UK Bird Sounds app

50p for the ad-free version or free with ads | 25 MB | Requires Android 2.2 and later | See it in Google Play

Learning bird songs and calls adds an extra dimension to your skills, allowing you to identify those unseen birds, as well as more fully enjoy the birds you do see. This new release from Luminous Apps will help you recognise the songs of 258 species recorded in Britain.

This is a very nice-looking app, with a colour photo of each species. You can select whether to view these in alphabetical order by English name or by family. Tapping the photo plays the bird’s song. The recordings are clear and recognisable. There is some background noise, but this is inevitable and doesn’t interfere too much with the bird sound.

Also included is a checklist and three quizzes – guess the picture, guess the sound and guess the name. The latter are fun, but very much aimed at the beginner – a picture of a Blackcap, for example, with the options Blackcap, Red Kite, European Golden Plover and Carrion Crow. The checklist includes links to the species’ Wikipedia page and a Google image search, both of which are accessed by tapping the photo of the bird. The checklist is rather limited, however, as it is just a tick box with no facility for adding where or when a species was seen.

It would be helpful if the birds could be organised taxonomically as well as alphabetically and by family. There are some odd inclusions in the species list – Horned Lark and Shore Lark both appear, with the same photo, while Spotted Crake, Spanish Sparrow and Common Rosefinch aren't species that many beginners will encounter. Overall, though, this is a very easy-to-use app that will be of great use to anyone wanting to learn bird sounds.