World of Wings app for iOS and Android

• Price: free
• Further details: Available to download via the App Store or Play Store

WThe world of mobile gaming is a crowded one and while World of Wings doesn't attempt to pitch itself against the likes of Pokémon GO, any player familiar with that mobile game cannot escape the similarities. The game appeals in particular to the human habit of collecting, in this case its collecting sightings of birds or identifying them based on their songs and gaining points as a reward. You can use this points to buy feeders to try and bolster your species diversity and therefore score. Players can even purchase better optics and in this regard World of Wings has seemingly partnered up with Swarovski Optik.

When first starting out, the user gets the continent of North America for free, and it doesn't take long before you are straight into the action and identifying North American birds. Even players with a basic knowledge of species on the continent should manage fine with the app – but some birds have to be identified on sound alone.

What surprised me was how true to life the app was, with a good mixture of birds identified on visuals and others whereby the player has no choice but to learn the song in order to receive the reward (score). When I first started to play, I thought I would tire of the game fairly quickly, but this was not the case and I realised I could switch between different habitats. I particularly liked that I had to refocus the in-game binoculars, while sometimes a bird was just that bit too far away and I had to employ skills often used in the field to come up with an answer.

Like most mobile games it will doubtless rely heavily on microtransactions, which are now commonplace within this market place. Purchasing of better binoculars is one thing the player does have to pay for, as is unlocking the new regions in which to identify birds (this includes Europe). One thing I would say about the game is it is perhaps a little difficult to play in a public place unless you have headphones – as a birding community, we may not mind the song of American Robin blasting from our phones, but it could quickly become tiresome for those within earshot who don't share our passion! The game is certainly worth downloading and I expect this app to improve in new and exciting ways going forward, as is commonplace in gaming these days.