Roberts Birds vs TweetSpotSA
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Roberts Birds
This comprehensive birding app for South Africa offers detailed information, bird calls, and distribution maps. It features an advanced identification tool using various search criteria and an image recognition function. Log your sightings and access data offline.
- Extensive bird illustrations and images
- Large library of bird calls
- Comparative bird plates
- Interactive distribution maps
- Advanced ID Search with multiple filters
- Image recognition for bird identification
- Sighting logging and syncing
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Roberts Birds is the most comprehensive bird app in South Africa. After downloading the App you have to buy a mandatory Core Version yearly subscription for the app to function. The Core version subscription does not include the image recognition which is an additional yearly subscription. https://www.smartsearchsightings.com/roberts.htm Robert’s Bird App boasts an award winning identification tool and has a vast source of information: - Over 10000 beautiful and diagnostic illustrations and images of all variants, e.g. immature, males, females, dark and light morphs - Over 2200 comprehensive and clear bird calls - Over 700 comparative plates - The most comprehensive information on southern African birds - Interactive and accurate bird distribution maps, showing the migration patterns per month where applicable. The ID Search function allows you to select your current, or any other location and the birds at that location will be filtered. Over and above the GPS location, you can search by shape, type, colours, size, where seen, bird calls and more. There are 100's of attributes you can choose from, which makes identifying a bird accurate and easy. As a first ever bird app achievement, the resulting bird list is sorted by relevance with the most probable birds matching your search criteria at the top, which makes it extremely quick and accurate. The ability to remove birds from the results is a game-changer. It even has a section for hard to identify birds (LBJ's, etc) In addition to the ID Search function, Roberts Birds contains the most accurate Image Recognition for South African birds. You can upload images from your device or take a photo with the device's camera, which will then be used for the Image Recognition. This function has a 2-week evaluation period. Roberts Birds also offers the most accurate location filter available. You can select current location, location from a map, a country or any of over 1200 South African reserves. You can also log your sightings with trip descriptions, date and notes, which are then indicated as pins on the distribution maps. Sightings lists can be viewed and can even be synced to a website and shared between devices. Roberts Birds also offers a Similars functionality. It not only ranks the similars, it also gives preference to your location selection. When using a location filter, similars at that location will be ranked higher and similars outside of your selected location will be displayed last. No internet connectivity is required to operate the app after it is installed which makes it possible to use the app in the most remote locations. All updates are regular and free. For instructions of how to access older versions of the Roberts apps, please contact support@robertsbirds.co.za Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
TweetSpotSA
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Know the bird by its call — anywhere, even off the grid. TweetSpot listens to the birds around you and tells you what they are, entirely on your phone. No signal, no data, no waiting on a server. Just tap record, and it names what it hears. Built for Southern Africa, and honest about it. WHAT YOU GET • Offline bird-call identification — the whole engine runs on your phone, so it works deep in the bush. • 970+ Southern African birds, each with a hand-painted watercolour illustration. • Its real range near you — TweetSpot checks each ID against atlas data and gently flags anything unusual for your exact area. • Play any bird's reference call to compare. • Afrikaans names, a personal life list, and a searchable field guide. • Download calls and pictures for full offline use in the field. HONEST BY DESIGN TweetSpot shows you how confident it is and where a bird actually occurs, so you're never handed a false certainty. It's a companion for learning birds by ear, not a replacement for a full field guide. Made in South Africa.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: TweetSpotSA at none against Roberts Birds's 4. TweetSpotSA also leads on update cadence (every 8 days vs every 2 months). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. Roberts Birds sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per year. TweetSpotSA asks for nothing beyond the download.
Roberts Birds ships an update every 2 months, TweetSpotSA every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Roberts Birds | TweetSpotSA |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.7 (3 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 11.1% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 8 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Subscription | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1.6 GB | 108 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | High Branching cc | DAN ELKEBIR |
Bugs and requests
Roberts Birds
Reported bugs
29 issues- Sync and back-up is buggy
- Sync duplicates all entries on the server
- Sync slows down until unusable
- App shuts down when switching between bird choices
- App doesn’t sync
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- Cannot log in
- Don’t receive emails to reset password
- App closes when searching for a bird
- App closes when trying to select a bird
- App crashes
- App crashes and immediately closes
- App won’t load after installing
- App is slow and occasionally crashes
- Lag when scrolling down on bird list
- Lag when adding a lifer
- Duplicate entries (e.g., German name appearing multiple times)
- Cannot scroll between birds on list
- Have to go back out of list and re-enter
- Last update made it worse
- Image Recognition add-on was crashing the App
- Previous purchase not recognised when restoring
- Lost purchase when changed to subscription
- Lost my games option
- Still unable to transfer my list to new version
- Unable to see my life list realtime
- Map is unfriendly
- Difficult to see bird distribution vs geographical lines
- Lost my lists
- Birding site info gone
Requested features
3 requests- Ability to do target species lists
- Count of how many lifers on new list or per month/year
- Offer a month by month option
TweetSpotSA
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Roberts Birds
- Roberts Bird Call ID$3.991 Year
- Robert Image ID$5.991 Year
- Roberts Birds Subscription$14.991 Year
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- Including Image Recognition$19.991 Year
TweetSpotSA
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Roberts Birds free?
Is TweetSpotSA free?
Do Roberts Birds or TweetSpotSA have ads?
Which is updated more often, Roberts Birds or TweetSpotSA?
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