The BIRDS module is based on the reference field guide "Roberts'
Birds of Southern Africa" and Guy Gibbon's sounds and videos. The 958 individual
bird pages include both concise and scientific texts, updated distribution maps,
and over 1700 illustrations, 3500 photographs, 850 bird sounds, and 450 video clips.
Family Pages
The first screen in the BIRDS module is a family page opposite
a bird list. Selecting a family name from the Birds [V] button, or name from
the bird list, will turn the page to that family. Here you can browse the family
and make comparisons by selecting a bird from the pictures. This will display the
short field-guide text, distribution map, and alternative names and numbers in the
right-hand panel. [Similar Birds] can also be used
to compare species. To open a bird page, double-click on a picture in the bird page,
or a name in the list, or select [Bird Page] from
the menu, or from the short-cut icons. You may also turn the pages as in a book
and page forward and backward between the families using the arrows on the menu.
Explore a family page for sounds by clicking on the bird. You can page forward and
backward between the families using the arrows on the menu bar | < Page > |.
Bird Pages
The individual bird pages comprise illustrations, distribution
maps, concise "field-guide" text and scientific text, photos, videos and
sounds, alternative names and scientific names explained, rare bird data, a personal
notepad, and print functions. Illustrations, photos and videos may be selected from
the thumbnails, and the sound switched on or off. The distribution
maps are colour-coded, indicating status (resident, breeding migrant, non-breeding
migrant and rare bird), and density-coded, indicating occurrence (uncommon, common,
very common, abundant). Also indicated are endemic
and red data species. Clicking on a rare
bird map will scroll down to the summary of rare bird records. The
notepad maintains a record of all your sightings entered into the
Bird List module, and entering details on the notepad will automatically
update your life list. You can page forward and backward using the arrows.
Similar Birds
[Similar] Birds is a new module that uses a split screen to compare similar
species. All the information available on the bird page is available for comparison.
Rare Bird Data
The bird pages include over 4700 records of 160 species of rare and vagrant birds.
See Rare Bird Data for details.
Add/Edit Birds
You can maintain the bird list database to your liking,
and add new and edit existing bird pages with this function. You can [Edit] the existing bird pages by changing the names
and numbers, and even add your own photos and multimedia. You can also [Add]
new species from the world list (when a species not yet on the SA list is sighted),
or even create [New] species that result from a split.
Bird Page Notes
The bird page notes module keeps track of all your sightings
for a particular species. You can add stand-alone records that report directly to
your life list, or you can add a record into a bird list from the bird page.
|
