Product Description

Version 3.9.8 was released July, 2009. Thayer Birding Software and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have joined forces to create the ultimate DVD for birders. The Thayer's Guide to Birds of North America v3.9 features all 927 birds seen in the U.S. or Canada (excluding Hawaii) more than one time. This incredible Windows-based DVD includes 2,788 color photos and songs for 708 species. 90 video clips are also included. This DVD can help you identify unfamiliar birds. Simply select the color, size, habitat, location or sound of your bird and the program will show you everything that matches your description! Also included are 700 quizzes arranged into "Birding Hot Spots", "Christmas Bird Counts", Favorite Birds" and more. Set the level at Easy or crank it all the way up to Difficult. Select Multiple Choice, Fill-in-the-blank, Flash Card or "Pick One" quizzes. This DVD also includes a listing and recordkeeping program to help you remember the birds you have seen. With version 3.9.8, you can also share Custom Lists with your friends, download songs and photos to an iPod for your own personal use and add your own comments and photos for each bird. New colorful icons make it very easy to use the DVD. System Requirements: Windows 7, Vista, XP or 2000; Pentium 4 processor or equivalent; 512 MB RAM; DVD drive; 1 Gig on hard drive; plus hardware and software required to support multimedia applications. Some features of this DVD require an Internet connection.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3003 in Software
• Brand: Thayer Birding Software
• Platforms: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 2000
• Format: DVD-ROM
• Dimensions: .50 pounds

Features

• Over 2800 color photos, 90 videos
• 708 Songs - export to iPod
• Hundreds of Quizzes
• Includes The Birder's Handbook
• 927 bird species

Customer Reviews

Thayer Guide to Birds of North America v.3.9
I was able to try the software at a friend's house a few years ago and enjoyed the Petey the Parrot feature that pronounced Latin nomenclature. User friendly. There are good searching and cross-referencing features. The library of species is more extensive than any book I've seen. I like that there is geographic distribution data, population information and song files. It is so much easier to listen to a song file than read "two wee" in a field guide and get the same effect of information. This software helps with research presentations. The quizzes are great too. I like that the photos available for each species carry mulitple view whenever possible. I think in the absence of photos, drawings could have been included to cover the gap, especially since females are usually the gap and comprise 50% of the species population, so this is important information. So far that is the only short-coming I have noticed.

Great CD-Rom
As the previous review noted, the software is user-friendly. She also makes a good point about possibly using diagrams where there are gaps in the photos. Although I am generally happy with the photos available, there are some species that could use more/better photos.

I have Version 3.5. I really appreciate having the Birder's Handbook available on the CR-Rom; I've used it on multiple occasions. My main qualm with the software is that the audio selection is limited. It plays only the song for songbirds (not calls) and the recordings are fairly short. I still highly recomend this product, but would also recommend purchasing one or both of the Stokes CDs to get a more complete audio recording of the various songs and calls for each species. On the upside, I love the quizz options and have been creating my own quizzes to improve my identification skills!

The software is updateable through the internet. Also, if you are trying to decide between this one and the Birds of My Region CD-Rom, I highly recommend investing the extra money and getting this one (unless you never plan on leaving your region) since it is applicable across the continent and includes the Birder's Handbook. Really, it's not that much more money.

A Well Organized and Full Featured Program for Birders
My wife is an amateur birder. She previously used the Audubon software on a Windows PC for identifying birds and documenting her sightings. This program is better organized and, she thinks, more full featured. It was easy to install on our XP operating system and operates smoothly (I don't know about the Vista environment)and she says that it is fun to use with lots of interesting information.