Apps and websites to help people new to the great outdoors identify plants and animals

Lately we have been getting a flood of questions by people who are new to the great outdoors about animal identification and tracks. Since we now can carry the world in our hands, here are a few apps and websites that we use: Fieldstone Guide: Mammal Fieldstone Publishing has several guides available but the most helpful one would probably be the Fieldstone Guide: Mammal. One of the weak areas of this app is that the tracks are drawings only instead of photos of actual prints. Also, if you are a complete newbie and you are trying to identify a rodent/opossum/weasel type creature you will probably have a bit of a hard time when searching by shape. Itrack Wildlife There are others that are less expensive but this app is really robust because it lets you narrow down your suspects by process of elimination (length, width, toes, etc). Also, the tracks are shown as photos in natural situations rather than artistic representation. Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab I love this app because I can just take a picture and it gives me some suggestions and I can do further research. If not, you can find your bird by process of elimination. Bonus: it's free! Birdsong ID USA Automatic Recognition Best described as Shazam for birds. If you are able to isolate the song of a bird you are trying to identify, this is very accurate. It hasn't been helpful for me too much because I live in an area where a bird orchestra is going all the time but on the rare occasion there is an lone bird calling, it works. PlantSnap Plant Identification This app helps you identify plants using the camera on your phone. It's not perfect but it usually narrows your choices down pretty well and you can do some more research to finish identifying the plant in question. For trees in the forest though, I usually prefer going low tech and carrying a field guide. Websites: (Link: https://www.allaboutbirds.org) - This website is by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and it is such a great resource. If you look below the search bar you can search by bird shape, which is incredibly useful for new people. (Link: www.arborday.org) - This website helps walk users step-by-step through tree identification using drawings to help with terminology. (Link: http://www.naturetracking.com) - This website is by the same people behind the Itrack Wildlife app. It's a good, solid resource especially since again, their photos of tracks are in real outdoor situations. There are tons of apps out there that are free and websites that haven't been mentioned here but these are the ones we use most often. Also, if your phone isn't a smartphone you can easily pick up a field guide at your local book seller or on Amazon. If you live near a university, there are usually tons at the local used bookstore and that is where I usually buy them. Feel free to add what you find works for you in the comments!