Bird Code Lookup vs Walk the Parks
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Bird Code Lookup
Instantly translate four-letter and six-letter bird codes into common and scientific bird names. This app helps birders, banders, and ornithologists quickly identify species from abbreviations used in field notes.
- Convert 4-letter codes to common bird names
- Convert common bird names to 4-letter codes
- Convert 6-letter codes to scientific bird names
- Convert scientific bird names to 6-letter codes
- Includes 2,431 bird species from the 2024 AOU Supplement
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Bird codes, also known as banding codes or alpha codes, are four-letter and six-letter abbreviations for bird names used by birders, bird banders and ornithologists, and birdwatchers in North and Central America. For example, the four-code for Wood Duck is “WODU”. The six-letter code is “AIXSPO” which is derived from the Wood Duck’s Scientific Name of “Aix sponsa”. These Bird Codes are commonly used as short-hand to write a bird names (often incorrectly). When entering or reading field notes, Bird Codes can speed and simplify matters but can take years to learn and can be confusing. The Bird Code Lookup App converts: • Four Letter Codes into Common Bird Names • Common Bird Names into Four Letter Codes (via a quick search) • Six Letter Codes into Scientific Bird Names • Scientific Bird Names into Six Letter Codes (via a quick search) Contains the 2,431 Bird Species (including hybrids) in the 2024 AOU Supplement.
Walk the Parks
Experience virtual hikes that sync with your real-world steps. Explore illustrated journeys through global parks, complete with dynamic weather, real-time sun and moon cycles, and landmark achievements. Earn stamps and customize your hiker as you virtually traverse diverse landscapes.
- Step-synced virtual hikes
- Illustrated park journeys
- Dynamic weather and time cycles
- Earnable passport stamps
- Customizable hiker avatar
- Offline functionality
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A walking world that moves with you. Walk the Parks turns the walking you already do into living, illustrated journeys through the great parks and trails of the world. Connect Apple Health once. From then on, every real step carries your hiker along a real route: past the landmarks, through each place's own weather, season by season, under a sun and moon that keep the park's real hours, toward a mountain that grows on the horizon as you close in on it. Journeys through the parks, not miles between them. Every route is a real tour with real mileage, so a landmark arrives every few days and a finished park every couple of weeks: Acadia's island loop, the Grand Canyon's rim, Yosemite's valley and high country, Kilimanjaro camp by camp. A WORLD THAT ANSWERS YOUR STEPS • The scene is drawn live, not photographed, and every walk looks like the real place: Half Dome over Yosemite Valley, red rock at Uluṟu, the rainforest canopy over the Amazon. Ridges, forests, canyons, coasts and snowfields shift as your route climbs and descends. • Weather true to each place. Rain, snow and mist follow ten years of weather records from near each trail, month by month: monsoon rain in Nepal, deep snow in a Yellowstone January, the Amazon's rainy season. • A real sky. The sun rises and sets on each park's own schedule for the time of year, the moon keeps its true phase, and on clear winter nights the northern lights dance over Hudson Bay and Lapland. • Summit journeys climb for real: the ground steepens, the ridges sink below you, and you break through a sea of cloud near the top. • Your hiker, your way: hat, trekking pole, and a trail dog who trots ahead. EARN EVERY STAMP Arrive at the end of a route and your passport gets its stamp: Half Dome for Yosemite, hoodoos for Bryce, a lighthouse for Acadia. Tap any stamp to relive the journey day by day, or rewind and watch it replay. MADE FOR REAL LIFE • Journeys pace to you. Walk more, arrive sooner. • Switch parks any time; your progress waits exactly where you left it. • Every step counts, even between parks: walk coast to coast on I-90 until you choose your next one. • Landmark alerts and a streak counter keep you moving without nagging. Reach your daily step goal day after day to earn new gear for your hiker. • A Home Screen widget keeps your trail in sight. • Share Journey Cards of your milestones. • Works entirely offline. No account. No ads. Nothing tracks you. ONE PURCHASE, YOURS FOREVER Fourteen journeys are free to walk, on six continents. The Full Passport unlocks all 63 U.S. national parks with a single one-time purchase. Thirteen Expedition packs add the world's great summits and trails: Everest and Kilimanjaro, the Camino, the Appalachian and Pacific Crest Trails, the Alps and the Dolomites, the Silk Road, the Amazon, Uluṟu, Indonesia's volcanoes, Patagonia, Japan, New Zealand and the Himalaya. No subscription, ever. YOUR DATA STAYS YOURS Walk the Parks reads only your step count and walking distance from Apple Health, keeps everything on your device, and collects nothing. There's no sign-up, no server, and no analytics company watching you walk. Lace up. The trail is waiting. Walk the Parks is an independent app. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the National Park Service, the U.S. Department of the Interior, or Eastern National's Passport To Your National Parks® program. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Bird Code Lookup at none against Walk the Parks's 10. Walk the Parks's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 40 months) and ratings volume (7 vs 1). On price, rating, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Walk the Parks sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Bird Code Lookup asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Bird Code Lookup against 5.0 for Walk the Parks. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Walk the Parks has 7 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Bird Code Lookup ships an update every 40 months, Walk the Parks weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bird Code Lookup | Walk the Parks |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (7 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 7 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 40 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 212 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | PVI Maine LLC | sam swenson |
Customer experience
Bird Code Lookup
Walk the Parks
In-app purchases
Bird Code Lookup
No in-app purchases
Walk the Parks
- Africa$4.99
- Latin America$4.99
- Indonesia$4.99
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- Australia$4.99
- Silk Road$4.99
- Long Trails$4.99
- New Zealand$4.99
- Europe$4.99
- Himalaya$4.99
- Full Passport$14.99
Questions
Is Bird Code Lookup free?
Is Walk the Parks free?
Which has better reviews, Bird Code Lookup or Walk the Parks?
Do Bird Code Lookup or Walk the Parks have ads?
Which is updated more often, Bird Code Lookup or Walk the Parks?
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