! ### 4/5 — Good app but no field journal *2026-03-21, version 13.3* The app is great for identifying birds and their calls, but no field journal. ### 5/5 — Unsupported *2026-01-18* Still selling unsupported apps when a newer version is available, don’t make my mistake and buy this. ### 5/5 — Love it *2026-01-18, version 13.3* This app is great is amazing for bird watching ### 4/5 — Great but a bit buggy! *2025-08-14* My fave bird app—just upgraded to Ultimate after years of iBird pro and was so happy that I could now clear the selected bird with the x instead of backspacing my way out. Mixed glee when I found that playback wants to start with the top listed sound instead of the one I select and most annoying it defaults to cycle thru the calls/songs of the selected bird. The app will eventually train me to check the cycle switch before I use playback but the bit about it choosing the first item on the playback menu knocks a star off my review. ### 1/5 — Worst developer on the App Store *2025-06-01* This app has been abandoned for three years. I originally paid $30 for it. I had to fight tooth and nail to get access to IBird pro after they abandoned this app. Then they switched IBird pro, a paid app, to a forced subscription about a year ago. They had no grandfathering in - which is what every other developer has done when they switch to subscription. I don’t know why they revived this app, but I do not trust them and implore you not to waste your money on this deceitful developer. ### 5/5 — Excellent Guide *2025-05-12* I’ve always had a fascination with birds, and even as a young man had field guides that were very useful nevertheless, I always came up a little short in learning what I really wanted to learn about birds. For example, I always wanted to be able to identify them by their song and I was never able to do that. Now with iBird Ultimate I’ve already begun to see birds, hear birds, and then listen to the sound in the app and memorize it making me now able to finally begin to name birds just by hearing their song excellent guide; highly recommend. **Developer response:** Hi, So "Buzzard" is a nick name (in North America) for the Turkey Vulture and the Black vulture. Those birds are in the app, check them out to see if that is what you were observing. :-) ### 5/5 — Best Birding App *2025-03-30, version 13.3* None Better! ### 4/5 — Great app with a few bugs *2025-01-28, version 13.3* Playing sounds, the app always starts with top-most sound regardless of which is selected. Not acceptable in some circumstances. Has lost personal notes with update. Overall a great app, despite bugs. ### 5/5 — Field Kit Replacement *2025-01-07, version 13.3* This app is good. It has replaced the National Geographic Field Guide and in so doing has reduced the weight of my field kit by a couple of pounds. ## Frequently asked questions about iBird Ultimate Guide to Birds ### What does iBird Ultimate do? iBird Ultimate is a comprehensive birding app that allows you to identify birds from photos using artificial intelligence. It also serves as a detailed field guide with extensive databases for North America, the UK, Hawaii, and Palau, offering information on hundreds of species. ### What are the key features of iBird Ultimate? Key features include AI-powered photo identification, a vast bird database with detailed species information, photographs, and illustrations. It also boasts a powerful parametric search engine, offline functionality, and location-based bird discovery tools. ### How much does iBird Ultimate cost? iBird Ultimate is a fixed-price application. While the description mentions it's a fixed-price app, specific pricing details are not provided. Users can check the app store for the current cost. ### What devices is iBird Ultimate compatible with? The app is 100% compatible with iOS 16 and Silicon-based Macintosh computers. It is designed for use on iPhones and iPads. ### Can I use iBird Ultimate without an internet connection? Yes, a significant advantage of iBird Ultimate is that no internet connection is required to use its core features in the field. This makes it an ideal companion for birding adventures where connectivity may be limited. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 13.3 — 2023-10-10 - squashed some bugs ### 13.2 — 2023-05-09 Includes all databases and in-app purchases in one package. ### 12.01 — 2019-06-05 In addition to compatibility with the newest iPhones and iPads, this expanded version of iBird is completely updated for the 2018 American Ornithological Union (AOU) Supplement. There are two new species; the Cassia Crossbill and the Sinaloa Wren. The Thayer’s Gull has been lumped as a subspecies of the Iceland Gull. Plus, there are over 100 small changes, some of which are listed below. In our continuing effort to improve our illustrations and photos we have updated the following 32 species drawings with much improved composite illustrations: Ashy Storm-Petrel, Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, Bermuda Petrel, Black Storm-Petrel, Broad-billed Hummingbird, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Bronzed Cowbird, Cassia Crossbill, Couch's Kingbird, Crescent-chested Warbler, Eskimo Curlew, Eurasian Coot, Glaucous Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Golden-winged Warbler, Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, Hairy Woodpecker, Harlequin Duck, Iceland Gull, Killdeer, Long-billed Dowitcher, Northern Waterthrush, Painted Redstart, Rufous-capped Warbler, Say's Phoebe, Sinaloa Wren, Slate-throated Redstart, Smith's Longspur, Swainson's Warbler, White-headed Woodpecker, Willow Ptarmigan, Wrentit. You can see these in a matched list by selecting Search->Illustration Update->12.01. 