Loading…

Overheard a young birder say 'i just use the app' and it made me pause | Backyard Birdwatchers - Guest Forum

Overheard a young birder say 'i just use the app' and it made me pause

I was at the park last Tuesday and heard a teenager tell his friend he didn't need a field guide because his phone could just ID any bird for him. It got me thinking about how I used to sit with my worn out Peterson guide for an hour trying to figure out if that was a downy or a hairy woodpecker. Do you think relying on apps takes away some of the patience we used to learn?

2 comments

2 Comments

alicecooper2mo ago

Using an app to ID a bird is fine but relying on it for everything kills the whole point of birding. The patience you learn from staring at a book trying to match a wing bar or bill shape teaches you how to actually see details. Apps just give you the answer without the effort so you never really learn why a bird looks the way it does. Plus the app is wrong sometimes and if you never learned to ID on your own you get fooled by a weird angle or bad light. The old way forced you to slow down and pay attention to behavior, habitat, and calls. That's the part you can't get from a screen.

ben4022mo ago

Man you're way off base with this one. That whole "patience from staring at a book" thing is just gatekeeping with extra steps. I use an app all the time and it actually got me into birding way more than a field guide ever did. Yesterday I heard some weird call in my backyard, pulled out the app, and it identified a wood thrush I would have totally missed because I didn't even know what to look for in a book. Now I know its song and where to find it again. That's a win not a loss. Plus the app lets me focus on the fun parts like behavior and habitat because I don't have to spend an hour squinting at wing bars just to get the species right. If the app is wrong sometimes, well field guides are wrong too and at least the app learns and updates.