Birdathon 1.3.1 is now available, addressing some bugs and helping make the app easier to use, especially for first-time users.

First the bug fixes. If you tried to set a custom Rarity for a bird, there was no “Done” button so you couldn’t go back to the bird! That’s fixed. There was also a crashing bug that happened a few steps after searching all lists for a bird. Fixing that crasher also fixed some other weird behavior in the app. In the Summary view, if you had Uncategorized birds, sometimes Birdathon would crash; that’s fixed now too.

As for features, there are a couple interesting ones. The New Checklist view is streamlined and rearranged, making it easier to get started logging bird observations. And when your checklist comes up, the search bar is now visible. If you have a small screen or just don’t want the search field, you can tap on the magnifying glass icon to make it go away and the list remembers your setting. You can also go into Birdathon’s Settings and turn off “Search Bar Visible” to get the old behavior where the Search Bar was hidden unless you tapped the magnifying glass to show it.

New users should now appreciate that when you try to create your first checklist, the “Create List” button is not grayed out. That’s because Birdathon now starts with the ABA Checklist selected by default. Just one less tap and one less thing to be confused by when starting out using the app.

On the maps, the county boundary lines are now drawn ever-so-slightly thicker so they are easier to see on the Satellite and Hybrid map views.

Check out the latest version on the Apple App Store.