Monthly Archives: June 2013

Birdeez Adventure – Tree Swallows at Lake Los Carneros June 16th

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Conservation will not happen unless there are people taking a hands on approach to the natural world. This is just one of the reasons why we at Birdeez have been volunteering with several bird projects conservation projects in the Santa Barbara area.

Today, you can see the first video in our series on the Tree Swallows of Lake Los Carneros. Tree swallows were locally extinct when the Santa Barbara Audubon Society put up their bird boxes. Now they are back, and we get to watch them grow! Check it out.

Keep reading for a full summary of the day’s events. Continue reading →

Birdeez Launches from UCSB to Change the World – SB Audubon Society

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Thomas Kuo

Birdeez Team Launching Into Action to Change the World!
Left to Right – Thomas Kuo, Jeff Simeon and Patrick Toerner.

El Tecolote Logo - Santa Barbara Audubon SocietyA version of this article originally appeared in the Santa Barbara Audubon Society‘s news letter – El Tecolote for June-July 2013.

If numbers are to be believed, only a quarter of those reading this sentence can identify birds. The US Fish and Wildlife Service reports that 74% of people who watch birds can identify fewer than 20 species by sight. We at Birdeez hope to change that and, in the process, change the world.

Birdeez is an iPhone app, but you can think of it as the un-iBird. Instead of being an encyclopedia, we built Birdeez to be the easiest app for anyone to pick up and start learning local birds. The app knows where you are and what birds are near you at any given time of year.  Enter a bird’s shape, size and color and you’ll get a short list of birds that match. You can even save your bird sightings right in the app. We designed it to help anyone from 7 to 70 years old learn their birds. By connecting more people to the birds around them, we hope to create the next generation of environmental stewards. Continue reading →

Meet the Birds of Eyes in the Sky

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I got to meet up with the Eyes in the Sky program at Santa Barbara Natural History Museum last week. Here are four of their educational birds and docents.

Here are the birds by name, species and handler!

  1. Kanati, a Male American Kestrel. Handler Chris.
  2. Athena, a Barn Owl. Oops! I forgot her handlers name! Sorry.
  3. Ivan, a Red-tailed Hawk. Handler David.
  4. Kisa, a Peregrine Falcon. Handler Carolyn.

We’ve got a project in the works with Eyes in the Sky. More info on that to come.

Birdeez Bird Father of the Year: The Great-Horned Owl

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Not all bird fathers invest in their family, but this Father’s Day we’d like to take a look at one HOO does.

Great-Horned Owl Mom and Chick waiting for Dad to Return

Great-Horned Owl Mom and Chick waiting for Dad to return with food. Photo by Ken Bosma

The Great-Horned Owl dad puts in an epic effort every nesting season. Great-Horned Owls are one of the earliest breeding birds in North America. They start nesting in January or February, meaning that in many places the eggs could freeze if left unattended. Mom needs to stay on the nest and Dad needs to bring home the squirrel, or mouse, or rat, or even skunk! Great-Horned Owls are the only bird that regularly feeds on skunks. Yum!

But it doesn’t stop there…

Continue reading →

Slate is WRONG – Bird Apps are great for kids and birds!

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A Slate article posted yesterday “Birding Applications: Great For Kids, Bad for Birds?” has a title that is misleading at best, and at worst an outright lie. Strong words, I know, but I think warranted because getting children outside and learning is an imperative for society and a focus of ours at Birdeez.

Jason Bittel begins with a sentiment we can agree with:

Getting kids into nature is a tough sell today. Inside, we have computers, televisions, video games, and climate control. Outside, there are mosquitoes, sunburn, and poison ivy. Of course, these two worlds are not inherently incompatible, and smartphones are starting to provide a link between them.

After that point, children completely fall out of the article. There are no children with smartphones running amok destroying birds with their apps. Continue reading →