It's now possible to buy an iPod edition of the Video Guide to British Birds - the first in an exciting new range of birdPOD products from BirdGuides. This enables you to watch video footage, listen to sounds, view illustrations and maps and listen to commentaries explaining how to identify any bird that occurs regularly in Britain. On an iPod you can access all of this anywhere, anytime; you can take it in the field with you.

This is how it works:

When you buy the iPod edition from BirdGuides you receive a disk which you can load into iTunes, just as you would any music CD. All the species appear in iTunes as 'tracks' that can be downloaded onto your iPod (AS LONG AS YOU HAVE ONE OF THE NEW iPODS THAT CAN PLAY VIDEOS). ( Installation instructions.)

Then, when you use your iPod, the 'Movies' section will include all these species as 'tracks' on your iPod. You can find any species by running through a taxonomic list, or an alphabetical list or by selecting the right family from within your 'playlist' menus, like this:

Within each family, the species are listed like this:

If you click on any species a 'video essay' will begin, usually lasting 2-3 minutes, often longer.

This 'video essay' will include video footage of that species, often in several plumages:

In many cases you'll be able to watch the bird singing:

But even if the footage doesn't include a singing bird, there is, for every species, at least one and often more sound recordings of their songs or calls.

Often the video footage shows birds in flight as well as at rest:

And in many cases you are able to watch special sequences of birds performing classic behaviours such as displays or feeding techniques:

Illustrations, mostly by Alan Harris from the Larousse Field Guide to the Birds of Britain, are also used to point out key features.

Each 'video essay' includes a commentary by Dave Gosney. This always covers how to identify the species by sight and sound, often with memorable descriptions to help you learn their calls. It also tells you where you might look for that species and often gives fascinating insights into their behaviour or lifestyle.

Altogether there's almost 10 hours of material covering 260 species, all with video clips, sound recordings, illustrations and a commentary.

And all of that can be accessed in the field from a piece of kit no bigger than a mobile phone!

Species list

Credits and copyright

Installation instructions

Purchase

 Back to top