Frequently asked questions

A free app for logging birds by voice. Say what you see or hear as you walk, and BirdScribe turns it into a checklist you can upload to eBird. It's made by birders for birders who'd rather keep their eyes on the birds than on a screen.

Yes. Everything you use in BirdScribe today is free and will stay free, with no ads and nothing you log sold. It's built by working bird guides in Far North Queensland and paid for by the tours we run. Our aim is simple: make BirdScribe the best companion to eBird there is. You have our word.

No. Open it and start logging. There's no sign-up and no password. The only times you'd give us an email address are if you want a link to your checklist emailed to you, or a reply to feedback, and both are optional.

Yes, iPhone and Android.

Tap Start birding. Your trip's clock starts then, and everything you log goes into that trip. If you change your mind before logging a bird, tap Home and the empty trip is discarded.

Yes. Tap Incidental, say the bird, and it's saved as its own incidental record, ready to export.

No. Tap the mic once and say what you've got. Several birds in one go is fine. It stops by itself when you finish talking, so there's nothing to hold. Tap again if you want it to stop sooner. With a headset, the play/pause button does the same job as the tap.

Yes, with earbuds or a headset. Tap Pocket at the bottom of the screen and put the phone away. Each press of your headset's play/pause button starts a recording, and it stops by itself when you finish talking. After a long quiet spell Pocket Mode pauses; swipe up on the screen to carry on. To turn it off, swipe down across the middle of the screen. A swipe rather than a tap means a bump in your pocket can't switch it off.

Yes. On iPhone you can talk through Bluetooth earbuds or a wired headset. On any phone, the play/pause button on your headset starts and stops a recording.

Yes, on iPhone. Say "Log a bird in BirdScribe".

Yes, for logging. If your phone can do speech recognition on the phone itself, BirdScribe keeps listening with no signal. Anything it can't name straight away is saved as a card marked No connection. Nothing is lost. Type the name, or when you're back in reception tap Retry all and it finishes the job. Exact bird names and names you've taught it work offline, and exporting works offline too. Place names and call suggestions fill in once you're connected.

Yes. Say "heard", "calling" or "singing" with the bird and it's marked heard only, and your eBird checklist says so in that species' comment. You can switch any bird between seen and heard with one tap on its card.

Yes. Say the number with the bird, like "three figbirds feeding", and the count and activity are kept with the record. You can tap the count on any card to change it. For a longer note, start a recording with "note" and it's added to your last bird, or tap the comments button on any card to type or dictate one. Age, sex, plumage and nesting details go into the eBird species comment too.

Yes, in BirdScribe 3.4 and 3.5. Tap Song to record a short clip of the call and BirdScribe suggests species that match, favouring birds found in your area. The clip is sent to BirdScribe's server for analysis and is not kept there, and your copy stays on your phone for you to replay or share. It's a suggestion only: nothing is logged until you confirm it. From 3.6, Your Call replaces song identification.

Check your list before you export. Every entry can be corrected with a tap, and nothing reaches eBird until you upload it yourself. If it keeps mishearing a word, teach it: pick the right bird on the card, then tap the lightning bolt. Next time you say it that way, you get the right bird, marked with a bolt so you can see it was logged for you.

Yes. If a bird goes by three or four names, or one that's a mouthful in the field, teach it yours. Say "Macca", choose the bird you meant on the card, then tap the lightning bolt. From then on, "Macca" logs that bird. You'll find all your names under More, then Learned names, where you can edit or remove them, or switch one to suggest only, so it puts the bird at the top of the list for you to confirm.

It shows you a short list to pick from, or you can type the name. If you're not sure, choose the group entry, such as "kingfisher sp.", or keep it unnamed and it stays out of your eBird file.

Suggestions lean towards species recorded where you're birding. Everything else sits below an Elsewhere line, still one tap away, so a genuine rarity is never blocked.

Yes. More, then Birding region. BirdScribe tells you if your location doesn't match the region you've chosen, but never changes it for you.

Yes. Tap Note to dictate trip notes about the weather, the track, who you were with, or anything else. They stay on your phone, appear in your trip report, and never go to eBird. You'll find them under More, then Trip notes.

Yes, before and after you export. Change a bird, a count, seen or heard, add a comment, merge doubles, delete an entry (with undo) or add a bird you missed. After exporting, open the trip from My Trips, make your changes and export again. Changes in BirdScribe don't alter a checklist already in eBird, so edit that one on eBird.

Yes. If you logged the same bird twice, BirdScribe offers to merge them, and you can undo a merge. A bird you saw and also heard is kept as a sighting, with "Also heard" added to its comment.

Yes. On the trip summary you can set how many people were birding, rename the location as it should appear in eBird, and add a checklist comment.

Yes. Each trip has a trip report: the date, place, times, every bird with its count and notes, and your trip notes. Read it in the app or share it as a text file.

Under More, then Recordings, where you can play or share each clip. On iPhone they're also in the Files app, in the BirdScribe folder. Recordings aren't included in your phone's backup, so share any you want to keep. You can choose to clear a trip's audio when you export it.

No. eBird is where your sightings do the most good, for science and for other birders. BirdScribe is the quickest way to get them there: log in the field, check your list, then upload it to eBird as normal.

Tap Send to eBird at the end of your trip. BirdScribe saves the checklist file on your phone: in the Files app, in the BirdScribe folder on iPhone, or in Downloads on Android. Tap Open eBird Import, sign in to eBird, choose eBird Record Format (Extended) as the format, and pick the file. Your checklist then appears in My eBird like any other. Finishing at a computer? BirdScribe can email you a link to the file, which works for 15 minutes.

Yes. On My Trips, tick the trips you want and tap Export, and they go out as one file for eBird to import in one go.

BirdScribe can split it into one checklist per date, as eBird expects.

No. You upload with your own eBird login through eBird's Import Data page. BirdScribe never asks for your eBird password or any API key.

Trips go out as complete checklists by default, the kind eBird's science relies on most. Only leave it that way if you recorded every species you could put a name to; otherwise switch Complete checklist off on the trip summary before you export. The duration runs from your first bird to your last, and the distance from where you logged them, so if you birded for longer or further, adjust them in eBird after upload. A single bird logged with the Incidental button always goes as an incidental record.

The same taxonomy as eBird, so your species arrive with the right names, including entries like "kingfisher sp." when you couldn't be sure.

Yes, on eBird. Its region pages, hotspots and rare bird alerts show what's been reported near you, and Targets shows species you haven't logged in an area. BirdScribe doesn't bring other birders' sightings into the app. They belong in eBird, where they're kept current and reviewed.

On your phone. What's sent to our servers, and why, is set out in our privacy policy.

You do. We claim no rights over your trips or sightings, and you can export them whenever you like.

Yes. Under More, then Learned names, export them to a file, then import that file on your new phone. Imported names merge with any you already have.

If you want them to. Tick "Share my learned names with the BirdScribe community" under Learned names, and they're shared anonymously to help birders in your region get better suggestions. It's off unless you switch it on.

No. No feed, no followers, no likes, and nobody sees your trips unless you share them. Your sightings do their good in eBird.

No, and no.

Leave a review, tell a birding friend, and keep submitting your lists to eBird. That's everything we ask.

Tap More at the bottom of the screen, then Feedback. You'll also find a Feedback button at the top of each trip summary, which can send that trip with your note if it helps us see what happened. Tell us what happened or what you'd like to see, and it comes straight to us. We read every one.

Yes. If you have low vision, sore hands or cold fingers, or you simply find a phone keyboard slow, voice logging lets you record everything without typing.