At the risk of boring some of you, but in response to the flurry of questions
asked about the Bird Recorder for Windows software, I have contacted Jack
Levene, the developer of Bird Recorder.
He forwarded the following, more complete, description of his software. He
tells me that he plans to release a version for Apple in mid-95. I presume by
*Apple* he means Mac. His description follows.

>Bird Recorder for Windows
>
>Wildlife Computing Services specialise in providing computer software to
>birdwatchers and other naturalists. We have been supplying computer
>packages for birdwatchers since 1988. Our products are in use in over
>25 different countries world-wide.
>
>The following is a brief summary of the main features of the Bird
>Recorder for Windows program.
>
>Bird Recorder for Windows is a user-friendly record-keeping system for
>birdwatchers. Bird Recorder for Windows runs on any IBM-compatible
>personal computer under Microsoft Windows 3.0/3.1. It is not a just
>tick-list, but rather a complete system which allows the organisation of
>all sightings and trip details. This makes Bird Recorder equally useful
>to birdwatchers with a serious interest in records keeping as well as
>the avid lister. It has powerful list facilities, including the
>capacity to keep as many as 255 separate lists, each of the
>birdwatcher's own choosing. There are no fixed lists except for the
>World Life List. Lists are maintained as sightings are entered. Lists
>defined by the birdwatcher may comprise individual countries, states or
>places, or composites of the three. The same country, state or place
>may occur in more than one list.
>
>The following lists are examples of the types of lists which may be
>kept:
>
>- World List
>- Faunal Zone List (e.g. Neotropical, Western Palearctic)
>- Individual Country List
>- Group-of-Countries List
>- Individual State List
>- Group-of-States List
>- Individual Place List
>- Group-of-Places List
>- Group-of-Countries, -States and -Places List
>- List for an area defined by map co-ordinates.
>
>The above lists may be kept as life lists and/or as year lists. The list
>entry for each species contains the number of sightings and number of
>individuals, the first and last dates seen, the earliest and latest
>dates seen within a year, and the years and months when seen. Lists can
>be counted by the program to enable a summary report to be produced.
>List reports can be generated which can be output to a printer, to a
>file for external processing or can be transferred directly into a
>suitable Word Processing package.
>A list can be compared with one or more other lists to show species in
>common or missing species.
>Because Bird Recorder for Windows maintains all your sighting records,
>new lists can be defined at any time, and these will be automatically
>filled from the existing sighting records. No list-only system can
>achieve this.
>
>Bird Recorder for Windows has powerful on-screen query and reporting
>facilities, and reports can be output directly to a printer, directly to
>a word processing package (AMIPRO or Word for Windows) or to a file
>which can be processed by an alternative favourite word processor. Data
>can be extracted from Bird Recorder for Windows in a form suitable for
>input to most popular spreadsheet packages, thereby allowing further
>statistical analysis of the birdwatcher's records, e.g. maximum and
>minimum counts of waterfowl for a given place.
>
>Bird Recorder for Windows comes complete with a full world species
>database which gives both English and scientific name for every species.
>The database can also record sub-species. All names can be amended if
>desired, and species are able to be lumped and split. These features
>enable the database to be kept up-to-date with current nomenclature.
>Both vernacular and taxonomic names are indexed for rapid retrieval, and
>comprehensive search facilities are provided, including a 'wildcard'
>name-search feature, which enable any species name to be found very
>quickly. A facility is provided which allows an optional short code
>against each species, thereby speeding up entries by removing the
>necessity to search for a name.
>
>Bird Recorder for Windows has facilities for keeping information on
>birdwatching sites visited. Notes about the site can be entered if
>desired.
>
>Bird Recorder for Windows has a checklist facility which enables you to
>produce and print your own checklists.
>
>Bird Recorder for Windows has a data import facility which will allow
>users who already have data on other systems to load it, thereby, saving
>the requirement for lengthy rekeying.
>
>The program is available for IBM compatible machines, and requires a
>minimum of 2mb of memory, and 3mb of free hard disk, either colour or
>mono monitor, and Microsoft Windows version 3.0 or higher. A printer
>and a mouse are optional hardware components which enhance the
>performance of Bird Recorder. The program is available on either 5 1/4
>inch or 3 1/2 inch diskettes and is being offered for sale for GBP85 (UK
>Pounds Sterling), which includes a manual, comprehensive and on-line
>help and the full world database of bird species. Overseas purchasers
>should add a further 2 pounds postage if purchasing from europe or 7
>pounds if purchasing anywhere else in the world. We can accept payment
>by Visa or Mastercard or by cheque made out in pounds sterling and drawn
>on a UK bank.
>
>Our Postal address is:
>Wildlife Computing Services
>6 Fiddlers Lane
>East Bergholt
>Colchester CO7 6SJ
>United Kingdom