Bird QR vs eBird Alert!
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Bird QR
Enhance your reading experience with this app that brings bird identification books to life. Access high-definition bird songs, calls, and supplementary information directly from your device. It also connects you to valuable ornithology resources and other helpful birding tools.
- Access bird songs and calls
- Stream supplementary content
- Link to Merlin Bird ID app
- Discover new book titles
- Instant access to All About Birds website
Read full descriptionHide full description
BIRD QR is a dedicated book companion app that helps to bring Cornell Lab Publishing Group books to life. Bird QR expands the reader experience by providing instant access to high-definition bird songs and calls for the species in our books, and additional information on topics of interest through streaming content from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s websites and vast digital resources. Bird QR also gives readers direct access to download the free Merlin® Bird ID app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (used by more than one million bird watchers), find out about upcoming new titles that will work with Bird QR, and instantly access the All About Birds website from the Cornell Lab, used by more than 14 million people annually.
eBird Alert!
Discover rare bird sightings in your vicinity based on community-submitted checklists. Customize your search by distance, recency, and location. Access identification details and photos to aid your bird spotting.
- Find nearby rare bird sightings
- Customize sighting proximity and recency
- Filter by county or view all local birds
- Open sighting locations in maps
- View sighting comments
- Access bird identification details and photos
Read full descriptionHide full description
eBird Alert! shows rare bird sightings in your area, found from the checklists your fellow birders have submitted to eBird -- a global online database of bird records used by hundreds of thousands of birders around the world. Features - Select how nearby and how recent the sightings can be. - Select which nearby county in which to find birds. - See rarities or all local birds. - Open a sighting location in Apple or Google Maps. - See all sighting comments for a particular location. - Get identification details and photos to help you spot the bird,. - If you spot it, add it to your checklist in the eBird app. Privacy - eBird Alert! requires your location to find nearby birds. It will never upload your location, or any other data, to any server.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: eBird Alert! at 100% against Bird QR's 26%. eBird Alert! also leads on rating (4.8 vs 2.4) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months). Bird QR's advantage is ratings volume (66 vs 8) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 18.2). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
eBird Alert! holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 2.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bird QR has 66 ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 26% of Bird QR's written reviews are positive against 100% of eBird Alert!'s.
Bird QR ships an update every 3 months, eBird Alert! every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bird QR | eBird Alert! |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.4 (66 ratings) | 4.8 (8 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 25.6% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 66 — better | 8 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 9.0 — better | 18.2 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 38 MB | 12 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | CELLC | Colin Rafferty |
Customer experience
Bird QR
eBird Alert!
Bugs and requests
Bird QR
Reported bugs
5 issues- No sound when playing calls/songs
- App crashes after scanning QR code
- App freezes on ad screen
- App stops working after initial use
- Spinning wheel/loading icon persists
Requested features
5 requests- Fix the app so audio works
- Make app work when phone is on silent
- Remove or fix ad issues
- Add search functionality
- Make app work with other QR readers
eBird Alert!
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Bird QR
No in-app purchases
eBird Alert!
No in-app purchases
