[Tweeters] other opinions re: Birding software

[Will Markey]

Several years ago, I bought Birder's Diary.  I DO NOT like it.  It is 
difficult
to learn and not intuitive (at least, to me). 

I am the kind that likes to take classes on the programs I need to 
know, such as
Excel and Word.  I retain a lot that way.  That being said, I think it 
is a very
complex and useful tool, but I am not the kind to sit and spend the time
deciphering it. 

I have ofter thought that if there were classes on this program, I sure would
like to take them.  I

Does anyone know of such classes???

Will Markey
Auburn, WA. 

Quoting Joel E Haas <haas.joel at mindspring.com>:


> Maxine,

>

> I have used Avisys from Perceptive Systems

>

>      www.avisys.net

>

> for about 5 years.  I love it.  It will do what you suggested you wanted

> in your query. And a lot more, yet is transparent and flexible. 

> -- Joel E. Haas, MD

> 1182 Big Leaf Way NE

> Redmond, WA 98053

>

> Haas.Joel at Mindspring.com

> 425-836-8072

>

>

> Reginald David wrote:

>> Aloha Matt, Maxine and Tweeters,

>>

>> I use Avisys on a Mac and it works great, if you want to make to 

>> make lists for pretty much anywhere in the world you may want to 

>> consider Santa Barbara Softwares BirdArea, the data files are 

>> importable to Avisys and appear to work flawlessly. I use Windows XP 

>> on my Mac using an Intel based Mac and Bootcamp - there are newer 

>> programs that may be better, but I have never had a problem with 

>> Boootcamp. Aloha

>> Reg. 

>>

>> Reginald David

>> Rana Productions, Ltd. P. O. Box 1371

>> Kailua, Kona, Hawaii 329-9141 Phone

>> rdavid at ilhawaii.net <mailto:rdavid at ilhawaii.net>

>> P     Please consider the environment before printing this email. 

>>

>>

>>

>> On Feb 22, 2008, at 3:28 PM, mattxyz at earthlink.net 

>> <mailto:mattxyz at earthlink.net> wrote:

>>

>>> Hi Maxine & Tweeters -

>>>

>>> I'd be interested in hearing some other opinions online, 

>>> personally, since I believe this hasn't been discussed in a while. 

>>>

>>> Here's my experience [usual caveats, no financial interest, etc]

>>>

>>> *Mac*:

>>> I've used* Birdbrain* version 5.0 for Mac for years now. It is 

>>> good, but I wish there were something else. Birdbrain hasn't been 

>>> updated since 1998, and it doesn't yet even run on OSX. I haven't 

>>> tried to use their customer support in a long while, but when I did 

>>> try a few years ago, I never received a response. Basically, I'd be 

>>> happy with Birdbrain if it were being updated. It runs a bit slow 

>>> on some of the listing functions, but I bet a revised version could 

>>> clean up a lot of that. 

>>>

>>> There is also a program called* Wings* - has anyone had experience 

>>> with this? From what I can see on the web, it looks decent. One 

>>> thing that doesn't sound great is that it looks like you have to 

>>> 'subscribe' to it, paying an annual fee -- and if you don't pay, 

>>> you can't enter more species. That sounds dangerous to me, and I'd 

>>> rather buy software free & clear than remain on the hook over the 

>>> foreseeable future. 

>>>

>>> *PC*:

>>> The only PC listing software I have experience with is* Avisys*, 

>>> and I've found it to be really excellent. It is regularly upgraded, 

>>> the support responses come quickly, and it seems clearly made with 

>>> a birder's record-keeping needs in mind. You can easily keep state 

>>> & county & other checklists, and running reports on these lists 

>>> [life, year, species not seen, etc] is easy and fast. There's a lot 

>>> of flexibility and power inside the program, but it is set up so 

>>> that it can be used pretty easily at any level, without having to 

>>> spend a long time becoming a computer programmer to understand it. 

>>> I'm sure there are other downsides, but the biggest one in my mind 

>>> is the reliance on a checklist in Clements taxonomic order, an 

>>> ordering of species that can take some getting used to if you are 

>>> more comfortable with the ABA [US fieldguide] ordering of species. 

>>> I imagine it is pretty hard to work around this problem though, if 

>>> one wants to present the whole world checklist of birds. 

>>>

>>> Hope this helps a bit,

>>>

>>> Matt Bartels

>>> Seattle, WA

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>>> I know that there has been past discussions on Tweeters about the 

>>>> best birding software to easily organize lists etc. I am ready to 

>>>> buy a program now and would like to find out what I should get. I 

>>>> would like something simple that would allow me to make a life 

>>>> list and sub-lists via state or country. I don't think I need lots 

>>>> of bells and whistles. 

>>>>

>>>> Please reply to me via email if you don't want to launch a new 

>>>> full Tweeters discussion. 

>>>>

>>>> Thanks

>>>>

>>>> Maxine, Seattle

>>>>

>>>>

>>>> --

>>>> In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the 

>>>> silence. - Robert Lynd

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Will Markey