# iBird Yard+ Guide to Birds > North American bird identification guide with songs, photos, and smart search. (iPhone/iPad app by Mitch Waite Group.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ibird-yard-plus-guide-to-birds/id297644123 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Mitch Waite Group](https://appshunter.io/developer/297644126) - Category: Reference, Education - Price: $2.99 with in-app purchases - Rating: 4.60/5 from 224 App Store ratings · 104 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 9.0 · 702 MB - Languages: American English, Arabic, Italian, Korean, Russian, Chinese (Simplified, China), European Spanish - Released: 2008-11-25 - Data updated: 2026-08-27 - Monetization: free with in-app purchases - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ibird-yard-plus-guide-to-birds/id297644123/reviews.md ## What is iBird Yard+ Guide to Birds? iBird Yard Plus Guide to Birds has 270 species of North America. It is designed specifically for the 126 species of garden and yard birds found in North America and Hawaii and an additional 144 species of common birds most birders are likely to see such as ducks, hawks, seabirds, etc. If you are new to birding, iBird Yard Plus is an inexpensive way to become intimate with these amazing creatures. Just set up a small bird feeder in your yard and start discovering the beautiful species that thrive in your area. iBird Yard Plus is completely up to date with the 2017 AOU supplement and contains hundreds of bird songs and calls you can play from the app to attract birds to your feeders. Birders with more experience may want to review our iBird Plus, Pro and Ultimate products. More Details of What’s New: bit.ly/ibird-whatsnew iBird Yard Plus also takes a major leap forward with “Time of Day” filtering available in version 10.06. You can now search for birds by activity levels during day or night (Cathemeral), dawn and dusk (Crepuscular), during the day (Diurnal) or during the night (Nocturnal). Also included in this version is our new Owls of Mexico and Central America package, including all the hard to find details which iBird is so well known for: illustrations with field marks, range maps, songs and calls and much more. With iBird’s Percevia™ matching system you can search for birds by color, location, shape, habitat or any one of 37 identification attributes to find your bird. iBird's comprehensive species pages have hundreds of built-in bird song recordings, professional high-resolution bird photographs, hand-drawn composite illustrations and range maps with detailed migration paths. ** NOTE: If you would like to try out iBird without spending any money, check the newly released iBird LITE Free Guide to Birds of North America. It contains all the features of paid iBird Ultimate, including BAM, but contains just 50 species. And it’s completely FREE. ** Whether you are an experienced birder or a beginner, iBird Yard Plus is the best way to learn all about the birds in your garden. Features ■ iBird now takes advantage of the high-resolution retina displays of the iPhone and iPad so the screen shows more information than ever. ■ Birds Around Me and Percevia smart search now available as in-app purchases. ■ Contains the latest 2017 AOU checklists. ■ Splits-History lets you see what birds have had name changes, have been split into more than one species or lumped into one species. ■ iBird’s icon-driven visual search engine, enables you to identify birds using shape, color, location, habitat, head pattern, flight pattern, bill shape, length and more. ■ Voluminous identification and hard-to-find details such as diet, nest information, egg color, sex of incubator, vocalization definitions, and more. ■ The only birding app that includes both Illustrations and Photos. ■ The powerful search engine means no longer scrolling through hundreds of the wrong choices. iBird matches just those birds near you that fit your description. ■ Many hours of highest quality bird sound recordings. ■ Sort birds by first, last and family name and view birds by text, icon, thumbnail or gallery. ■ Search by common name, Latin name and even band code. ■ Only app with a field mark layer which displays key ID marks for male, female, juvenile. ■ Post, keep lists, and share sightings with friends and followers with an easy and user-friendly Notes and Favorites interface. ■ iBird’s database is completely self-contained; no internet connection is required like many other birding apps. Other Features ■ All new range maps now include Summer, Winter, Spring and Fall ranges plus Year-round and Migration ranges. ■ The Conservation Status search attribute lets you filter birds by 6 threat levels. ■ Species, common and family names in English, French and Spanish (text is English). ## Key features - 270 North American bird species - Hundreds of bird songs and calls - Percevia™ smart search by attributes - High-resolution photos and illustrations - Range maps and migration paths - Time of Day filtering - Splits-History for name changes ## Pricing and in-app purchases Base price: $2.99. **One-time purchases** | Purchase | Price | Type | | --- | --- | --- | | Birds Around Me | $2.99 | one-time | | Percevia and BAM Bundle | $4.99 | one-time | | Percevia Smart Search | $2.99 | one-time | | Time of Day | $0.99 | one-time | ## What do users think of iBird Yard+ Guide to Birds? