Great app for bird lovers
I absolutely love using the nest watch app! It’s intuitive and well designed so that it makes it easy to track nesting birds anywhere I go. Logging data is straightforward and detailed. You can log everything from nest materials to the number of eggs and hatchlings, which makes the observations really meaningful and accurate.
Another thing I love is the ability to upload photos. It’s super cool to look back and see the progress of birds as they grow up. I’ve learned a lot about local species and their nesting behaviors through the app.
Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys birding and wants to contribute to real scientific research. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has done a great job with making an app that’s super fun and easy to use!
Another thing I love is the ability to upload photos. It’s super cool to look back and see the progress of birds as they grow up. I’ve learned a lot about local species and their nesting behaviors through the app.
Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys birding and wants to contribute to real scientific research. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has done a great job with making an app that’s super fun and easy to use!
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Great app for bird lovers
I absolutely love using the nest watch app! It’s intuitive and well designed so that it makes it easy to track nesting birds anywhere I go. Logging data is straightforward and detailed. You can log everything from nest materials to the number of eggs and hatchlings, which makes the observations really meaningful and accurate.
Another thing I love is the ability to upload photos. It’s super cool to look back and see the progress of birds as they grow up. I’ve learned a lot about local species and their nesting behaviors through the app.
Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys birding and wants to contribute to real scientific research. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has done a great job with making an app that’s super fun and easy to use!
Another thing I love is the ability to upload photos. It’s super cool to look back and see the progress of birds as they grow up. I’ve learned a lot about local species and their nesting behaviors through the app.
Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys birding and wants to contribute to real scientific research. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has done a great job with making an app that’s super fun and easy to use!
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App is unusable
Wonderful idea for an app but it’s basically unusable. The app constantly glitches and crashes. I can’t even load previous nest data or enter new data while in the field despite having good service. Had the same problem last year and it’s still not fixed.
Response from developer
Thanks for your feedback, we're sorry to hear you're having issues with the latest version of the app. Please contact us at NestWatch@cornell.edu for help troubleshooting.
I’m about ready to give up
I’ve enjoyed entering data in Nestwatch for several years, but this year the app has become basically unusable for me. If I try to make more than one entry on a single day, I can usually make the first entry ok, but after that the Submit button doesn’t work. This happens whether I’m trying to enter data for more than one location on a single day, or for more than one date for a single location.
I have been in contact with customer support, but they haven’t been able to help me. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve deleted and reinstalled the app. I’ve updated my iPad, rebooted my iPad, and tried going thru the website to enter my data instead of using the app. Nothing works. I’m watching two active nest boxes right now. Today I visited both but can’t enter both observations today, so I’ll try to remember to enter the second visit tomorrow. This is seriously getting to be more trouble than it’s worth.
I have been in contact with customer support, but they haven’t been able to help me. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve deleted and reinstalled the app. I’ve updated my iPad, rebooted my iPad, and tried going thru the website to enter my data instead of using the app. Nothing works. I’m watching two active nest boxes right now. Today I visited both but can’t enter both observations today, so I’ll try to remember to enter the second visit tomorrow. This is seriously getting to be more trouble than it’s worth.
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Response from developer
Thanks for your feedback, we're sorry to hear you're having issues with the latest version of the app. Please contact us at NestWatch@cornell.edu for help troubleshooting your issue.
Well laid out and comprehensive
I’ve enjoyed Merlin and other information from Cornell in the past, and this app brings it all into one location. They have a great layout to show you all the relevant information on the nests and the birds, and format for monitoring your own nests and houses
New Version is much better (updated: May 2022)
The new version in May 2021 is a major improvement and has allowed me to use the App again! I have a large collection of nest boxes and earlier this year the old app became unusable. This upgrade came just in time to let me keep working in the field! The photo management is much smoother, the map, filtering, and summary pages are quick and I have yet to crash! Thank You!
*update May 2022
This app is still really useful but after using it for a year with multiple users sharing a log- in to all have access to the same 400+ nests it needs a button to force it to refresh or update “all data”. It regularly does not show me new nest checks that others have made until I open the nest and “pull down “ - then it will find the new check. This has caused problems many times including checking nests more often than needed!
*update May 2022
This app is still really useful but after using it for a year with multiple users sharing a log- in to all have access to the same 400+ nests it needs a button to force it to refresh or update “all data”. It regularly does not show me new nest checks that others have made until I open the nest and “pull down “ - then it will find the new check. This has caused problems many times including checking nests more often than needed!
