Scythebill 15.6 is now available with the just-released IOC 12.1 and a number of small refinements. As always, download here, and let me know if you have any problems, either on Facebook or by email.
Scythebill
Open-source, cross-platform birdwatching software, and some avian taxonomy too.
Tuesday, January 18, 2022
Scythebill 15.6 - IOC 12.1, and a few refinements
Saturday, December 25, 2021
Scythebill 15.5: a better Mammals of the World, and many other improvements
Scythebill 15.5 is now available with country checklists for extended taxonomies, improvements to reporting, sighting entry, and importing, and more . As always, download here, and let me know if you have any problems, either on Facebook or by email.
Extended Taxonomy Checklists
Reporting features
"Never all" reports
- "Or" "Location in Oregon"
- "Never", "Location in Calfornia"
- "Or" "Location in California"
- "Never", "Location in Calfornia"
- "Never", "Date is this year"
- "Or" "Location in California"
- "Never all", "Location in Calfornia"
- "Never all", "Date is this year"
Year Comparison seasonal reports
"Date is not during"
Sighting entry improvements
Importing improvements
Private locations
Other changes
- You can now click the "Backup now" button multiple times in a single day, and each will produce a new backup file with a numbered suffix.
- An error has been fixed that could appear while creating or editing locations in Browse by locations when "Only visited locations?" is selected.
- It's now possible to disable multiple observers altogether from the Preferences screen; if you enabled this feature but don't actually use it, just click "Disable multiple observers".
Some other subtle problems with the multiple observers feature have been fixed. - Scythebill includes updated IOC multilingual names, with major changes to Portuguese, Swedish, and Dutch names.
- As always, many checklist improvements were made, especially an overhaul of the Bangladesh list thanks to the checklist from Chowdhury and Thompson.
Sunday, August 29, 2021
Scythebill 15.4 - the eBird/Clements 2021 taxonomy is now available!
Scythebill 15.4 is now available with the eBird/Clements 2021 taxonomy. As always, download here, and let me know if you have any problems, either on Facebook or by email.
eBird/Clements 2021
- Northern hemisphere birders probably have seen Mew Gull; that is now Short-billed Gull and Common Gull. If you're in Europe or Asia, it's overwhelmingly likely that you've seen Common Gull. If you're in the western part of North America, those are (almost) all Short-billed Gulls. Somewhere in-between? It's a hard ID problem!
- In Asia, Siberian Stonechat is now split to Siberian and Amur Stonechat. This is another hard identification problem, though Amur is largely restricted to easternmost Asia, but in Southeast Asia this gets complicated! And if you saw a vagrant, and no one thought to collect DNA samples, you might need to live with it as a Siberian/Amur Stonechat "sp."
- Elsewhere in the Palearctic, Subalpine Warbler, Black-eared Wheatear, and Lesser Short-toed Lark have each been split in two, mostly west vs. east, though again vagrant records are a challenge.
Other changes
- eBird also changed their date format in downloaded checklists, which broke import - that's been fixed.
- eBird locations with lat-long in their name are now handled more consistently (with the lat-long automatically extracted from their name)
- Wildlife Recorder imports now will use either IOC or eBird/Clements depending on the current bird taxonomy, instead of just assuming the imports are always eBird/Clements.
- Scythebill will tell you, on an import, what birds are new for your year list, but it used to so oddly when importing records from years other than the current one. Now it always reports based on the current year.