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🎵 High-quality bird call recordings with multiple variations - 📸 Excellent photos and illustrations of birds - 🎯 Easy-to-use interface and intuitive navigation - 🔍 Effective search and filtering functionality - 📚 Comprehensive information for each bird species - ⭐ Great value for the price - 🌍 Regional bird filtering by location - 🎓 Educational and informative content - 👨‍👩‍👧 Family-friendly and engaging for all ages - 📱 Portable alternative to heavy field guides - 🔊 Bird calls attract real birds to your yard - ❤️ Favorites list for tracking identified birds - 🆓 Generous free features included **Cons** - ❌ Missing many common bird species from database - 🔄 Inconsistent regional bird availability - 🐛 Search function returns 'no matches' incorrectly - 💰 Aggressive upselling and upgrade prompts - 🔊 Audio compatibility issues with newer devices - 🎨 Outdated user interface design - ⚠️ Confusing navigation between similar species - 🌐 Limited to North American birds only - 🔤 No language selection options - ⚙️ Occasional crashes and stability issues - 📋 Lack of bird sighting history tracking - 🔍 Sluggish search performance **Commonly reported bugs** - Sound not working on iPhone X and newer devices - Search function fails to find birds by correct name - App crashes frequently during use - Memory management issues causing instability - Typos throughout the application - Inconsistent bird availability by region **Most requested features** - Add more bird species to database, especially common backyard birds - Implement bird call audio recognition (like Shazam for birds) - Create automatic bird sighting history/journal feature - Add landscape mode for search functionality - Include more raptors and shorebirds - Expand to international bird species - Add French language support - Improve search accuracy and responsiveness - Create clearer distinction between clickable and non-clickable list items - Add user photo upload and sharing capabilities - Implement migration pattern visualization - Add more detailed male/female/juvenile plumage descriptions ## Recent user reviews (10 of 104) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ibird-yard-plus-guide-to-birds/id297644123/reviews.md ### 3/5 — Bigfoot & me *2024-07-27* I’m in awe at the power of this app! The updates since iPhone One are reflective of a database that’s never going to go out of style! The importance in the fields of conservation and film of databases like these are a good investment. ### 2/5 — More missing birds *2024-04-18* Really? You would think something as common as a quail would be in this app but no, it is not. This is the second or third time I have been greatly disappointed. I live at a lake where there are many species of birds but am still looking for the name of one of the birds I see only occasionally. ### 5/5 — I identified it… *2023-10-06* …as a kid fishing and hunting in marsh areas in Southern California, there was a bird that had a distinctive call and was always hidden. I always wondered what it looked like, well this app was suggested to try and, guess what, I listened to the various calls provided in the app, I finally was able to see the mysterious bird. Yippee!!! ### 1/5 — Choice of birds *2023-09-16, version 10.06* Does not have all my backyard birds I live in South East USA ### 3/5 — Missing common birds *2023-08-12* Whether there is a picture or not, there should at least be a hidden reference so when a search is done on a somewhat common bird, it at least states this bird is not available in this app at this time. You would think the app developers would be considerate enough to do that. Today is the second time I saw the same species bird. My daughter was with me and supplied the name “cormorant”. Apparently, at ine time this species almost became extinct due to DDT but since that is no longer used, has made a significant comeback. ### 5/5 — Wonderful App *2022-09-19* I have used this app in Texas and Florida. It has helped me to identify and learn about many birds. I sit on my patio every morning to watch the birds feed. Recently noticed a new one I was able to ID as a house finch. When I turned on the recording of the male bird calling, about 30 nearby finches flew in and perched on top of my crepe myrtle. It was an awesome experience. ### 4/5 — Audobon *2022-05-02* This haas brought back so many memories for me, from the Boy Scout badge I earned back in the 60’s….to my back yard feeders i keep year -round for my feathered living fossils…thank you! ### 5/5 — Excellent resource! *2021-02-09* I live in rural East Texas and am able to enjoy quite a collection of neighboring birds who fly in for the all-you-can-eat buffets at my feeders. This app is a perfect resource for a newbie birdwatcher like me to easily id the birds I see, or helpful & interesting to the more knowledgeable lovers of birds and their habitats. Highly recommend! Looking forward to “reading” iBird Yard with my grandson as we watch the birds outside our windows. ### 5/5 — Bird watching *2020-08-09* I love the app and I love learning new things about birds and I found out about new birds that I didn’t even know about the only thing that I hate is the bird watching because the bird watching because the birds are so fast it’s Dumb but otherwise it’s awesome😇. ### 5/5 — Awesome! Invaluable to me *2020-07-26* Birdwatching has become a big thing to me over the past few years, and I loved this app. But, last year, we moved from an apartment to a home in a far more sparsely populated area. There is a meadow out back and then forest behind that—even a private nature park. The number of bird species around at least double the number we saw before. We even have hawks that try for some of the smaller birds or small animals. Birds allows me to identify them all with confidence. If you are new to birdwatching, this app is a must. It’s easier to use than the Audubon by far. ## Frequently asked questions about iBird Yard+ Guide to Birds ### What does the iBird Yard+ Guide to Birds app do? This app helps you