Warbler Guide App

Princeton University Press - Warblers

About this app

Warbler Guide App
Tom Stephenson & Scott Whittle

The Warbler Guide App is the perfect companion to Princeton’s revolutionary and widely acclaimed book The Warbler Guide, by Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle. Whether for study or field use, this innovative app delivers the full power of The Warbler Guide in your pocket—plus unique new app-only features.
The app allows you to identify birds by view or song, quickly and intuitively. Exciting new 3D graphics enable you to view a bird from the exact angle you see it in the field. And the whole range of warbler songs is easily played, compared, and filtered.

Breakthrough features from The Warbler Guide book that are included in the app:
• Rapid and confident two-step ID process using visual finders and comparison species
• The first complete treatment of warbler songs, using a new objective vocabulary
• An intuitive visual finder that includes side, 45-degree, and undertail views
• Master Pages with detailed ID points
• Complete guide to determining the age and sex of warblers with photos of all ages and sexes
• Annotated sonograms showing song structure and key ID points
• Complete songs, chip calls, and flight calls for all species
• Comparison species for making confident visual and audio IDs
• Many additional photos to show behavior and reinforce key ID points
• Highlighted diagnostic ID points
• Color Impression Icons for narrowing down ID of warblers from the briefest glimpses
• Behavior and habitat icons

Unique new app-only features:
• High-resolution, zoomable, and rotatable 3D models of birds in all plumages, to match field experience of a bird
• Intuitive, visual, and interactive finders with filters for possible species based on audio and visual criteria chosen by the user
• Playback of all songs and vocalizations with sonograms makes study of vocalizations easy
• Selectable finder sortings grouped by color, alphabetical order, song type, and taxonomic order
• Interactive song finder using objective vocabulary for fast ID of unknown songs
• Simultaneous visual and song finders make identifying an unknown warbler even easier
• Half-speed song playback allows for easier study of song structure
• Comparison species with selectable side, 45 degree, and undertail views
• Features 75 3D images
• Covers 48 species and 75 plumages
• Includes 277 vocalizations, 156 songs, 73 contact calls, and 48 flight calls
• Detailed "how to use" tutorial screens

Tom Stephenson’s articles and photos have appeared in Birding and Bird Watcher’s Digest, at Surf-birds.com, and in the Handbook of the Birds of the World. He has guided groups across the United States and Asia. A musician, he has had several Grammy and Academy Award winners as clients, and was director of technology at Roland Corporation. Scott Whittle lives in Cape May, New Jersey, and has twenty years of experience as a professional photographer and educator. He holds an MFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York, is a fellow of the MacDowell Colony, and is a onetime New York State Big Year record holder.

Compatibility:
Requires Android 4.1 or later.

Ratings and reviews

Hasn't worked in months. I rely on it for fall warbler id, which can be tricky. Giving it 2 stars because when it does work, it's great. Update: I emailed Princeton University Press. They responded, and apparently, a recent Android update made the app incompatible. Received another response asking for what phone I'm using and what version of Android to see if they can find a solution. Hopefully fixed soon. Upgrading to 4 stars for effort.

Update to my 8/17/24 review: Much of the app, which had been totally non-functional for several months after years of working beautifully on my Pixel 6A, now works again, but tabs are not labelled, and smart filtering for markings and color has only 5 color choices (9 shown on the app website), and only 3 marking choices, streaking, white wingbars, and yellow wingbars, so still not worth more than 3 stars at this point. Also, no tech support!

Alert to all Android users! This is now working beautifully once again, just in time to sort out confusing fall warblers. I was deeply unhappy when it stopped working with an Android update, 14. I have a Google Pixel Pro 6. Delighted the developers heard the many cries of anguish and have fixed this great app. The best for warbler ID, sounds and images. The 3D rotating views & comparisons to similar species are superb innovations.

What's new

Bugs and crash fixes.