Appendix - the whole list
- Variable Chachalaca->Variable/Chestnut-headed Chachalaca
- Dusky-legged Guan->Dusky-legged/Yungas Guan
- Crested Argus->Vietnamese/Malayan Crested Argus
- Vaux's Swift->Vaux's/Ashy-tailed Swift
- African Palm-Swift->African/Malagasy Palm-Swift
- Festive Coquette->Butterfly/Festive Coquette
- Broad-billed Hummingbird->Broad-billed/Turquoise-crowned Hummingbird
- Gray-breasted Sabrewing->Gray-breasted/Diamantina Sabrewing
- Kentish Plover->Kentish/White-faced Plover
- South American Snipe->Paraguayan/Magellanic Snipe
- Mew Gull->Common/Short-billed Gull
- Royal Tern->Royal/West African Crested Tern
- Eurasian Scops-Owl->Eurasian/Cyprus Scops-Owl
- Spotted Eagle-Owl->Arabian/Spotted Eagle-Owl
- Collared Owlet->Collared/Sunda Owlet
- Tawny Owl->Tawny/Maghreb Owl
- Barred Owl->Barred/Cinereous Owl
- Southern Boobook->Southern/Rote/Timor/Alor Boobook
- Hantu Boobook->Seram/Buru Boobook
- Yellow-and-green Lorikeet->Yellow-cheeked/Sula Lorikeet
- Blue-winged Parrotlet->Turquoise-winged/Riparian/Cobalt-rumped Parrotlet
- Elegant Pitta->Ornate/Elegant/Banda Sea Pitta
- Rufous-winged Antwren->Rusty-winged/Rufous-margined Antwren
- White-backed Fire-eye->Western/Tapajos/East Amazonian Fire-eye
- Rufous Antpitta->Sierra Nevada/Perija/Muisca/Urubamba/Puno/Bolivian/Chami/Equatorial/Cajamarca/Chachapoyas/Panao/Junin Antpitta
- Chestnut Antpitta->Oxapampa/Ayacucho/Chestnut Antpitta
- Paramo Tapaculo->Loja/Paramo Tapaculo
- Blackish Tapaculo->Utcubamba/Blackish Tapaculo
- Black-faced Antthrush->Mayan/Black-faced Antthrush
- Tawny-throated Leaftosser->Middle/South American Leaftosser
- Red-billed Woodcreeper->Red-billed/Uniform Woodcreeper
- Necklaced Spinetail->Necklaced/Chinchipe Spinetail
- McConnell's Flycatcher->McConnell's/Sierra de Lema Flycatcher
- Tawny-crowned Pygmy-Tyrant->Fulvous-headed/Rufous-crowned Pygmy-Tyrant
- Vermilion Flycatcher->Vermilion/Brujo Flycatcher
- Graceful Honeyeater->Graceful/Cryptic Honeyeater
- Little Shrikethrush->Variable/Waigeo/Mamberamo/Sepik-Ramu/Arafura/Tagula/Rufous Shrikethrush
- Chinese Gray Shrike->Chinese Gray/Giant Shrike
- Dunn's Lark->Dunn's/Arabian Lark
- Lesser Short-toed Lark->Mediterranean/Turkestan Short-toed Lark
- Striated/Brown Prinia->Himalayan/Striped/Burmese/Annam/Brown Prinia
- Graceful Prinia->Graceful/Delicate Prinia
- Chestnut-backed Bush Warbler->Sulawesi/Seram/Buru Bush Warbler
- Little Rush-Warbler->Little/Highland Rush Warbler
- Gray-cheeked Bulbul->Gray-cheeked/Brown-cheeked Bulbul
- Ochraceous Bulbul->Penan/Ochraceous Bulbul
- Island Leaf Warbler->Island/Numfor/Biak Leaf Warbler
- Subalpine Warbler->Western/Eastern Subalpine Warbler
- Abyssinian White-eye->Abyssinian/Socotra White-eye
- African Yellow White-eye->Forest/Green/Northern Yellow/Southern Yellow White-eye
- Lemon-bellied White-eye->Lemon-bellied/Wakatobi White-eye
- Solomons White-eye->Solomons/Dark-eyed White-eye
- Limestone Wren-Babbler->Annam/Rufous/Variable Limestone Babbler
- Brown-headed Nuthatch->Brown-headed/Bahama Nuthatch
- Tropical Gnatcatcher->Tropical/White-browed Gnatcatcher
- Sedge Wren->Sedge/Grass Wren
- Spotted Nightingale-Thrush->Yellow-throated/Speckled Nightingale-Thrush
- Hill Blue Flycatcher->Hill/Javan/Dayak Blue Flycatcher
- Narcissus Flycatcher->Narcissus/Ryuku Flycatcher
- Siberian Stonechat->Siberian/Amur Stonechat
- Black-eared Wheatear->Western/Eastern Black-eared Wheatear
- Streak-headed Munia->Streak-headed/White-spotted Munia
- Long-billed Pipit->Long-billed/Nicholson's Pipit
- Scrub Euphonia->West Mexican/Scrub Euphonia
- Gray-headed Bullfinch->Gray-headed/Taiwan Bullfinch
- Stripe-capped Sparrow->Yungas/Chaco Sparrow
