Calling all backyard birdwatchers and serious birders (the "new" term for an avid birdwatcher)! Have I got a neat program for you! Axia's Know Your Common Bird Songs (KYCBS) can either help you learn bird songs or polish up on some of the ones you may have forgotten. This is a wonderful product, and reviewing this one made me anxious to see some of Axia's other products.

Installation:  Quick and easy through the Windows Program Manager (File/Run). The install program creates a new program group "AXIA CBS" with four associated icons (Axia CBS, SlideShow, HTUA, and Read Me). KYCBS comes on a CD-ROM with an accompanying 3.5" "Upgrade diskette". Installation takes up about 2.5 MB of your hard drive.

Documentation:  Installation instructions are provided in the jewel case. HTUA (How to Use Axia), one of the best tutorials that I have ever seen, is started by clicking on the icon; all features of KYCBS are clearly demonstrated just as if you were actually in the program. Because of the excellent instructions provided in HTUA, no additional reference materials are needed. Axia also provided advertisements for some of their other products (Know Your Birds of Prey, Know Your Waterfowl, Know Your Owls).

The Product:  KYCBS is one of the most seamlessly integrated multimedia products that I have ever seen. It is so easy to use, fun to explore, and has such impressive audio-visual features that I believe that even non-birders would be impressed. Clicking on "Axia CBS" will start the program. 121 different birds are represented, with their accompanying songs or sounds. Birds can be grouped for each of 8 geographic regions of North America. SlideShow will display all bird pictures on the disk along with their accompanying song; after a few seconds, the name of the bird will be spoken. The SlideShow always starts with Black-capped Chickadee; it would be nice if there was an option for randomizing pictures.

The Main Menu (Contents) has four options: Multimedia Presentations (there are six of these, and they are all excellent), Songs and Voices (nine groupings of different types of bird songs), Where the Birds Sing (containing 17 unique habitats, ranging from urban/industrial to alpine tundra and all points in-between), Habitats (four groupings of the 17 habitats), and Regions (eight regions of North America). The Explore mode allows you to compare birds, songs, and habitats. The Challenge mode is where you are tested to see how well you know your bird songs. Challenge gives you the option of showing a photo of the bird while asking you to identify the song, or you can choose to hear the song only without the picture. Without the pictures, it is not as easy as I thought it would be! One of the coolest options in the program is when you explore the various habitats and the birds that may be found therein; choruses of three different bird songs may be heard at once, just like you might hear them in the field (this is very challenging in the Explore mode!).

There are a couple of things that I would have done differently, such as including the White-breasted Nuthatch (the Red-breasted Nuthatch is represented) and the Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers (two of our most common woodpeckers, at least in the Southeast; each of which has distinctive calls). However, these omissions are relatively minor and do not significantly diminish the overall quality of this product or its impact on the user. The Challenge mode also has an option for you to try to identify a bird based solely on its range map; I personally didn't find this feature all that useful, but perhaps some will.

As a birder, I hoped for a lot from KYCBS. What I got was a product which exceeded my expectations in almost every respect. Although I've been interested in birds for over 25 years, I could quickly see that Axia can teach me a lot of stuff that I haven't learned about common bird songs. I learned something the first time I tried this product. Axia's approach to learning builds on repetitive correct answers (i.e., incremental learning) and is extremely effective. A nice feature is that you can tailor your learning by creating your own subsets of birds for the Challenge mode.

KYCBS has hundreds of photos of birds, and they are absolutely outstanding in clarity and content. Although not advertised by Axia, I discovered that these exceptionally sharp photos (stored as bitmap files on the CD-ROM) can be copied to your Windows directory and used as wallpaper.

Axia has a toll-free number (1-800-WOW-AXIA) for customer support.

Bottom Line:  This is an exceptional product that is very educational and fun. If you're interested in birds and would like to learn to identify common birds by their songs, I highly recommend Axia's Know Your Common Bird Songs. By the way, it runs great in Windows 95.

System Tested On:  IBM compatible PC (Gateway 2000) with a 80486-DX2 at 66 Mhz; MS DOS 6.2, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, and Windows 95; 8 Mb of RAM & 420 Mb hard drive; mouse

Minimum System:  386 SX (or compatible microprocessor) (486 SX recommended); 4 MB RAM (8 MB rec.); CD-ROM drive (double-speed rec.); SVGA monitor w/256 colors (16-bit SVGA card rec.); Windows 3.1; 4 MB available on hard drive; MCI compatible sound card (e.g., Soundblaster)

The suggested retail price in May 1995 was $69.95, but Axia has indicated that they have recently dropped the price to $54.95.

Axia International Inc., Suite 510, Atrium 2, 840 - 6 Avenue S.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada  T2P 3E5  Phone 1-800-WOW-AXIA (969-2942) or (403) 262-2942  Fax (403) 261-1675