Bird Journal Testimonials

"I feel I have to write to tell you how thrilled I am with your product, being able to sample the trial version was a great help and made the decision to buy an easy one! My birding records go back to 1984 and the ease at which I've been able to enter the data and images is commendable and the ability to look back on memories from over 20 years of birding is a sheer pleasure!"

"I've bought nearly all the Bird programmes and yours is the only one i've felt comfortable with from day one...i have to say that your software earns top marks from me and the more i use it the more i like it."

"I like the simplicity of use. I like the clean, crisp, colourful and, perhaps most importantly, I really like the open feel of the “page” presented. The statistics are more or less straight forward [for a non-Mathematician like myself] and certainly informative."

"I thought I would mail you and give you an update on my use of Bird Journal.

When I first got the demo I thought it was attractive and easy to use, but I was concerned that it may be a "lite" package and that I would need to continue using other software as well. However, I used it more and more, and now have 6+ years of data in it, and my feelings about it have changed a lot. I have discovered that, in fact, BJ is the best birding software available.

First, it looks really nice. You've gone to the trouble of subclassing all the Windows controls so the programme has its own consistent look and feel. It looks like a programme of the 21st century, and not something you might have been running on a 1990s P2. It incorporates my pictures beautifully, preserving the exif data. All in all it really looks stunning, and makes the competition look dowdy by comparison.

I was also initially put off by the lack of traditional query builders and sort editors. As I used the programme more, I realized that there was no loss there. Instead of using these facilities, the selection logic is "built in", so all that's required is a click of the mouse to apply various filters and various views of the data. Not only is it simple to do, it is blindingly fast. A full life list under the "Birds" pane takes less than a second, and filtered lists thereafter are instantaneous. Also, it's fun running through my Peru birds , for example, seeing what birds I have in various families, all instantly and without having to set up queries.

I love the locations hierarchy too. Locations are vital, and all to easy to get into a big muddle. I would, however, echo a request to arrange that the location entry box (for applying filters) have a smart search function like the species entry box in "Add Entry". I have a lot of places to scroll through, though this is not a major problem. The graphs are really useful too. I didn't think I would use that feature much, but I do now, and find it most useful.

I have a couple of wish list items. I would like to be able to sort taxonomically, so my Black Scoter will show up next to my White-winged Scoter and not at the other end of the list. I would like the ability when applying Year/Month filters, to ignore the year, so I could see which warblers I've seen in March of any year. Also, while the user-defined properties are useful, they would be much more useful if they could be used for filtering. I have a property Observer, and if I could filter on it I could easily separate CBC counts from my personal observations.

I am running on an iMac on Windows 7 under parallels. This works extremely well, so much so that I am not sure I would regard a native Mac version as a high priority.

BJ is now my primary birding software, and I have to say, "well done"!"

"I'm relatively new to birding and was looking for a useable and straightforward software application in which to record my sightings and 'field trips' (days out really). In particular I wanted some form of easy graphical analysis that would help me make sense of my increasing volume of data so that I could get an understanding of annual and seasonal trends and so forth. Also I wanted a way of quickly seeing various list analyses and tracking of site values. I came across Bird Journal pretty much by chance searching the web and it immediately appealed because (i) it looked as if it would do the trick, (ii) it wasn't marketed by a major company - I would very much rather buy something written by a fellow obsessive who knows what is needed, and finally (iii) it is the next best thing to free. I cannot understand how the development costs will ever be recouped (see comment about obsessive earlier). Installation and licensing is very easy and in my experience there are no wrinkles. The PDF Manual is sufficient, but I think it might help if users were given a little insight into the database structure so that they understood why things work as they do.

In use - it could not be easier.I did take a while to input my 3 years of data (I noted that other reviewers had input 10, now that is persistence) but immediately the analytical benefits of the package were apparent, Yearly trends, site analysis, species / site and so on. All of a sudden the usefulness that was hidden in my notebooks was accessible - along with the obvious requirement (that I had not always met) to keep counts as well as ID. One feature that I really liked was the ability to create a nested hierarchy of sites. They can be nested to virtually any depth so I now have (for example) E and W sides of a bay that are revealing interesting differences in species occurence in winter sea-watching records that I hadn't properly noticed before, linked to other adjacent sea-watching peninsulas on the same coast. I would say that the Entry window might be a little easier with respect to site selection when a complex hierarchy has been created as there can be quite a lot a faffing about and drilling down finding the appropriate Site for entry.

I am a bit worried that I might stop keeping my handwritten office Notebook transcribed from the field notebook, as BJ has room for all the data and commentary. Hmm....could I really make that leap of faith. Incidentally, database packages do have a tendency to grind away in the background and take ages to backup etc. Not so BJ. Again, I don't know how it operates but in my experience it is incredibly fast in backing up. Of course this might slow down if the DB was any real size or if there had been a lot of edits, but would the average user notice - I suspect not.

