Why birdJam?
Why buy our birdJam Maker software and not just the bird song CDs such as the Stokes CDs for East and West North America or the Cornell CDs for Costa Rica and SE Arizona/Sonora, Mexico?
After all, you could load the bird song CDs onto your iPod® yourself without birdJam Maker. However, it would literally take you weeks to create all the built-in birdJam features. Plus, you wouldn't have all the spectacular photographs by our renowned photographers.
Sharon Stiteler, The "Birdchick" and news editor for Birding Business magazine, commented, "The ease and convenience of using birdJam to organize my CDs was well worth the price. I definitely like that the songs were automatically organized into obvious playlists. It's so small that I carry birdJam everywhere."
But, what exactly does birdJam Maker do?
- birdJam splits double tracks. Most bird
song CDs have more than one bird species per track. This means
that, for example, on the Stokes Western CDs that Blue Jay and Green
Jay are on the same track. What if you need to hear a Green Jay?
How would know it’s on the Blue Jay track? birdJam splits
the double tracks so that each bird has its own track and is visible on
the iPod screen. This makes it much easier to find the bird you're
looking for.
- birdJam uses consistent and easy-to-find names. Stokes CDs’ bird song names (which come from the internet CDDB), are named as they are on the Stokes CD liner notes. (And inconsistently, at that.) That is, a Cardinal is called by its official name, Northern Cardinal—at 'N' in alphabetical order. Same thing for Eastern Bluebird and American Crow. birdJam renames tracks using the methodology used in the index of most field guides. For example, Cardinal is Cardinal, Northern and Bluebird is Bluebird, Eastern. Much easier to find!
- birdJam adds definitive bird photos. For most North American bird species, when the bird song is playing, a definitive photograph of the bird will appear on the iPod screen. Most people still prefer to use a field guide, but the photograph combined with the bird song supplements and reinforces your knowledge.
- birdJam removes the spoken bird name from each track. Many
bird song CDs start with a human voice at the beginning of a track
announcing the name of each bird, then the song begins.
birdJam resets the track start time so that the track begins
with the bird song. If you wish, the bird name is still there—just
use the iPod to backup the start point if you want to hear the bird
name.
- birdJam adds more information. birdJam adds the scientific and common name of bird species. It also adds information about where and when the bird song was recorded, and in some cases, descriptions of the songs and bird call behaviors. In addition, if you load your own iPod using iTunes, Apple's free music management system, birdJam adds more data columns not available on the Stokes CDs, As a result, you can look up buteos, for example, in iTunes—and instantly get a list of buteos (buzzard hawks).
- birdJam creates over 75 playlists (East and West).
Playlists are what make birdJam really useful and so fast to use.
For example, birdJam provides playlists by habitat. So, there is a
playlist for Marsh birds and a playlist for Nocturnal birds
(you'll find all the owls there!). There are playlists by family too;
Warblers and Sparrows, for example. Click here for more information on all our playlists and how to create your own.
- birdJam displays useful information on the iPod. The Stokes CD without birdJam, in contrast, displays the album name ("Stokes...") and the artist name ("Stokes...") when playing the bird song on the iPod. And that information is exactly the same for all 923 birds! Our software displays the bird’s scientific name and a description of the bird’s song on the iPod! Very neat. Cool, in fact.
We've been working on birdJam for over three years, and we're always adding new capabilities and features! Thousands of birders happily use it, so we know birdJam works. Try it yourself and tell us your experiences. Get out there and have some fun!
birdJam is a powerful tool: Please use it responsibly.
iPod is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc. birdJam is not affiliated with Apple, Inc.
Copyright 2005, 2006, 2007 MightyJams, LLC. All rights reserved.