2018 AOU updates Gray Jay has been changed to Canada Jay, White-collared Seedeater has been split into Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater & Morelet's Seedeater, Harris’s Hawk Band code changed from HASH to HRSH, Fox Sparrow changed from Old World to New World Sparrow, Storm-Petrels are now grouped into Southern (Oceanitidae) and Northern (Hydrobatidae) Storm-Petrels, several parrots have been placed in African and New World Parrots from lories, Parakeets, Macaws and Parrots, Black-faced Grassquit, Saffron Finch and Yellow-faced Grassquit have been moved from Emberizids to Tanagers. Gray-streaked Flycatcher has been moved from Tyrant Flycatchers to Old World Flycatchers. Flame-colored Tanager, Hepatic Tanager, Scarlet Tanager, Summer Tanager and Western Tanager have been moved from Tanagers to Cardinals & Piranga Tanagers. Red-billled Leiothrix has been moved to Sylviid Warblers from Old World Babblers. Bananaquit has been moved from Bananaquits to Tanagers. Crimson-collared Grosbeak has been moved to Tanagers from Cardinals, Piranga Tanagers and Allies. In addition to the above changes, 16 birds had species name changes and 8 birds had changes to Latin names. Photo Sleuth This plugin identifies birds of North America from any photo, even poor quality photos. Open photos in your Photo Gallery or use your device camera directly. Photo Sleuth allows beginners and advanced birder’s to ID species the stump the experts. The beauty of Sleuth is that it doesn’t need an internet connection. Go to the Purchases screen to find a short slide show about iBird Photo Sleuth. Owls of Mexico 
Includes Owls of Mexico, the first time we have extended the North America database to include new species. In this collection our favorite 16 Owls of Mexico and Central America are presented in all the high-quality detail iBird is known for, including illustrations with field marks, range maps, songs and calls, photos, ID and behavior data and much more. Take a look at the graphical onboard tutorial on the Purchase page for a visual presentation of a typical species account for this package. Time of Day Search  The new Time of Day search feature lets you filter birds by activity intervals 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. ### 10.06 — 2017-12-24 Besides compatibility with the iPhone X, this new expanded version of iBird is completely updated for the 2017 American Ornithological Union (AOU) Supplement. There are two new species; the Cassia Crossbill and the Sinaloa Wren. The Thayer’s Gull has been lumped as a subspecies of the Iceland Gull. Plus there are over 100 small changes, some of which are listed below. In our continuing effort to improve our illustrations and photos we have updated the following 32 species drawings with much improved composite illustrations: Ashy Storm-Petrel, Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, Bermuda Petrel, Black Storm-Petrel, Broad-billed Hummingbird, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Bronzed Cowbird, Cassia Crossbill, Couch's Kingbird, Crescent-chested Warbler, Eskimo Curlew, Eurasian Coot, Glaucous Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Golden-winged Warbler, Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, Hairy Woodpecker, Harlequin Duck, Iceland Gull, Killdeer, Long-billed Dowitcher, Northern Waterthrush, Painted Redstart, Rufous-capped Warbler, Say's Phoebe, Sinaloa Wren, Slate-throated Redstart, Smith's Longspur, Swainson's Warbler, White-headed Woodpecker, Willow Ptarmigan, Wrentit. You can see these in a matched list by selecting Search->Illustration Update->10.06. There are 7 new AOU changes to Families: Sylviid Warblers (Sylviidae) changed to Old World Babblers (Timaliidae), Leaf Warblers (Phylloscopidae) changed to Bush Warblers, Tesias and Allies (Cettidae), Grassbirds (Megaluridae) changed to Grassbirds (Locustellidae), Cardinals & Piranga Tanagers (Cardinalidae) changed to Spindalises (Spindalidae), Emberizids (Emberizidae) has a new famuly New World Sparrows and Towhees (Passerellida). Finally the family Parulidae has changed to Icteriidae. Note the family Icteriidae is monotypic, containing only a single species, the Yellow-breasted Chat (Icteria virens). Owls of Mexico Includes Owls of Mexico, the first time we have extended the North America database to include new species. In this collection our favorite 16 Owls of Mexico and Central America are presented in all the high quality detail iBird is known for, including illustrations with field marks, range maps, songs and calls, photos, ID and behavior data and much more. Take a look at the graphical onboard tutorial on the Purchase page for