One of the next new features for Bird Journal is Import.

As always we want to make it really easy, and we want to make it capable of importing almost any birding records you may have.

In the Americas, eBird has made great progress in standardising birding data formats.  This has lead to AviSys, Birdbase and Birder's Diary all supporting export to the eBird CSV format.  We'll provide import from eBird Record format, and perhaps also eBird Checklist format.

But a lot of birders have records in Excel spreadsheets, and we'd like to be able to import from these too.

• Do you record sightings in Excel? How do you lay out your records? If possible please send us a sample, so we can try to make the import process as easy as possible.

• Would it be easy for you to convert your spreadsheets into a standard Bird Journal layout? Or would it be preferable to have a tool to auto-detect the layout of your spreadsheets?

 

Version 1.2 of Bird Journal is now live.  In this update we've added a complete new edition - the Continent Edition.  This edition includes all taxonomies available in a given continent, excluding world taxonomies, and is priced at £39 / €45 / $59.  The Local Edition has been reduced in price to £29 / €35 / $45.

Our website now accepts payments via PayPal, instead of SWReg.  This makes the order process much clearer and easier.  I also think most people are more comfortable with PayPal.

What else is new in Bird Journal 1.2?

• Calendar date picker.
• Species entry improvements. Improves clarity, discoverability and speed of entry.
• New Taxonomies: Ireland - IRBC and Spain - SEO.  The Spanish list includes English, Spanish and Catalan names.
• Support for our new continent edition.
• The installation process now automatically installs the .Net Framework if needed.
  

We hope you will enjoy using this new version.

Bird Journal version 1.2 is almost ready now. The new calendar date picker is in, and the two extra taxonomies for Spain (Sociedad Española de Ornitología) and Ireland (Irish Rare Birds Committee) have been added. The Spanish list includes bird names in Spanish, English and Catalan.

The improved sighting entry is moving more slowly, as we're being very particular about what we want. The improvements will be especially apparent in the Americas, where many birds are prefixed "American". For example, instead of having to type out "american ro" for American Robin, you'll be able to type just "robin" or "a ro". Much quicker.

This change will also allow us to add support for the BTO 2-letter species codes, in the near future. If anyone knows of any similar codes for America, please let us know.

We're being very careful to ensure the changes to the inputting do not make it more difficult for anyone. Two steps forward and one step back would not be good. As such we'll be rolling these changes out to testers before the official release.