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APP YOUR BOOK

Over the years we have worked with various scientific institutions all over the world to improve existing species identification keys. The keys were either developed independently by Sunbird’s biologists or in close collaboration with taxonomists and experts in the concurrent field. With new digital field guides rapidly emerging new ways of identifying taxa using all possible ways to narrow down species become essential. With ornithologists, entomologists, botanists in our team and a thorough understanding of lesser known taxa we can offer biological and taxonomical expertise most app development companies lack.

We would be looking forward to discussing possible projects with you.

Project

Digitalisation of the book
“Caterpillars of Eastern North America“

Princeton University Press

Together with Princeton University Press we developed the idea to produce an app-based manual identification key from David Wagner’s field guide book “Caterpillars of Eastern North America” with 576 caterpillar species.

The difficulty of the project was that an identification key had to be developed that…

Project

Turn a field guide book into an app suitable for identification purposes

Develop a digital identification key from scratch

Address layman as well as experts and scientists

Sunbird apps

Caterpillar Id USA East Coast
Based on David Wagner’s renowned Princeton field guide Caterpillars of Eastern North America

The ultimate digital pocket guide

A combined effort of Prof. Wagner, the editorial team of princeton university press and Sunbird biology experts 

Challenges

Id key should be understandable for the lay person

Id key should also make sense for professionals such as scientists

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Morbei et leo condimentum

identification key

A simple identification key narrows down potential species and consists of a choice of 9 major morphological traits, including 42 sub-traits, ranging from color combinations to body features, such as tails, knobs, and hair.

Superb color images

Superb color images

Each of the 576 species is illustrated with 1 to 4 photos, with most of the main pictures showing the full-grown caterpillar, and other photos showing color variations and, for 383 species, the adult butterfly or moth as well. An abundance of information is given for each species, including taxonomy, description, occurrence, food, and additional interesting facts. All species are listed by their scientific and common names and can easily be compared by browsing according to their taxonomic classification.

Covering 576 species

And featuring more than 1,200 superb color images, the app is also useful for identifying caterpillars in the whole of southern Canada, parts of the Pacific Northwest, and, at a generic level, in most of the United States west of the Mississippi.
Focusing on the larger, commonly encountered caterpillars that are most popular with gardeners, naturalists, and children, the app is designed to be enjoyed by nature lovers, hikers, and families, as well as by field biologists, zoologists, and other professionals.