Templates

A template is any list in Birdathon that is used to create a new checklist. For example, the built-in “Santa Clara County 2024 Checklist” template is a list of all the birds ever observed in Santa Clara County, CA as of 2024. Its contents are a text file (in “.csv” format) with three items on each line in the form “bird name, number, number”

Here’s a snippet of that file:

…
Hammond's Flycatcher,1,4
Gray Flycatcher,1,5
Dusky Flycatcher,1,5
Western Flycatcher,1,1
Black Phoebe,1,1
Eastern Phoebe,1,6
Say's Phoebe,1,3
Vermilion Flycatcher,1,6
Ash-throated Flycatcher,1,2
…

The first item is what appears in the checklist, the second indicates this item is a bird (0 would indicate “not a bird”), and the third is a custom rarity code that you can use when sorting birds by Rarity.

It is easy to make your own custom templates if, for example, you don’t live in Santa Clara County, California. The simplest type of checklist is just a list of birds.

Black Phoebe
California Towhee
California Quail
California Scrub-Jay
California Thrasher

It doesn’t matter in what order the birds are listed. In Birdathon they will appear in the correct taxonomic order when you view by “Family.” If you save your list in a text file that ends in “.csv” you can import it into Birdathon either by tapping “Import a Template…” at the bottom of the list of built-in templates, or by using the “Open With” feature in the Files app and choosing “Birdathon.” You can also email or text a file to your phone and “Open With” Birdathon to create a template.

If you want your list to include items that aren’t birds, you add a “0” as the second item. For example, here’s a list of black & white creatures that you could import as a template:

Raccoon,0
King Snake,0
Striped Skunk,0
American Badger,0

These would generally appear in alphabetical order. Custom rarities (e.g. Raccoon,0,1) will work, but those are generally meant to indicate bird rarity. You can mix birds and non-birds in a single template.

If you already have a list of birds lying around, like say a yard list or a life list, you could make that into a template and import it into Birdathon and use it as your starting point for new checklists.