- Saffron-billed Sparrow->Moss-backed/Saffron-billed Sparrow
- Rufous-capped Warbler->Rufous-capped/Chestnut-capped Warbler
- Puerto Rican Bullfinch->Puerto Rican/St. Kitts Bullfinch
- Grayish Saltator->Olivaceous/Cinnamon-bellied/Blue-gray Saltator
- Eurasian/Vaurie's Nightjar->Eurasian Nightjar
- Chapman's/Amazonian Swift->Chapman's Swift
- Scarce/Schouteden's Swift->Scarce Swift
- Tawny/Ochraceous Piculet->Ochraceous Piculet
- Crested/Southern Caracara->Crested Caracara
- Rondonia/Layard's Woodcreeper->Dusky-capped Woodcreeper
- Pilbara/Sandhill Grasswren->Rufous Grasswren
- American/Northwestern Crow->American Crow
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Scythebill 15.3 - IOC 11.2 now available!
Scythebill 15.3 is now available with the just-released IOC 11.2 taxonomy. As always, download here, and let me know if you have any problems, either on Facebook or by email.
Note: Scythebill 15.3.1 was released on July 19th, and fixes how the IOC White-spotted and Streak-headed Mannikins are handled.
IOC 11.2
Other changes
Saturday, April 24, 2021
Scythebill 15.2 - BirdTrack support, browsing and import improvements, and more
Scythebill 15.2.0 is now available, with many improvements across the application, including BirdTrack support and several browsing and import improvements. As always, download here, and let me know if you have any problems, either on Facebook or by email.
Update: 15.2.1 was released on April 26 with two bug fixes - one for eBird MyData imports containing records from "January 1, 1900" (which eBird uses for dateless records), and a second for correctly setting the "Photographed" field when adding photos in one missing case.
15.2.3 was released on May 22 with some substantial improvements to Ornitho imports and a fix for eBird "domestic" taxa not always importing correctly.
15.2.4 included a number of small fixes, most importantly one that could cause Scythebill to freeze during sighting editing. More fixes are noted below.
Browsing improvements
BirdTrack support
Other import improvements
Reconcile "sp's" against checklists
Small improvements
- Scythebill is now "signed" on Windows. For now, this won't change much - though when Windows gives you warnings about an "unrecognized app", you'll see my name as the publisher. But as people install and use Scythebill, the installation warning will eventually disappear.
- When using Enter sightings, the "New for" column will also tell you if you have new species for your "year" list (though only for your world year list - if you're tracking multiple year lists, this doesn't quite do what you need).
- The BOU names for the IOC taxonomy are updated for some recent changes, most but not all of which align better with widespread non-British usage (for example, Greater and Lesser Canada Goose are now just Canada and Cackling Goose).
- Scythebill automatically uses its checklists to simplify data entry when you're typing abbreviated species names. It now prioritizes regular species over rarities - for example, the first "D" in England is now Dartford Warbler and not Dark-eyed Junco.
- There is now a new preference to let you choose the language for Scythebill. If you don't want to use the system language, you can explicitly choose from English, German, or Spanish.
- As always, a bevy of recent first records are incorporated into the checklists. The rarity list is fixed for Oregon and British Columbia, and the Armenia checklist is much improved.
- 15.2.4: the menu showing locations in "Search nearby" now is wide enough on Windows to show very long location names (common in eBird).