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June 2021 update
Location services must be enabled for the app to work. Otherwise, the app gets stuck while "getting your nest in order, step 3 of 7."
Easy to use
Allowing the app to sort my nests by ‘nearby’ makes my nest checks much easier! The new dark mode looks great.
Love the new update
The new update for May 2021 works well and helps me enter my nest checks effortlessly. I have enjoyed the simplified form and “nearby nests” feature.
Great update! Easier to use and nice new features
Excellent update that makes it much easier to enter nest observations. Love the new dark mode - makes it easier to see in the bright sun. Also, notable improvements to the map and adding new nests.
Has potential
I realize this app probably doesn’t get a lot of funding so am making these comments knowing it probably won’t change, but here are my wishes for the app:
Add Touch ID so I don’t have to put in credentials every time, or at least let me save my ID/pw
Add “select from photos” to the photo page so I don’t have to go to the visit to add it
Add Touch ID so I don’t have to put in credentials every time, or at least let me save my ID/pw
Add “select from photos” to the photo page so I don’t have to go to the visit to add it
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Start did not work
I was excited to download this app but when I agreed to the rules of nest watching I needed to restart the whole signing up.😡
Stopped working
Well this App was a bit clunky it was working. It starts by saying it’s syncing offline data, which I didn’t enter, the there’s a continue button. Nothing happens when you tap it. Both my iPhone and the app are running most recent versions.
Great design, fail in implementation
Been using the app for several years and have seen continuing improvements in the user interface but performance makes it unusable.
Innovative but riddled with bugs & frustrations
It’s nice that we can all participate in citizen science from our smartphone, but it’s obvious this is an app from a non-profit with limited funds. The app often freezes. Talk-text and auto-correct are both turned off inside the app, so you must very carefully type out all notes and make your own corrections. You cannot upload photos while making an initial entry; you can only take real-time photos. If you try to do so, you end up loitering at the nest violating the contract you agreed to and freaking out the mom & nestlings while you stand at the nest frantically trying to accurately make your entries & get to the one-and-only screen to take your real-time photo. You can only upload pics by returning to the entry after it is saved. You should be able to upload a photo when making the initial entry. It takes numerous seconds to upload each photo. If you exit the app before it finishes uploading, there will be a perpetual message every time you open the app telling you there is an upload pending, but when you access that error message, it tells you there are none pending. The message remains until you find the hidden photo that never finished uploading, delete it, and re-upload it. The web client and the app often seem out of sync. I enjoy NestWatch, feel like I am contributing to ornithology, and recommend the app to others... but I often cuss out my phone while using it! 🤬
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Gah!!! “Please wait...”
When I open the app, when I enter a single piece of information, I see the subject in “” waaaay too much. Using this app gives me anxiety. I was SO excited to enter my nest data yesterday but the experience was such a downer.
When I tried opening the app this am all I got was a blank screen. So I deleted it, reloaded it, only to experience “Please wait...” again.
Not sure I can go thru using it again but will try as I love the idea of citizen science. I’m also using Anecdata.org’s app for the same nest and it works like a dream. Come on Cornell Lab - I know you guys can do this!
When I tried opening the app this am all I got was a blank screen. So I deleted it, reloaded it, only to experience “Please wait...” again.
Not sure I can go thru using it again but will try as I love the idea of citizen science. I’m also using Anecdata.org’s app for the same nest and it works like a dream. Come on Cornell Lab - I know you guys can do this!
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Crash and Freeze
I loved this app initially. But in the field, with full 4GLTE signal, it still crashes and freezes. Tried at home on WiFi and same thing. So sad. Could be tremendously useful. I hope they fix the bugs (no pun intended).
Another Crap App
Did not work at all. Could not establish login. Never had this problem before. Waste of time.
Very useful
Seems to work seamlessly on my iPhone SE but is prone to locking up when used with my iPad Air 2. Both have the latest operating system.
No good
This app is driving me nuts. I have up to date devises but the app crashes every time I try to use it. The problem is I NEED to enter the data because I volunteer to monitor Bluebird boxes for a Nature organization. Last year, during monitoring time, it worked fine.
Response from developer
Sorry that you're having trouble after an update! Please contact us at NestWatch@Cornell.edu and we'll work with you to find out what the problem is.