One gripe - one bouquet. I installed BJ on a Samsung N110 Netbook which has 1024 x 600 screen which I cart around with me everywhere. The very oddest fault was that I could just not get the Sighting Properties check boxes to appear on the Entry window. I tried everything. On e-mailing BJ I got a virtually immediate response that this was a consequence of the limited screen resolution as it had been built for 1024 x 768 - which to be fair is on their website and I never really noticed it. Apparently there is a fix in the pipeline for Spring 2010 to address this - but even without this facility it is a tremendous bit of database software that is perfectly suited to the task, and virtually free. Now, to sort out the photos..... Go buy."

"My wife and I really love Bird Journal. We looked at a large number of bird listing programs and decided that Bird Journal was the best for us. It is easy to learn and easy to enter new listings. We have entered nearly 300 birds in the past week, and have at least 200 more to go. We have siting pictures of about half of our birds, so we really like being able add photos. Unlike some of the birding programs, Bird Journal allows pictures to be added in large enough file sizes that they look good when blown up to full screen size."

"I downloaded the copy of bird journal that I bought yesterday and have started to load my bird sightings, The input is really easy, fortunate because I have 10 years of birding that I want to enter. And I am really impressed by the ability to nest locations, it is what has put me off other listing software."

"...I love the software by the way and until I found and tried Bird Journal, I used to use Birder's Diary, I have to say that I am converted and will never go back to the other software. Yes, both have different uses, but Bird Journal has to be the best I have found, thanks."

"I like using Bird Journal. I now have a decent amount of data in it (very easily entered) and to my pleasure it has not slowed down at all. I am beginning to see the value of the trip-based approach. I had feared that a lot of small entries would slow the programme down. Not so."

"I downloaded the trial and played with it a bit and I really like the navigation, ease..and the ability to custom create the forms and types of data I am collecting. Well done...also the images and having them carry with them the camera specs, super!... This is so much better than any of the other popular birding programs."

"Thank you for developing Bird Journal. It is exactly what I hoped to find when I began my search for birding software. Especially appreciated is your support of eBird. I have already submitted 4 observation reports and they were accepted without a hitch. Bird Journal blows away the competition in its intuitive ease of use, features that I actually want, and graphical interface. It has a contemporary look and feel that the others lack."

"Bird Journal is the only birding programme on the market that is actually a pleasure to look at. And it's been possible to discover this, as well of course as to get a sense of how easy you've made it to use, through your trial version; a simple, generous and effective innovation that none of your competitors, as far as I can see, has thought (or perhaps dared) to offer. So my congratulations!

A further attraction of Bird Journal to me is that beyond the essentials of place, date, weather and some general comments on the day etc., I can simply enter the names of birds, the numbers and my notes, and readily dispense with various 'boxes'. I appreciate that there are those who enjoy such things. But it's very intelligent of you to provide something that in this respect caters to the opposite taste: more generally to have thought about what various users might want, and not be entirely driven by the temptations of the technology.

"Good work Justin, Bird Journal continues to mature into an outstanding bit of software. These new features are superb, I particularly like the Custom Entry - it adds so much flexibility when recording sightings. (I've added fields such as Nest Box Number, Leg Ring ID, Maturity, Observer etc).

You should be proud of your product, I bet the competition are starting to take notice!"

"Just wanted to let you know how much I have enjoyed using Bird Journal over the past few days. It's really easy to learn, gives me all the information I want and looks great. Couldn't have designed a better birding database myself.

Thanks for a brilliant product."

"Just to let you know, I have downloaded the programme, have entered 6 2009 field trips. I am pleased to state that this is without any doubt the easiest and most intuitive birding software I have ever used.

Thanks for your feedback. After some experimentation I have set up the locations in a really cool hierarchical method that works great with the reports that I've always created.

I really like the way that the graphs work, the graphics a great. I am also sold on using multiple taxonomy depending on geography and how letting the programme take care of keeping track of the species keep everything so simple - that's really impressive.

In fact I'm now so sold on this software that I've transferred all my sightings over the last 3 years to your software and I intend to carry on using it. I can't wait to see the finished product.

Please feel free to quote me in any way you want. This really is the best and most user friendly software that I've ever used.

"This new exciting software lets me navigate with real ease to any of my 1855 field outings with a click of the mouse. Its also great for storing bird photos in, of which I have 2200 to date. Looking back through all my records and photos is extremely quick and enjoyable. It's easy to use and enter new outings, with the graphs updating your lists automatically."

"Bird Journal is the product I would have designed for myself, if I didn't prefer to be out birding at the weekend! I'd been looking for some record keeping software since last year when I decided to do more birding out and about, not just the BTO Garden Birdwatch. Bird Journal really appealed because it organises the data into visits and sightings, without having to repeat unnecessary information. For me, the photos and notes from each visit are as important as the species list that builds up as you go around. Having established a list of birds, the multi-layered analysis is impressive; locations within locations, birds in orders and species, all time or specific years and months. It makes it worthwhile to enter data from paper records or other sources to make comparisons.

As someone who runs software developments for a living, I can appreciate the attention to detail that has gone into this product, also the technology is up to date and well presented. The initial release has impressed with its functionality and ease of use, I look forward to seeing what more the team will add in response to user feedback."