a visual presentation of a typical species account for this package. Time of Day Search The new Time of Day search feature lets you filter birds by activity intervals 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. ### 10.05 — 2017-10-10 Includes Owls of Mexico, the first time we have extended the North America database to include new species. In this collection our favorite 16 Owls of Mexico and Central America are presented in all the high quality detail iBird is known for, including illustrations with field marks, range maps, songs and calls, photos, ID and behavior data and much more. Take a look at the graphical onboard tutorial on the Purchase page for a visual presentation of a typical species account for this package. The collection is comprised of the following birds: Balsas Screech-Owl, Bearded Screech-Owl, Black-and-White Owl, Cape Pygmy-Owl. Central American Pygmy-Owl, Colima Pygmy-Owl, Crested Owl, Fulvous Owl, Mottled Owl, Pacific Screech-Owl, Spectacled Owl, Striped Owl, Stygian Owl, Tamaulipas Pygmy-Owl, Unspotted Saw-whet Owl, Vermiculated Screech-Owl. Time of Day Search. The new Time of Day search feature lets you filter birds by activity intervals 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 and is available as an inexpensive in-app update for 99 cents. Please note that we are in the process of updating the paragraphs for each species so this first release will not be complete. Dropbox Migration is back. As you may know before we implemented iCloud for syncing Favorites, Notes and Photos, we used Dropbox. We made the shift because Dropbox removed an essential feature we used for the backup and sync feature to work. We thought enough time had gone by that most of our customers had migrated to iCloud, but we discovered that was not the case. So, we have implemented the Dropbox migration again feature so that customers who are still using it can let iBird move their Notes and Favorites to iCloud. You will still need to reassign your photos once they have been moved to your iCloud folder. New Sounds. New sounds were just added for 8 owl species: the Elf Owl, Flammulated Owl, Great Gray Owl, Great Horned Owl, Northern Hawk Owl, Spotted Owl, Western Screech-Owl, and Whiskered Screech-Owl. Check out the female call of a Northern Hawk Owl in flight and female alarm calls from a Spotted Owl. We are committed to adding to our extensive sound library and routinely check for new sounds that we can include. Our Western Screech-Owl is a prime example of this. While we had the song, trill and alarm calls for this species we were able to add female and begging whinny calls as well as a different type of alarm call. New Species: We are constantly updating the illustrations for our species. Here are the ones we have updated for this new version 10.05 of iBird. Aztec Thrush, Eastern Bluebird, Kittlitz’s Murrelet, Leach’s Storm Petrel, Least Storm Petrel, White-throated Sparrow and Yellow-eyed Junco. To see the latest drawings, go to Illustration Update on the Search menu. ## Apps similar to iBird Ultimate Guide to Birds | App | Rating | Price | Category | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/merlin-bird-id-by-cornell-lab/id773457673) | 4.9 (111,272) | Free | Reference | | [Picture Bird: Bird identifier](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/picture-bird-bird-identifier/id1474586978) | 4.7 (39,822) | Free | Reference | | [Bird Sounds Identifier Call ID](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bird-sounds-identifier-call-id/id6449354786) | 4.7 (13,407) | Free | Reference | | [ChirpOMatic - BirdSong USA](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chirpomatic-birdsong-usa/id1233785633) | 4.6 (1,691) | Free | Reference | | [iBird Pro Guide to Birds](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ibird-pro-guide-to-birds/id308018823) | 4.3 (6,916) | Free | Reference | | [Bird Sound Identifier Song ID](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bird-sound-identifier-song-id/id6452678671) | 4.3 (493) | Free | Reference | ## 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 UK & Ireland Lite](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ibird-uk-and-ireland-lite/id441884227) - [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 ## Related topics [ibird ultimate guide to birds](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/ibird-ultimate-guide-to-birds) · [ibird pro guide to birds](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/ibird-pro-guide-to-birds) · [ibird uk pro guide to birds](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/ibird-uk-pro-guide-to-birds) · [birds vico home](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/birds-vico-home) · [ibird](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/ibird) · [ibird pro](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/ibird-pro) · [audubon birds pro](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/audubon-birds-pro) · [ibird plus](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/ibird-plus) · [bird guides](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/bird-guides) --- *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 2026-08-27.*