New Peterson Birds of North America iPhone and iPad Field Guide Debuts at MacWorld

SAN ANSELMO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Appweavers, Inc. a developer of mobile nature applications, today introduced Peterson Birds of North America, an iPhone and iPad field guide to birds. The new app gives birders and nature lovers access to the illustrations and writings of legendary birder and naturalist Roger Tory Peterson, in addition to content from multiple books in the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Peterson Field Guides series. Appweavers, will debut the new app this week in the Mobile Apps Showcase at Macworld 2011.

“Peterson is one of, if not the, most respected brands in nature publishing, and it is a privilege to bring the beloved classic Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America to the iPhone and iPad”

Peterson Birds of North America borrows liberally from the organization and design of the classic field guide, Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America. The app groups and orders bird species by family, with similar birds shown on a single screen. Illustrations use the Peterson Identification System—a series of arrows highlighting field markings—to help users differentiate similar birds. In addition to visual comparisons, birders can quickly compare songs and range maps of similar birds on the same screen.

The new app is more than simply an electronic version of the Peterson Field Guide books. A sighting feature allows birders to record where and when they saw a species, along with number of birds seen, notes, and the user’s confidence level in the identification. Users can maintain multiple checklists, such as life lists, year lists, and trip lists. Indexes offer fast access to information, and a search function filters the over 800 species of birds by location, month, habitat, order, and nest and egg characteristics. The unique QuickFind feature gives direct access to species information, without requiring users to access the iPhone or iPad keyboard. For example, tapping Chickadee takes the user directly to the first screen of images of chickadees. From there, a swipe of the finger quickly scrolls through successive screens of related illustrations.

“Peterson is one of, if not the, most respected brands in nature publishing, and it is a privilege to bring the beloved classic Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America to the iPhone and iPad,” said Nigel Hall, President, Appweavers. “The iPhone and iPad are exciting new tools and perfectly suited to anyone enjoying nature, whether in the field or at home.”

Peterson Birds of North America is a universal app —a single download runs on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Users with multiple devices need pay only once to gain access to the app from any device. The Peterson Birds app contains information from eight Peterson Field Guide series books, including Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America, Peterson Field Guides Western Birds’ Nests, Peterson Field Guides Eastern Birds’ Nests, Peterson Field Guides Hawks of North America, Peterson Field Guides Hummingbirds of North America, Peterson Field Guides Warblers, Peterson Field Guides Feeder Birds of Eastern North America, and Peterson Reference Guide to Molt in North American Birds.

About Appweavers

Appweavers is a San Francisco Bay Area software developer, with a focus on nature guide applications for mobile computing devices. The company has a multi-product licensing agreement with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for development of mobile apps based on the highly respected Peterson Field Guide series of books. Appweavers founder Nigel Hall has extensive experience with birding applications for the iPhone and iPad.

For more information about Peterson Birds of North America, please visit http://www.petersonguides.com

For more information about Appweavers, please visit http://www.appweavers.com

Peterson Birds of North America is available now from the iTunes App Store at http://bit.ly/petersonbirds_itunesurl

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6585867&lang=en