BIRDS of North America 2.5 (BNA 2.5) is a wonderful resource for sharpening birding skills. Regardless of your current skill level, this product will make you a better birder. I have been birding for over 30 years and have never seen any product (i.e., book, audio tape, etc.) that has the potential to improve skills as much as this excellent product from Thayer Birding Software.

Installation was no problem, but you’ll need to make sure you have high color video drivers to get the best quality pictures; 256 colors simply will not do justice to the multitude of pictures contained on the CD-ROM. Getting around in BNA 2.5 is intuitive through the Windows interface. An online manual/help is provided.

BNA 2.5 contains an extensive database of North American [United States and Canada (excluding Hawaii)] bird species, both living and extinct. All 925 birds known to have been found in the United States and Canada are included, with over 3,100 photos, over 1,200 calls and songs for 698 birds, 925 range maps, 835 summer and winter abundance maps, and 125 videos. Although the photos seem to take an eternity (about 6 seconds) to load, they are generally worth the wait (once loaded, they display much faster). Most species have multiple photos demonstrating seasonal and gender variations in plumage. Short action videos are provided for many species. The songs and calls are of high quality and representative for the species. Sonograms are available for each of the songs/calls. Range maps, and winter and summer abundance maps are provided for most species; migratory paths are not shown on the maps (would have been nice). There is a side-by-side comparison feature that allows you to examine differences in similar species, both in appearance and song (you can also "zoom" the photos for a closer look). The “Identify!” feature helps you identify birds by inputting information on habitat type, size, state/province, abundance, family, color, and sound (e.g., whistle, buzzy, squawk, hoot, rising, trill, etc.); this is especially nice for beginners, and fun to experiment with.

An online version of The Birder’s Handbook by Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, and Darryl Wheye includes information on breeding, displays, nest, eggs, chick development, diet, conservation, notes, and essays on bird behavior (although there is no discussion on important field marks). Other modules include The Joy of Birding (includes connections to top birding sites on the World Wide Web, checklists for 63 States and Provinces, reviews of binoculars and scopes, addresses for over 1,100 bird clubs, and much more), Avian Jukebox (just plays bird songs; I didn’t get much out of this), 250 pre-built bird quizzes (my favorite!...including family type and state/province quizzes), an audio "spectrogram" for visual plotting of both the included bird songs and your own recordings, and a Birds of the World Sampler (with photos of 364 different birds from around the world).

The Bird Quiz module with a total of 250 quizzes, drawing from the complete database of 925 birds, is where BNA 2.5 really shines. While some of the predefined quizzes are of questionable value [i.e., Birds Named After Geology Stuff, Birds Named After Continents, and West Texas (good topic, but the quiz inadequately includes only four species)], the majority are exceptional, fun, and educational. There are quizzes for various parts of North America in different seasons, quizzes for specific bird types (sparrows, warblers, etc.), and 63 quizzes for each state or province...whew!...this should keep you busy for quite some time! Since each quiz is compiled from the checklist of birds recorded for each specific area, some of the birds shown in the quiz may appear differently than you could expect to see them (for example, the quiz for Tennessee includes a Pacific Loon in breeding plumage, which is very unlikely); and, while there may be a state record for them, there are several birds on the quiz which I just wouldn’t expect to find in Tennessee (e.g., Greater Prairie Chicken, Groove-billed Ani, etc.). The difficulty level for the quiz module is adjustable and you can choose to display any combination of photos, songs, and range maps, giving this product educational value for all levels of expertise. In addition, there are other factors which you can adjust to increase difficulty (e.g., try one of the quizzes answering with scientific names only!). However, once you start a quiz there is no way you can adjust the difficulty level without starting over. The addition of videos into some of the quizzes is a really nice touch. A nice feature new for BNA 2.5 is the ability to create your own quizzes, although it is not immediately intuitive how to do so (you must first create the quiz list in the BNA 2.5 main module). In contrast to the disparity of species in the West Texas quiz, many of the quizzes are rather long; the Tennessee quiz includes 381 species, and if you’re really bold you can choose to be tested on the complete database of 925 species. Scoring is accurately tabulated as each answer is submitted and total complete scores may be saved for future comparison. One of the problems I had with version 2.0 was the inability to save in the middle of a long quiz; thankfully, this problem has been corrected in version 2.5. Although there is no menu option for saving, I was pleased to note that, after exiting the program in the middle of a quiz, the next time I started up the quiz module, I was reminded that I had not finished a previous quiz and given the option to continue or start a new one...a welcome improvement. Overall, I found the quizzes to be an exceptional tool for learning new bird songs and brushing up before taking a field trip.

Bottom Line:  I’m impressed with BIRDS of North America 2.5. Despite a few minor glitches, this product offers a wealth of information for birders, from beginner all the way up to expert. The quizzes are particularly outstanding and are alone worth the price of the product. Like a well-worn field guide, you’ll soon wonder how you ever got along without it. BIRDS of North America 2.5 is highly recommended for any level of birding interest...if you’re into birds, you will love this product!

System Tested On:  IBM-compatible PC with a 133Mhz Pentium; Windows 95; 64-bit PCI-bus SVGA video card; 32 Mb of RAM; 8x CD-ROM drive; Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold sound card; mouse

Minimum System:  Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT, Intel Pentium 90 processor, 16 MB RAM, SVGA display, high color video drivers, 4X CD-ROM drive, MPC compatible sound card (e.g., Soundblaster), 29 MB available hard drive space.

BIRDS of North America 2.5 can be purchased from Thayer Birding Software for $65. Technical support is available is available by phone (toll-free number), e-mail, or on Thayer Birding Software's World Wide Web site.

Thayer Birding Software, P.O. Box 770463, Naples, Florida 34107; phone 1-800-865-2473