Cd-Rom Bird Guide Filled With Song And Information

Widgeon or teal? Fox or song sparrow? Cassin’s or house finch?

‘Tis the season to brush up on bird identification.

Birds are flocking to winter feeders, and the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count in Spokane south of Coeur d’Alene is Dec. 28.

Experienced Christmas count participants do their homework before they head out the door pre-dawn to join a birding team. This includes browsing through several bird books, studying photos or illustrations for distinguishing characteristics or meeting with other birders for a group review of species likely to be seen.

But a slick new way to do a pre-Christmas Count review is with the National Audubon Society Interactive CD-ROM Guide to North American Birds ($49.95).

Photos of the 723 bird species on the CD are arranged by groupings on the computer monitor; click twice on any little photo and it’s enlarged to the screen size.

Click on the sound icon and you’ll hear the bird’s song.

Click on the text icon and there’s a screen of information about the bird.

Click on the range map and the winter, breeding and permanent ranges in North America are illustrated.

Other icons access seasonal photos of the bird and photos of it in action, photos of its habitat, methods of comparing it to other similar birds by size and shape and an icon to add it to your life list.

You can also create a custom notebook with illustrated life lists, plan birding vacations with information about the top 20 birding sites on the continent, and learn about birding techniques.

For those getting ready for the Christmas Count - or simply boning up to identify birds at the feeder - there are skill-builder tests to improve your birding abilities.

The CD runs on Mac (System 7.0 or higher, 15MB hard drive, 5MB RAM) or Windows 3.1 or 95 (15 MB hard drive, 8MB RAM). , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo