Life list

The life list is the oldest piece of birding bookkeeping there is, and for most people it is the reason an app earns a place on the phone at all. Traditionally it lived in the back of a notebook: species, date, place. The modern version is the same list with the photograph attached.

Apps differ in what they will accept onto the list. Feather Trove builds one from the photographs in your library once you confirm a suggestion, so each entry has an image behind it. Merlin keeps a Save My Bird list from identifications you make in the field. eBird derives yours from the checklists you submit, which means it also knows the counts and the locations.