identify bird species found in North America and Hawaii. It provides detailed information on 270 species, including hundreds of bird songs and calls, high-resolution photographs, illustrations, and range maps. You can use its smart search engine to find birds based on various attributes like color, shape, and habitat. ### What are the key features of iBird Yard+ Guide to Birds? Key features include a database of 270 North American bird species, hundreds of bird songs and calls, a smart search engine (Percevia™) with 37 identification attributes, high-resolution photos and illustrations, range maps with migration paths, and a 'Time of Day' filtering option. It also includes a Splits-History feature to track bird name changes. ### How much does iBird Yard+ Guide to Birds cost? The app is available for free with in-app purchases. While the core app focuses on specific species, additional features like 'Birds Around Me' and the 'Percevia' smart search are offered as in-app purchases. A completely free version, iBird LITE, is also available with 50 species. ### What are the common use cases for iBird Yard+ Guide to Birds? This app is ideal for identifying birds you see in your backyard or garden. It's useful for beginners wanting to learn about local bird species and for experienced birders who want a comprehensive digital field guide. The bird song recordings can also be used to attract birds to feeders. ### What devices is iBird Yard+ Guide to Birds compatible with? The app is designed to take advantage of high-resolution retina displays, indicating compatibility with iPhones and iPads. Specific iOS version requirements are not detailed, but it is optimized for modern Apple mobile devices. ## 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 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 7 species drawings with much improved composite illustrations (the full version of iBird, Plus, Pro and Ultimate has 32 new species drawings): Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Bronzed Cowbird, Cassia Crossbill, Hairy Woodpecker, Killdeer, Say's Phoebe, Sinaloa Wren. You can see these in a matched list by selecting Search->Illustration Update->10.06. There are 7 new AOU changes to Families (not all of these are in iBird Yard): 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. ### 10.04 — 2017-07-30 Fixed a crash being experienced by some users. 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 10.03 of iBird. Black-faced Grassquit, Botteri's Sparrow, Cinnamon Hummingbird, Costa's Hummingbird, King Rail, Kirtland's Warbler, Limpkin, Louisiana Waterthrush. ### 10.02 — 2017-05-03 We restored the recordings for hundreds of species so they now have many more vocalizations. We added the recordings for many species which had no vocalizations in prior versions of iBird. Database is up to 50% 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. 15 new species drawings found with Search->Illustration Update->10.0. Splits-History in Search-Basic Group shows AOU and ABA changes for 2014, 2015 and 2016. Free 7-day trial for new in-app purchases for Birds Around Me (BAM) and Percevia smart search. See Navigation->Purchases screen. View by Head via Set View/Sort Mode button. Gallery mode now includes Common Names of species. Compare iBird versions: bit.ly/about-ibird ### 9.30 — 2016-06-26 ■ Improved migration from Dropbox to iCloud. ■ Updates should now be smaller downloads. ■ Fixed a few bugs. ### 9.21 — 2016-05-09 Update 9.21 of iBird Yard Plus Guide to Birds fixes a bug in iCloud Notes. Be aware that iCloud has replaced Dropbox for backing up your own photos, notes and favorites. There is a migration feature that will automatically move your Notes and Favorites from Dropbox to iCloud. Just follow the popup instructions. Additionally, we have updated these species: Caspian Tern, Common Ground-Dove, Dusky Thrush, Elf Owl, Great Skua, Hoary Redpoll, Olive-backed Pipit, Reed Bunting and the Rustic Bunting. If you encounter ANY issues please contact us at http://ibird.com/contact-us/ . We'll be happy to assist you! ## Apps similar to iBird Yard+ Guide to Birds | App | Rating | Price | Category | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Birds of North America: Sounds](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/birds-of-north-america-sounds/id1543957292) | 4.6 (308) | Free | Reference | | [Birda - Bird Watching, Birding](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/birda-bird-watching-birding/id1564130920) | 4.7 (2,141) | Free | Reference | | [Audubon Bird Guide](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/audubon-bird-guide/id333227386) | 4.3 (4,517) | Free | Reference | | [eBird](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ebird/id988799279) | 3.8 (797) | Free | Reference | | [Raptor ID](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/raptor-id/id1033944000) | 4.5 (44) | Free | Reference | | [Sibley Birds 2nd Edition](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sibley-birds-2nd-edition/id1236011411) | 4.9 (2,830) | $19.99 | Reference | ## More apps by Mitch Waite Group - [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 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 ## Related topics [audubon birds pro](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/audubon-birds-pro) · [ibird plus](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/ibird-plus) · [ibird](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/ibird) · [audubon birds](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/audubon-birds) · [ibird pro guide to birds](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/ibird-pro-guide-to-birds) --- *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.*