Fixed bugs
- When entering sightings, if you quit Scythebill or asked to import sightings before clicking "Done", you'd lose your work! You now get a warning, and you can also use "Save" in the file menu during species entry to immediately save without leaving.
- Some of the keyboard shortcuts when entering sightings - like "H" to toggle on Heard Only - would not always get saved
- When entering sightings and moving to or from the IOC taxonomy, the table might not correctly display species counts and other information. (The data was always present.)
- The IUCN Redlist status for endangered species wouldn't appear in "Browse by species" if the species only had a scientific name. This just affected extended taxonomies.
- An error dialog that sometimes appeared on MacOS when plugging in or plugging monitors should no longer appear.
- 15.2.4: Flickr imports and "copy-and-paste auto-magic" checklists would fail to find species when their name was followed by a single-letter word.
- 15.2.4: the Family report output would appear as one line on Windows.
- 15.2.4: it's now possible in Browse by location to cut and paste sightings between "visits" (to change the location or date or both)
Sunday, January 24, 2021
Scythebill 15.1 - IOC 11.1, easier Sp. and Hybrid entry
Scythebill 15.1 is now available, with the IOC 11.1 taxonomy, improvements to sp. and hybrid entry, and more. As always, download here, and let me know if you have any problems, either on Facebook or by email.
IOC 11.1
Better sp. and hybrid entry
Scythebill's always made it easy to entry "sp." and hybrids from the "Enter sightings" page, but it's always been much more annoying to correct a sighting after the fact.Other changes and fixes
- Checklist spreadsheets created from Browse by location have supported a "Lifers in bold" option, which did the obvious thing. That option now does one more thing, which shows species that you haven't seen in that location in italics.
- Checklist spreadsheets in Browse by location no longer include not-yet-established (common escapee) species.
- The Flickr import did not work before creating a sightings file.
Thursday, December 31, 2020
15.0 - Flickr Album imports, "Times sighted" reporting, and more
Scythebill 15.0 is now available, with Flickr Album imports, "Times sighted" reporting, and much more. As always, download here, and let me know if you have any problems, either on Facebook or by email.
The next version should arrive with the IOC 11.0 update, probably in January 2021.
(Scythebill 15.0.2 was released almost immediately with a fix for first-time users, and Scythebill 15.0.3 was released on January 4, 2021, with some Flickr import improvements and a fix for Waarnemening.be imports.)
Flickr Album imports
- It only supports albums - it can't import an entire photostream, for example.
- It only supports public albums - you can't import private data. You can flip the album to public for the import and right back to private if needed.
- It does a better job if you can give it one location - say, a country - for the import. If you have albums spanning multiple countries, it'll do OK, but for best results use albums organized per-country.
- Obviously, photos with no title or description cannot import.
Reporting improvements - "Times sighted" and "Pacific Ocean (ABA)"
Other import improvements
Small new features
- There's a new "Find checklist rarities..." menu item in the File menu. It can find any species you've seen that are considered rarities on the Scythebill checklists. This can just give you a happy memory, but it can also be a sign of identification or import mistakes, or a problem with the Scythebill checklists.
- The IUCN Red List 2020 updates are now included.
- Scythebill now includes checklists for the five "High Seas" regions. Can't say they're perfect (no one officially tracks these as best I can find), but they should be helpful on the rare occasions one is on a boat far, far from land.
- Scythebill includes new eBird/Clements name translations for the Arabic, Azerbaijani, Basque, Gallician, Korean, Lithuanian, Romanian, Slovakian, and Slovenian languages.
- The Isle of Man, Guernsey, and Jersey are no longer incorrectly included in the United Kingdom. (They are Crown dependencies instead.)
- The checklists are, as always, updated - in particular, I did another annual pass comparing all of Scythebill's checklists with eBird records, uncovering a lot of new entries.
Bugs fixed
- The Range Summary dialog used when resolving splits or choosing subspecies now works correctly in multi-monitor setups.
- An error dialog that sometimes popped up when switching taxonomies on the Show reports page should be fixed
- When entering the second half of a "spuh" or hybrid, alternate names are now available in the species chooser.