Description:
The Peck Bird Information Manager integrates photographs, recordings, etymology, checklists, identification tips and species assessment data into four visually simple but highly integrated lists.
Features:
The AOU list, defined by the AOU (American Ornithologists’ Union), lists species within a hierarchical classification.
Since the AOU list is rather lengthy (2232 items in its hierarchy), you may find it convenient to localize it to the checklist from your state's bird records committee.
Presently Peck includes checklists for AR, AZ, CA, GA, IL, IN, MD, MI, NC, NY, OH, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, and WV.
The document list displays the names of documented species (approximately the list of species that breed in North America).
The audio list displays the names of species or mnemonics (if available) of calls or songs.
The bird conservation region list displays the 37 bird conservation regions, as defined by the North American Bird Conservation Initiative, covering the continental United States.
There are two components to the Peck Bird Information Manager:
the Peck application - this freeware assists with searching through the bird reference information and the multimedia content, which is not required by the Peck application but without the multimedia content only the AOU list, identification tips, and life history descriptions will be available.
the Peck multimedia content - a compilation of recordings, photographs, and etymology. The multimedia content comes in a Public Domain and a proprietary version. The Public Domain multimedia content is free and includes about 400 photographs and 180 recordings. The proprietary multimedia content is stored on an SD card, is not free, but has about twice the number of photographs, three times the number of recordings, and the etymology for the names of 736 species.
Update Description:
v6.3.1:
Added Species Inventory as yet another AOU list mode so that the rather lengthly AOU list can be reduced to just the species previously sighted at a particular site.
Also fixed seven occurrences of inadvertent white space in the Custom Checklist database.
One of the errors caused a buffer overflow that could have in turn caused device resets.
v6.2.1:
Added support for 240x240 pixel displays (e.g., Pocket PC displays).
Simplified the installation process by adding execution of 'Avoid Recent SD Content' menu item to the initialization routine.
And added a couple more state checklists.
v6.1.3:
Fixed a decryption problem that prevented the T5 from properly decrypting audio.
Also added some Canadian province checklists (AV, MB, NB, NL, ON, YT)
And added an identification tip icon to the audio list.
v6.1.2:
Fixed the proprietary/Public Domain description in the credits for photographs and recordings.
Also fixed an initialization problem that prevented the Peck application from switching its decryption to/from Public Domain and proprietary multimedia without first exiting the application.
And finally added a checksum to audio list's 'View/Secure Digital ID' menu item report to help debug decryption problems due to typos in the card's ID.
v6.1.1:
Added checklists for several states, and changed the multimedia encryption.
The new encryption allows for the proprietary content to be encrypted by a server (and then downloaded), but it is not compatible with encryption used in version 5.
Therefore, to use version 6 of the Peck application, you will also need to get version 6 of the multimedia content (either the Public Domain or the proprietary version).
