The Pizzey and Knight Birds of Australia Digital Edition for Android is a comprehensive and interactive application that combines multimedia data on over 900 Australian bird species with seven interactive modules for every aspect of mobile birding. As a universal app it runs on both Android phones and tablets.

The Field Guide displays the full field guide pages of the book. You can browse the pages and identify a bird, play the sound, add to your list, and open the Bird Page for further detail.

The Bird Guide includes a full bird list and individual bird pages for over 900 species, with illustrations, species text, distribution maps, photographs and sounds. The bird list includes all the new species and new names.

Similar Birds selects similar birds and shows them side by side for comparison.

Identification uses location, habitat, bird shapes and plumage to shortlist possible species for identification.

My Location is an interactive map for finding your current location, generating bird lists, and locating birding sites near you.

My Lists is a personal list manager that includes a life list and sub-lists that report to your life list. You can also sync your lists to Google Drive, and export and import lists.

Birding Sites includes details of 270 birding sites from around Australia, with functions for a bird list, ‘show on map’ and a seven-day weather forecast.

The multimedia database includes • over 250 field-guide pages • over 900 individual bird pages • all the ‘new’ bird species and names • over 2500 illustrations, 4000 photos, and 700 bird sounds • completely revised and colour-coded distribution maps with seasonal status bar and endemic and red data species indicated • new rare bird maps.

As a universal app it runs on both Android phones and tablets, and you can install to more than one device as long as it is your personal device and linked to your Play Store account.

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The Field Guide displays the field guide pages of the book, providing quick and easy access to a bird or family group for instant comparison and identification. A family list allows quick access to any bird family, and you can swipe through the pages. On a Field Guide page you tap on a bird to identify it, and pop up a menu with essential functions, including:

• Open the Bird Page
• Play the bird sound
• Add a sighting directly to your list
• Add a sighting and edit the details
• View and compare similar birds

The Bird Guide includes a full bird list and bird pages for over 900 species. The bird list can be searched for a bird name, and scrolled to show the alphabetical index. A range of essential functions are available directly off the list:

• Tapping on a bird name will open the bird page.
• Tap and hold will open the functions menu:
• Play the bird sound
• Add a sighting directly to your list
• Add a sighting and edit the details
• Open the Field Guide page
• View and compare similar birds

Bird List Options

Bird List Options include lists for all states and territories, english names for C&B, IOC, Clements and Birdlife, and alphabetical or taxonomic order.The name of the list and number of birds is reported above the list.

The bird page is highly functional yet easy to use. Swipe left to scroll through the images, swipe up to scroll through the text, tap and hold the bird image to load the function toolbar, or tap the arrows at the top of the screen to page to the next bird.

The images include illustrations, distribution map and photos. The distribution maps are colour-coded green for resident, orange for breeding migrant, and blue for non-breeding migrant. The screen can also be rotated for a larger photo image.

Bird Page functions

Tap on the bird image to load the function toolbar. The functions include:

• Play the bird sound
• Add a sighting directly to your list
• Add a sighting and edit the details
• Open the Field Guide (Bird Family) page
• View and compare similar birds

Similar birds loads a pre-selected list of birds similar to your selected species.

Similar birds functions include:

• Play the bird sound
• Add a sighting directly to your list
• Add a sighting and edit the details
• Open the Field Guide (Bird Family) page

To COMPARE birds side by side, select the tickboxes for each bird and the bird pages are shown in a split screen, with full swiping and scrolling functions of the bird page. Tap the bird image to load the functions.

My Location is a powerful tool for finding your current location, generating a bird list for your location, viewing nearby birding sites, and recording GPS co-ordinates with your bird list. The module uses Google Maps and built-in GPS functionality to find your current location, or you can drop a pin for a new location. Birding site descriptions and bird lists can also be loaded directly from the map.

Essential functions include:

• Show current location
• Drop pin for new location
• Get List for selected location
• Show birding site pins

Note that all bird lists are based on a degree-square distribution and represent what may reasonably be expected given a full range of habitats and a long period of observation. Vagrants are not included. It's a potential list to work from rather than a 'seen' list which is highly variable depending on atlassing effort.

The Identification Module brings together a range of simple observations to aid your identification of a bird, including:

• Distribution based on your current or selected location
• Habitat
• Shape of the bird
• Plumage

This generates a shortlist for you to make an identification. One need not use all the available selections, and if you are not sure, you may pick a number of options within any group.

The Birding Sites module includes 270 birding sites from around Australia and island territories. The sites can be viewed by selecting from the list, or by using My Location to load the map with nearby birding sites.

The birding site page can be swiped for more photos and scrolled up to read the text. Selecting a locality will load the toolbar functions. These include:

• Show on map
• Load bird list for the site
• Load weather for the site

My Lists is a powerful module for keeping track of multiple bird lists. My List is the top list and is by default your Life List (the first time you see a bird). You can use My List as a list on its own, or have sub-lists report to My List.

Adding to your Lists

You can add a bird to My List from any bird List, Field Guide page or Bird Page. When adding from a bird list, you can “Add Directly” or via “Add/Edit with Sighting Details”. To "Add Directly" you simply tap the star next to the bird name on the bird list. This uses the default place and date settings for the list, and your GPS location. “Add/Edit with Sighting Details” is available on the tap-and-hold menu, and opens the Sighting Details page for additional sighting details and notes.

Sighting Details

Sighting Details include the List Name, Date, Place, GPS data, View, Class of bird, No. of Birds, and your Notes. A different List and Date can be selected, Place names can be edited, and View and Class fields support multiple selections. The GPS data recorded includes the latitude, longitude and altitude of the sighting. You can select the "Current Location" or use "Select from Map" for another location.

My Lists Manager

The My Lists manager page is for keeping track of and managing your lists. Here you create a new list and set the List Options for how the added sightings are managed. You also set a list as 'active' for adding sightings by activating the star opposite the list name. Functions for managing your bird lists include:

• Create a new list
• Edit the List Options (tap and hold on a list)
• Delete a list (tap and hold on a list)
• Export/Import a list to SD-card or Google Drive
• Set the list as default (star) for adding to your list

List Options

When you set up a list, the List Options of Place and Date are used as a default for all records added to the list (although they can subsequently be edited for individual records). Additional List Options available include:

• Place. A place name for all records added to the list. May be left blank or edited later.
• Date. A date for all records added to the list. Used in conjunction with “Use List date”.
• Use List Date. If OFF, you get the current date and time. ON is used for creating a historical list.
• Add GPS. ON will add GPS co-ordinates to your record. Use OFF when creating a historical list.
• Report to My List. ON will add records to My List (ie reporting to your Life List).
• Allow Multiple Records. ON allows adding the same bird more than once to a list. Useful for keeping a trip list of all birds seen at different times and locations. If you are keeping a strict Life List, leave OFF on My List.
• Species Count. Counts the number of species and not the number of records.

Exporting and Importing Lists

Your lists can be synced to and from Google Drive. This is useful for backup and for sharing lists between devices. Lists can also be exported to SD-card as CSV files for backup purposes.

Bird List Functions

Of course, the main reason for keeping a list is to view the contents. To Open a Bird List, tap on the the list name. Within a bird list, you can select a record and use the following functions:

• Tap to view/edit the Sighting Details
• Tap and hold to:
• View the bird page
• Play the sound
• Delete the Record

Search List Functions

You can Search all lists for a specific bird name, place or date. This is useful if you would like to know how many times you have seen a species, or how many species you have seen in a specific locality or date. The Search function is available on the main My Lists page. An individual list can be searched in the same way.

Note that records "Reported to My List" from a sub-list will appear as duplicate records, as the records occur in both My List and the reporting list.

Enjoy your birding!