New tools for bird buffs
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Red-shared flickers
Drawing by Radeaux from "Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas" -
Bird drawing by Radeaux from "Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas"
If you are a high-tech birder, you can watch video clips of birds and listen to their songs on a new set of CD-ROMs called Better Birdwatching in Colorado. Available for Mac and PC computers, the CDs include color photos of 386 different birds. The maps and descriptions are less detailed than those in the atlas, but you can watch an osprey dive into a lake after a fish, and listen to the cackle of a lesser prairie chicken. Fort Collins software designer Joseph LaFleur says he designed the CDs for beginning birders and kids. Included are birding quizzes that test how stout a birder you are. Identify a bird by its song, or its site, and a parrot rings a victory bell. "There are so many computer games where you just go around blowing things up," he says. "I wanted to make something you could actually learn from." The 2-CD set is $59.95 on the Web at http://members.aol.com/bircdroms; call 888/414-2837, or write Better Birdwatching CD-ROMs, 6161'2 W. Olive St., Fort Collins, CO 80521.
*Greg Hanscom
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