iBirdSongs™: Features

The following is a summary of the main features of iBirdSongs™.

Import My Bird Songs! (CD Import)

Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs
iBirdSongs™ requires that the user have one or both of the top-rated Stokes Field Guides to Bird Songs: Eastern Region/Western Region audio CD sets. Eastern Region covers 372 species with approximately 3.5 hours of high-quality audio recordings on 3 CDs. Western Region covers 551 species with approximately 5 hours of high-quality recordings on 4 CDs. iBirdSongs™ imports audio tracks into iTunes® directly from the Stokes CDs.
Import Wizard
The Import Wizard walks you through the process of importing your bird song audio CDs. It splits dual species tracks and names each species track index-style (i.e., last name, first name). The Import Wizard can also re-import tracks that accidentally get deleted.
Narrated Names
Choose to include or remove the narrated species name that is spoken at the beginning of each track. Including the narration is better for learning bird songs and for "eyes-free" listening.
Mnemonics/Phonetic Spellings
The Artist Name field in iTunes® and on the iPod® is used to provide the mnemonic/phonetic spelling of the primary song or call.

Customize My Bird Songs! (Album Art Images)

Note: iTunes can support multiple images per track. The iPod only displays a single image. iBirdSongs™ lets the user select which image is downloaded to the iPod and displayed in Cover Flow in iTunes 7 & up.

Species Photos
One photo (breeding male or adult) will be available for most species. Photos are optimized for display on the iPod. Photos are being contributed by some of North America's top bird photographers. We hope to add some additional photos (breeding/nonbreeding plumage or flight/perched) for selected species with a future update.
Song Scores™
A Song Score™ is a musical score for a bird song or call. It consist of a simplified sketch of frequency versus time (sonogram) optimized for display on the iPod. A mnemonic or phonetic spelling of the song appears below the sonogram, and text describing the song's quality appears above. Song Scores will not be available with the initial 1.0 release. We hope to add them for selected families of birds with a future update.
Summer and Winter Distribution Maps
Maps will not be available with the initial 1.0 release. We hope to add range maps for most species with a future update.

Customize My Bird Songs! (Lyrics Text)

Field Guide Page Numbers
The page number from a user-selectable field guide can be added for each species making iBirdSongs™ a great field guide companion.
Bird Song Descriptions
Text describing each song and call type on the track is provided as part of the lyrics info in iTunes and on the iPod. Text includes a mnemonic or phonetic spelling. Info on when and where recordings were made is also included.
Habitat Description
A list of typical habitats including seasonal variation is included for each species.

Organize My Bird Songs! (Playlists)

To facilitate species lookup for identification and instruction, species tracks are organized into a number of different playlists. Playlists are organized into hierarchical folders in iTunes to minimize clutter. Because the iPod does not currently support hierarchical folders, playlist names use prefixes to convey the organization.

Alphabetic Playlists: every species ordered index-style A-Z
Taxonomic Playlist: every species ordered according to the latest A.O.U. Checklist
Field Guide Playlists: every species ordered the same as your favorite field guide
Mnemonic/Phonetic Playlist: a playlist of common mnemonics and phonetic spellings
Family Playlists: multiple playlists for families (warblers, sparrows, hawks, etc.)
Habitat Playlists: multiple playlists for typical habitats (fresh wetlands & waters, mixed woods, coastal, etc.)
Location Playlists: multiple playlists for your state/province (or your state/province for the current season)

Sound Group Playlists: multiple playlists with similar sounding species (3-notes phrases, chips & trills, sing-songs, etc.)

Regional/Seasonal Filtering: filter the above playlists to only include species expected in your state/province (or your state/province for the current season)

Update My iPod!

You can choose to update your iPod in a couple ways. You can let iTunes update it automatically (if you have iTunes synch playlists), or you can have iBirdSongs™ synch all your bird song playlists (if you manage your music manually).