The stillness of standing at a woodland edge before dawn with binoculars raised, listening for something that might not come, is a type of silence that serious birdwatchers have always treasured. There is still that silence. Simply put, someone is probably unlocking a digital card for seeing a blue tit somewhere nearby right now.
The UK-based app Birdex, which debuted earlier this year, does something surprisingly straightforward: it awards you points for each bird you see and record. Rare species are more profitable. For each one, you gather digital cards with illustrations. You can compete and add friends. Over 200,000 sightings have been reported thus far. That’s a number worth considering for an app that was developed over the course of six months as a side project by two people.
One of the developers, Harry Scott, is a 24-year-old marketing professional. He doesn’t work as an ornithologist. He simply enjoys birds, and it makes sense that birdwatching and Pokémon have more in common than either community would be willing to acknowledge. Both entail cataloging, searching, gathering, and the mild excitement of discovering something new. The app adds a rewards system to what was already a highly ingrained habit for many users. Michelle Williams, a psychologist in London, is one of the users who describes using it with their young children in the garden, pointing out robins, logging sparrows, and encouraging them to look up instead of down at a screen.
Perhaps the most genuine defense of such apps is that they divert screen time to real hedgerows and real birds. There is some merit to that argument, though it is debatable if it is entirely convincing.
In a subtle way, the history of birdwatching in Britain is a history of technology. Rare sightings were reported through landline calls and handwritten letters decades ago; it could take days for word of an uncommon grouse to spread throughout the neighborhood. Then there was an email. Next are smartphones. With the ability to share location pins in real time, log sightings, and access field guides, apps like eBird and BirdTrack eventually became standard tools. This shift was not created by Birdex. It simply moved it into the realm of reward and competition.
It becomes more difficult at that point. The British Trust for Ornithology’s Viola Ross-Smith described the app as “pretty engaging,” and her son, who loves Pokémon, thought it was cool. However, she pointed out something important to consider: if the app offers rewards for locating uncommon birds, some users may pursue species that actually shouldn’t be disturbed. During nesting season, the capercaillie, a large and uncommon woodland grouse found in some parts of Scotland, is legally protected. Authorities in Cairngorms have had to warn tourists away on several occasions. An app that awards points for infrequent sightings might unintentionally exacerbate that issue.
Although the idea has been made publicly, Scott and his team haven’t yet included those kinds of cautions. The issue of citizen science remains unresolved as well; 200,000 recorded sightings might actually be helpful to conservation organizations, but only if that information is made available and verifiable. Potential exists there. It’s still unclear if the gamification layer will continue to be the main attraction or if the app will take it seriously.
Additionally, there is the controversy surrounding AI artwork, which seems like a small dispute but conveys a bigger message. Due to financial constraints, Birdex currently illustrates its bird cards with AI-generated images. It was so startling to some users that they completely removed the app. It was described as an instant uninstall in one Reddit comment that was fairly representative of the response. The backlash may reveal more about people’s boundaries between appreciating nature and using technology than it does about the artwork itself.
Birdex is not a bad idea because of any of this. It’s genuinely fascinating, sometimes creative, and likely encouraging a few more people to stroll through a park or gaze out a window with a purpose. The next few years will provide a more candid response to the question of whether it improves people’s relationship with birds or just adds a scoring system.
