An Unoffical Comparison of Bird Logging Apps for iOS and Android

(Update: Jan. 11, 2013) 

This chart is intended to be a casual guide to the comparable functions and features of the listing apps available. Please note: If you are developer or any of the apps and would like to update a feature/capability of an app, just send us an email.

Price & Platforms	BirdLog Regionals, BirdLog Worldwide	Birdwatcher’s Diary	Lifebirds Journal	My Bird Observations
Click on an icon to view in iTunes.
Price	$9.99 (North America and other regions) / $19.99 (World)	$12.99	$6.99	$2.99
iPhone	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
iPad app with native display?	Yes -- Universal app with Native display	Yes - $14.99	No	No
Android	Yes	No	No	Yes
Customer Experience	BirdLog	Birdwatcher’s Diary	Lifebirds Journal	My Bird Observations
App Store Rating	★★★★★	★★★★☆	n/a	★★★☆☆
Total number of reviews	57 North America/6 Worldwide	27	3	32
Percentage of "bad" (i.e. 1-2 star) reviews	0% /0%	15%	n/a	34%
Ease of Use	Easy and intuitive for most people who already know how to use eBird. Some hidden features require learning to use, but are non-essential.	Generally a complex, powerful app. Strongly recommend reading the manual.	Easy and intuitive, but limited	Fairly easy to use once learned. Unintuitive work flow for some people.
Ease and speed of entry	Fast / Very fast (depending on method)	Fast / Very fast (depending on method)	Medium	Slow
Approximate time required to learn to use basic features of app and create your first checklist	5 minutes. No tutorial or FAQs required for most people who are already familiar with eBird. Add 15 minutes if you need to learn eBird basics.	Several minutes for basic functions, a few hours for advanced. 1-2 hours to download checklists and get up to speed in the field	5 minutes. Possible to use without reading a manual.	30 minutes. Some time with instructions and/or trial-and-error seems necessary. eBird upload process Not obvious to some people.
Approximate time to submit a checklist to eBird:	5 seconds	5 seconds.  Some editing may be required using basic upload function.	about 3 minutes	about 3 minutes
Support	Good reputation: rapid support via email, facebook, contact us form, and FAQs on website. Personal service from customer support professional, owner and programmers as needed.	Good reputation: rapid support via email, facebook, contact us form, group forums and FAQs on website. Personal service from customer support professional, owner and programmers as needed.	??	Medium to good reputation: generally rapid support via email and contact form on website. Personal service by owner/programmer.
Features	BirdLog	Birdwatcher’s Diary	Lifebirds Journal	My Bird Observations
Feature overview:	Medium: this is a single-purpose app for recording sightings in the field and submitting them to eBird. That's it.	High: general-purpose sighting recording	Low: this is a relatively simple and easy to use app	Low: this is a relatively simple and easy to use app
GPS Location Services	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
GPS Tagging of Individual Sightings	No	Yes	Yes	No
Subspecies	Yes	Yes	Manual	No
Ebird support	Direct Upload	Direct Upload	No	email text files
Battery Life	good	Poor w/ GPS	??	??
Gender, Age, Plumage	manual entry using 'comments'	manual entry with shortcuts	Yes	No
eBird Hotspots	Yes	No	No	No
Localized Checklist	Yes -  Automatic.   Uses eBird filters so checklists are specific to location, date and birds likely to be seen.	Yes   State, Country, and World, and other specifc lists available.	No	No
Location Entry	uses GPS or choose location from map, select eBird hotspot, other user-specific locations or create a new personal location	uses GPS or choose location from map	Manual	?
Details	BirdLog	Birdwatcher’s Diary	Lifebirds Journal	My Bird Observations
Region	North America -- Worldwide	Preloaded with US, UK, & Mexico. Dozens of other available.	Worldwide	Worldwide
Day Counter	Yes	Yes	No	No
Trip Counter	Yes, customizable	Yes, customizable	No	No
List Source	Automatic download of location/date specific lists from eBird	World, US, Mexico are preloaded. Others through manual import via iTunes	version (3.1) of the IOC World Bird Names list.	??
Life List	Very Robust listing capabilities on eBird website, only simple listing (trip counters) on app	Robust listing capabilities built into app	Limited listing capabilities	Limited listing capabilities
State List	All sightings entered are automatically included in world, Country, State, County and patch lists; and also all of the above for life, year and month	Yes, customizable but requires work and learning curve	No	No
Custom Lists	on eBird	Yes	Yes	Coming Soon
Taxonomies supported	Clements / AOU / eBird	Clements / AOU / eBird and IOC, plus ability to upload custom taxoNomies	IOC	Clements / AOU / eBird and IOC
Realtime Confirmation of Rare or Notables	Yes	No	No	No
Track Observation Time	Yes	Yes	??	??
Quick Entry	Yes	Yes	??	??
1-tap entry for birds on list	Yes	Yes	No	No
Code Entry	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Custom Search	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Ability to create checklists in the field when there is No cell connection	Yes + download location-specifc checklist with data connection.	Yes - 'offline' checklist only	Yes - 'offline' checklist only	Yes - 'offline' checklist only
BackUp	Automatic to eBird	iTunes, FTP, DropBox	??	Yes
Export	Direct to eBird	export in eBird format, or other programs. Export .kmz file for mapping. Export to DropBox.	??	Exports to Birdstack, and uploads to box.net for backup
Email Lists	Yes	Yes	No	No
Support for Non-Bird Observations	No	Yes, requires manually uploading appropriate checklist	No	No
Other Stuff	BirdLog	Birdwatcher’s Diary	Lifebirds Journal	My Bird Observations
Developer	BirdsInTheHand	Steven's Creek Software	Eucled Design LLC	Gina Aguilera
Version	1.5.2 iOS -- 1.6 Android	5.1.1 iOS	1.1.4	3.8.0
Last Release Date	1/9/13 iOS -- 7/23/12 Android	1/11/13	7/23/12	Apple - 7/2/2012 Android - 6/9/2012