Birding Software Review: BirdBase & BirdArea

Birding Database Manager: Review of BirdArea and BirdBase

BirdBase and BirdArea from Santa Barbara Software are one of few products suitable for the birder that wants to keep records of all birding worldwide. ZABIRDSTUFF tried them out:

BirdArea and BirdBase are an integrated set of two software programmes which enable birders to easily manage your sightings. These windows based software programmes are designed for the "international" birder and are based on a complete list of all bird species in the world. It is easy to manage sightings and print out trip reports in different formats. It is also easy to generate lists of all birds seen in a particular year or at a particular locality.

BirdBase and BirdArea are windows based programmes and come on 3.5 inch stiffies. I found BirdBase relatively easy to set up and use, aided by a comprehensive set of manuals. The programme is also well-endowed with online help. I was surprised at how little disk space the data took up, considering that it includes species and range data for all the birds in the world. Names & taxonomy are based on Clements Birds of the World: A Check List. The world list is searchable by common or scientific name, and the search feature is pretty idiot-proof !

A trip list of about 115 species took about 15 minutes to enter, slowed by the fact that some of Clements names are unfamiliar to the South African birder. I have since gone through the names and edited them, so that my shortlist of Southern African species looks the same as all my other lists of Southern African birds. The process of entering data for any birding trip is substantially aided by the fact that you can use "shortlists" . When I entered my Indian and Nepalese sightings a quick detour to BirdArea changed the "shortlist" to the species for these countries, and showed me which of the similar species I recorded are actually different species to their African relatives.

While BirdBase is the actual listing programme, BirdArea is a complimentary database of bird distribution. It allows one to generate a checklist for any region or country in the world, as well as US states and Canadian provinces. You can generate a list for Africa, Swaziland or the Maldive islands and endemics are indicated. You can also create your own birding area list. Southern Africa was relatively easy to create, except that database does not distinguish between those Mozambican species found north or south of the Zambezi, so some had to be removed from the area manually. This was easy enough and I now have a ready-made shortlist for most of my birding. BirdArea also allows one to easily edit the species list. I added Barlow's Lark and Twinspot Widowfinch easily enough, and then had to run a procedure to ensure that BirdArea and BirdBase are compatible, but this posed no problems ! . You can also change the taxonomic sequence to keep pace with changes, or to match that used in "Robert's", although there is really no need to do this. The data entering process is simple, but as with all such software packages, data entering still seems to require too many mouse-clicks ! I hanker after software where simply clicking once on a shortlist enters the species onto a list with equally easy removal of mistaken entries. Guy Gibbon's new CD-Rom is really easy as far as listing goes, although it lacks most of the features one needs in a birding database. With BirdBase, mistaken entries require simple, but tedious process of changing the entries, and at first attempt I ended up with double entries on my trip list. If you have been careful in coding each entered list, you can display all species seen in the North-West, Gauteng and Northern Province in a particular year. This means that the use of BirdBase requires some forethought. It is also quite easy to set BirdBase up to be used by two birders who usually bird together, but don't always tick the same birds. I have set it up so that the sighting of my wife and I are recorded seperately, easily enabling her to generate a life-list or "want-list" from the same database. It is equally easy to generate hit-lists for any region, or even a printout of all sightings and notes for a particular species !

There is plenty of space for notes and you can customise the programme to generate interrelated lists, such as nesting, garden lists or city lists. There are nine built in "life-lists" and these are automatically updated every time you enter data. Output can be generated to screen or printer and can be tailored to your specific needs. These include producing data exchange files which I have found handy for posting lists onto a Webpage. The manuals warn that the programme can be sensitive and that data should be backed up regularly, but I have experienced no problems, despite completely re-building my PC with the software loaded.

BirdArea and BirdBase must really be used together to appreciate the value of this software ! Updates are available and these can be downloaded over the internet. The programme has grown and developed, and one can be sure that one will not have to transfer valuable data to some new programme at some point in the future !

For birder who is serious about building a life-list beyond 1300, I would unreservedly recommend BirdBase and BirdArea, not just as a database, but also as a birding tool which will add inspiration, excitement to your birding and equip you to record more birds ! The Southern African birder will have to get used to the international nomenclature, but that aside, BirdBase enables easy record-keeping for for the compulsive lister.

The price amounts to $ 112 all inclusive, for both programmes. This entitles you to online support and upgrades. The latest version includes Clements '98 checklist and a range of new help features.

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