A field guide
to the app

The map and the Rarities list

Every pin is a rare bird reported in Los Angeles or Orange County. A pin's colour is how rare the bird is, and the rarest show their names, as many as fit without overlapping. Zoom in and more names appear.

A pin sparkles when someone refound the bird in the app today, or when a Rare, Very Rare or Exceptional bird was seen today. A pin turns pale with a red outline when someone dipped the bird and nobody has seen it since. The red gets deeper with more dips (1, 2 to 3, 4 or more), and a new sighting or Refound clears it. Dips older than 3 days stop counting.

Under the map is the Rarities list. The large card at the top is the rarest bird seen in the last 3 days, and the rest follow newest first, or rarest first if you switch Newest to Rarest. A bird last seen longer ago is still listed, just not featured, because it's less likely to still be there. Drag the list up to read more of it, or down to see more of the map.

How rare is rare?

The rating counts how often the species has ever been recorded in the county where it was seen (research-grade iNaturalist observations).

Each county is rated on its own, so the same bird can rate differently a few miles apart. A White-headed Woodpecker in Long Beach rates Notable, because Los Angeles County has hundreds of records from the San Gabriel Mountains. One just over the line in Orange County rates Exceptional, because that county has none.

Exceptional

3 or fewer county records

Very rare

4 to 9

Rare

10 to 49

Notable

More than that, but eBird flagged it, for example for being out of season

Three ways to look

• Last 7 days shows birds reported today and the six days before, with a count.
• Last 30 days shows everything still on file.
• Near me shows birds from the last 7 days within 10, 25 or 50 km of you, closest first, with the range drawn on the map. The top card is the closest bird seen in the last 3 days. It needs location access, and your location never leaves the phone.

Narrow it down

The pills under the views pick a source: All sources, eBird or iNaturalist.

The search box at the top finds species or places. It matches the start of words, so rail finds Ridgway's Rail but not "River Trail".

Birds at sea

Some rarities are seen from boats on pelagic trips, more than 2 km offshore. Few people go on those, so they're hidden at first.

The 🚤 At sea pill shows how many there are. While they're hidden it's red and crossed out. Tap it to show them, and tap again to hide them. Islands such as Catalina count as land.

A bird's page

Tap any pin or card. The map zooms to where it's been reported, and the dashed circle is the area the reports cover.

• The day strip covers the last week. Green means it was reported that day, and red means people only dipped.
• Refound or Dipped: if you go, tell other birders whether you saw it. Reports are anonymous. When several people dipped since the last sighting, the status line says so, e.g. "✗ Dipped ×3".
• Directions, Transit (bus and train directions; on iPhone, Apple Maps, or Google Maps when its app is installed), Notes (what observers wrote) and a link to the eBird report.
• The report chips: tap one to see its exact spot.

Is it still there?

Continuing

Seen in the last 6 hours, or in the last 2 days by more than one birder

Single report

One report, in the last 3 days

Last seen

Within the past week

May have departed

Not seen for a week or more

Sometimes a page also says 🎧 Also heard by a BirdWeather station: a nearby microphone picked up the same species that day.

Why Refound and Dipped are usually first

Most birders keep an eBird checklist while they're out and send it when the outing ends: back at the car, that evening, sometimes days later. A bird seen at 8 in the morning often doesn't reach eBird, or this app, until the afternoon. A Refound or Dipped tap is different: it reaches the server the moment you tap it, while you're still standing there, and anyone who opens or refreshes the app sees it.

So on a chase, the freshest news on a bird is usually a Refound or Dipped report from earlier that day. Tap one yourself when you go, and the next birder knows before they set off.

At sea, or on an island

An offshore bird's page says so. It has no Directions or trip button, because you can't drive to it.

A bird on an island with no road, such as Catalina or the Channel Islands, is marked "🏝️ Island". Its page says how to get there and has a Ferry link in place of Directions and Transit. It can't be added to a trip either. San Clemente and San Nicolas Islands belong to the Navy and are closed to the public.

Plan a trip

• On a bird's page, tap the car button to save it to your trip.
• The car button at the top right opens the trip. The number on it is how many birds are saved.
• Stops are put in driving order from where you are. Directions opens the whole route in your maps app (on iPhone, you pick Apple Maps or Google Maps). Trips are for driving; for transit, use a bird's own Transit button.
• Swipe a bird sideways to remove it.

Rare-bird alerts

The app checks for new reports every 10 minutes. When there are new ones, you get one alert that names them. Birds you can drive to come first, and offshore ones come last, marked "(at sea)".

Tap an alert to open the bird. If it named several, they're listed first under Just reported.

A bird is announced once. When birders share an eBird checklist, each copy has the same bird, place and time, and the app skips the copies instead of alerting again.

Since 1.5, the app icon also shows how many alerts came in since you last opened the app. Opening it clears the number.

About, and this guide

The logo button at the top left opens About. The teal card at the top brings you back to this guide: Take the tour or What's new. After each update the app also shows a short "What's new" card once.

Below it, About explains the sources:

• eBird (Cornell Lab of Ornithology): notable sightings, observer notes, hotspots.
• iNaturalist: research-grade rare observations and the bird photos.
• BirdWeather and BirdNET: microphones that back up birds people have already reported.

The app is free and non-commercial, with no accounts and no ads.