Scythebill for Android - What's nearby?

A new version of the Scythebill Android app is out, and available on the Play Store.

The big new feature in this release is "What's nearby?". It uses eBird and OpenBirding data to answer the question every birder asks: what could I see around here that I haven't seen yet?

Nearby for a single species or a report

Every species page now has a Nearby section with the same two tabs: recent eBird reports of that species near you, and the best hotspots for it this month.

You can also run any report and tap New species nearby in the Query section. Scythebill shows two tabs here too - "Recently seen" and "Best hotspots". But instead of just being recent sightings or hotspots for one species, it's any species that would be new for that list. Taking a non-birding trip, and unexpectedly have a free morning? It just takes one click to see what's nearby and would be a lifer, or a year bird, or a state bird, etc., or to find a good place to go birding with multiple possibilities!

Each entry lets you link to the eBird checklist or hotspot, or you can click the directions icon and open up Maps to show you how to get there.

Plan ahead: search near any place

Nearby can use where you're standing - but you can also choose Search near a place… and type in a town, park, or airport to see what's around your next stop before you get there.

Other changes

• The app is now fully translated into Spanish and German. Dates, times, and month names also follow your phone's language and regional settings.
• There's a number of smaller improvements to layouts, performance, and error handling.

Scythebill 20.2: Scythebill for Android!

Scythebill 20.2 is now available, with better species information popups and other fixes. As always, download here, and let me know if you have any problems, either on Facebook or by email.

Update Sept. 8: 20.2.2 is now out. It fixes the "Send to phone" feature on MacOS, and adds some further performance improvements.

Scythebill for Android!

I've gotten lots of questions over the years whether I'll ever support Scythebill on phones. The answer today is, partly, yes! Scythebill for Android is now available.

This is not a data entry app (at least, not yet). What it helps you with is answering questions in the field like "when was the last time I saw that species?" or "have I photographed it?" or "do I need that for the ABA region?" It gives you a basic version of "Browse by species" and "Show reports", right on your phone, with no need for an internet connection. As always, this is all free, and you don't need to create an account.

Just install the Scythebill app on your phone, then send your .bsxm to your phone. You could copy the .bsxm file manually to your phone (downloading from the cloud, or emailing it to yourself), or you can use the new "Send to phone" feature in Scythebill 20.2. Select "Send to phone..." in the File menu - you'll get a QR code, like below. Then, from the Scythebill Android app, use "Receive from desktop...", scan the QR code, and (after a brief pause) done! (You do need your phone and desktop to be on the same Wi-Fi network.)

(And for iOS users of iPhones and iPads... nothing to announce yet - no promises, but I'm looking into it.)

Better species information

The last release added a new bit of interface that let you bring up species information, everywhere you see a species. The new version makes that much easier to bring up and keep up, and shows you even more information.

Any time you've got an item selected with a circled I icon - ⓘ -, just tap the "I" key, and it'll pop up. Tap I again, and it'll go away. But - even better - you can use the up and down arrow keys, and it'll stay visible! So you can rapidly view species information for a lot of species at once.

But wait, there's more! There's more information now in the species information popup:

The popup shows all groups and subspecies and their ranges, all in one place. And there's a little "copy" icon in the upper-right - click that, and all the content will be copied to the clipboard.

Something else...

There's a small feature which I'll just leave as a surprise. You'll know it when you see it.

Fixes and small improvements

• Some aspects of using Scythebill should be much faster, especially if you've got a large list with many locations.
• The "Type a species name" boxes didn't show a full list of names in some cases when using anything other than Americna English species names.
• Trip reports now have a "Lifers in bold?" option
• Trip reports generally do a better job now when they're generated across multiple trips
• An error message that could appear after merging locations has been fixed
• There's a new "Daily" option for backup frequency. (Scythebill will still only back up if something has changed since the previous backup.)