Welcome

Congratulations!

The computer program you just installed will soon make you a birding "expert." Thayer Birding Software and the team at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have joined forces to bring you the ultimate birding software. Visit the Thayer Birding Software web site and click the v3.9 Features tab for a quick look at everything this CD will do!

The CD-ROM disk you have actually includes all the birds of North America, even though you may have installed a program with just birds from your state or province. The 16-digit license key tells your computer which birds to display on your computer. If you decide you want to see all the birds, you can buy a new license key that turns off the filters and shows you all the birds.

Guide to Birds of North America version 3.9, is an incredible CD-ROM featuring 925 species seen in the United States and Canada. It includes 2,789 color photos. Most species have photos of the male and female. Alternate plumages as well as juveniles and in-flight photos are also included for many species. The largest collection of North American bird songs available anywhere is included on the CD. Recordings for 708 species may include songs, alarm calls, drumming and more! Songs are from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Finally, 90 video clips show a variety of bird behavior.

$images\ebx_-692726307.gif$ v3.9 Desktop icon

There are six main sections you will want to explore. Each of these has its own blue button at the top of the page. The six sections are: Field Guide; ID Wizard; Quizzes; Sightings; Custom Lists and Handbook.

$images\ebx_-1872421606.gif$ Click Field Guide to open a Field Guide installed on your computer. You can then see information about any bird in the Field Guide. This is just like using a field guide book. Only now you can hear the birds as well as see the birds. Click the yellow zoom button to enlarge the bird’s image. If you are not sure which bird you saw, click the compare button to show two birds at once. Click The Birder’s Handbook to read about the bird in The Birder’s Handbook. Use the view similar feature to see the five birds most often confused with the bird you have selected. Click the small black arrows to arrange the birds in alphabetical or taxonomic order – whichever you prefer. (By clicking the Tools and then clicking Options and then selecting Names, you can even have the bird names appear in French, Spanish, German or English) Click the funnel button to use the filter to see only birds from one area or one family.) The Spectrogram will let you see images of a bird’s song. You can now add your own comments and photos for each bird in the My Comments section!

$images\ebx_1136687766.gif$ The Identification Wizard can help you identify unfamiliar birds. Simply select the color, size, habitat, field marks and/or location of your bird and the program will list every species that matches your description. A new feature is the ability to select a song pattern to help identify a bird – even if you did not see the bird!

$images\ebx_1529534257.gif$ Almost 700 Quizzes are arranged into categories such as "A Quiz for New Birders," "Birding Hot Spots," "Christmas Bird Counts," "Favorite Birds," "Location," "Family" and more. Set the level at Easy or crank it all the way up to Difficult. Select Multiple Choice, Fill-in-the-Blank or Flash Cards quizzes. A new feature is a fourth quiz type called "Pick One." Look at four different images and select the one that matches the bird name displayed.

$images\ebx_1306590294.gif$ This software includes a basic listing and record keeping program to help you remember the birds you have seen. Record you bird sightings by clicking the Sightings button.

$images\ebx_-2123338408.gif$ Create Custom Lists of birds. Group various birds together in any way you can imagine. Use your custom lists to take a quiz on the birds in your list. Study these birds using the Field Guide or display them as a screen saver. Export bird songs to you iPod (for your own personal use only.) Perhaps you want to study all the large, wetland birds in your state. Use the ID Wizard to help you find all these birds and then save them as a custom list called "Large Wetland Birds" for later use. You can create hundreds of separate lists! You can share your custom lists with others at the Thayer Birding Software Forum.

$images\ebx_384069431.gif$ Learn more about birds and specific bird species. The Birder’s Handbook is a 700+ page book that is included in electronic format. Read one of the 250 essays about birds or study the species that interest you. A new feature is the addition of The Birder’s Handbook in the state and province versions of the software – not just in the full version.

If you have a question there are many ways to find the answer.

· First, read this Help Manual. You can quickly open this Help file by pressing the F1 key in the top row of your computer keyboard.

· Second, view the short Video Tutorials that explain how to get the most out of your new program.

· Third, for a quick overview, see all the Version 3.9 Features at the Thayer Birding Software web site.

· Fourth, chat with other users of the software at the User's Forums.

· Fifth, scan over 100 Knowledgebase articles to find the answer to your question.

· Finally, for technical help, contact Thayer Birding Software. The Help Desk has answers to almost every technical question you may have. Here you may Open a Ticket and send it to the technical support staff. All questions are answered via email. Phone support is not available.

Note: Before you leave this Welcome page, here are a few tips to help you navigate around this Help file.

1. To go back one screen, click the "Back" button near the top of the page.
2. Words underlined in Green will take you to another page within this Help file.
3. Words underlined in Blue will take you to a web site on the Internet.
4. Click "Help Topics" to see more topics.
5. Double-click on a purple book icon to expand the list of Help topics.
6. Double-click on a topic to see the full article.