New CD for birders - everything you need for positive ID

By DENNIS APRILL, Outdoors Columnist

Last week I got a chance to use Thayer Software’s "Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Guide to Birds of North America" in my computer, and I am impressed with its ease of use, excellent drawings, realistic videos of birds in their natural habitat, and its replication of bird songs and sounds.

As with any field guide like this that is computer-based, a certain bit of knowledge in manipulating the various options takes time, especially for the technologically challenged user like myself, but once I got the system down, I found this CD field guide to be very useful and enjoyable.

For one, it allows for easy identification of birds. To find an unknown species, enter the bird’s color, size, habitat where sighted and location, and the guide will find the specific bird, show you great photos of it, and let you listen to its song.

There are also 249 articles on bird behavior on the CD plus birders quizzes and a bird identification wizard; in essence, everything the bird enthusiast needs except the binoculars and actual bird (though you can zoom in on the photo to get a close-up look).

If there is a shortcoming to this CD, it is that it is so extensive that you might wonder where to begin. In that case a second Thayer CD Field Guide - "Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Feeder Watchers Guide to Backyard Birds" - might be the answer.

The more extensive Guide to North American Birds CD costs $69.95, the Backyard CD $29.95. Both can be ordered from Thayer Birding at 1-800-865-2473 or online at www.thayerbirding.com.