Bob,

I have been using avisys for years, have gone through several versions and have lived in several States. I think you are doing the right thing to ask questions about the program before getting to far along in entering data. Your questions about attributes and subspecies can possibly be knocked out at the same time. When I mention attributes I also mean KEY WORDS also. These two functions can be powerful for you in your search and sorting needs. Remember you can add and deleate in both of the two, KEY WORDS and ATTRIBUTES, so you can tailer them to meet your needs. As an example I use my attributes to display habitat types and other interests to me such as breeders, vagrant traps, and so on. I use my key word function to break down locations in finer detail, an example would be for Columbia National Wildlife Refuge(one of my sights) I will have several key word locations such as marsh unit 1, crab creek or Pillar Lake. Then if I see a Mallard at Columbia NWR and it was seen on marsh unit 1, I identify it's location as Columbia NWR, under "sites" and marsh unit 1 under "key word". Bottom line is to use both the key word and attributes to taylor what you want to see out of your data base. A suggestion for your subspecies could be to list them under key words. This way you can ask for a list report ask for yellow-rumped warbler and under the key word ask for Myrtle warbler. The result will be a list of the Myrtle race of the yellow-rumped warbler. I hope this helps and has not become confusing as I rambled on. There is one last comment I do enjoy my avisys software and could not live with out it.

Bob Flores
Othello, WA
rflores at qwksilvr.com