Missing Birds

Sometimes when you are using the program, you type in a bird’s name – AND IT IS NOT THERE.
The bird appears to be missing! We know that this is frustrating, but there are many things you can do that may fix the problem!

First of all, turn off any filters you previously selected. To do this in Windows, click View, click Filters, and then click the None radio button. Then click OK. In Mac, click View, click Filters…, and then click the None radio button.

This will fix the problem 90% of the time. When a filter is turned on, the filter next to the bird’s name turns red. You may also click the red filter icon and then click None to turn off the filter.

If you still are having a problem, turn off Alias names. In Windows, click Tools, click Option and then click Names List. Now uncheck the box that says Include aliases in name list (English only). In Mac, click eViewer, click Preferences…, click Name List. Now uncheck the box that says Include aliases in name list (English only). These two suggestions will fix the problem 95% of the time.

There are six other common reasons why the bird name is not appearing.

  1. You are sorting the bird names in one of ten ways. If you displayCommon Name (Last, First)” and elect to sort Alphabetic”, then wherever you enter a bird’s name, the program will expect something like “Warbler, Pine”. It may appear as if the bird does not exist if you type in “Pine Warbler”. Go back and change the display to “Common Name” and the sort to “alphabetic” or “taxonomic” – now typing Pine Warbler will find the bird.

  2. You are typing in an obsolete name. Many, many bird names are no longer used.… Myrtle Warbler, Northern Oriole and Louisiana Heron are no longer used. You can actually find a bird by entering these old names, but first you must elect to have “alias” names appear in the Field Guide’s list of bird names. In Windows, click Tools in the Menu Bar and then click Options. Click the Name List tab. Now check the box that says “Include aliases in name list (English only)”. Click OK. Now try again. In Mac, click eViewer, click Preferences…, click Name List. Now check the box that says Include aliases in name list (English only).

  3. By golly, it really isn’t there! You may have the Birds of My State or Province v 4 program installed on your computer. This shows you 300 birds seen in a location. If a state has 500 species on the “Official” list of birds ever seen in the state, the program you have is excluding 200 very rare and accidental birds. You may want to upgrade to the North American or Gold version of the program which include 700 birds or 950+ birds of continental North America.

  4. Or…you may have typed in the name of one of the other 9,000+ birds not found in North America. Sorry, we can’t help you there! Visit the Online Nature Mall for books on these other bird species. [Exotic birds often appear in parks across North America. These are escaped or feral birds and are not included in the DVD. Examples include Egyptian Goose, Black Swan and many species of parrots and parakeets.]

  5. You are not typing in the full name of the bird. Many species have the word “Common” or “Northern” in front of the name you are entering. Try displaying by Common Name (Last, First) and then type in the name you know, such as Cardinal. When you do, Northern Cardinal will be one of your choices.

  6. The bird’s last name may contain a hyphen. If you search for Eurasian Collared-Dove by sorting alphabetically and then you type in DOVE you will not see the bird. The last name of this bird starts with COLLARED. Other examples are Beardless-Tyrannulet, Black-Hawk, Forest-Falcon, Golden-Plover, Grasshopper-Warbler, Ground-Dove, House-Martin, Night-Heron, Nightingale-Thrush, Palm-Swift, Pond-Heron, Prairie-Chicken, Pygmy-Owl, Quail-Dove, Reef-Heron, Rosy-Finch, Sage-Grouse, Scops-Owl, Screech-Owl, Scrub-Jay, Sea-Eagle, Silky-flycatcher, Storm-Petrel, Thick-knee, Turtle-Dove, Violet-ear, Whistling-Duck and Wood-Pewee.