Field notes & sources

Species facts summarized from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds. Follow a species link for its full account and identification notes.

Regions are broad browsing aids and overlap. Southwest includes Texas; West includes the Pacific states and interior mountain West. Canada means occurrence in parts of Canada. A regional match does not mean a bird occurs everywhere in that region. Local habitat, elevation, and season matter. These twelve species are a starter selection, not a complete checklist.

Lengths are total body length, not wingspan. Illustrations are original, simplified adult-plumage drawings.

Experimental caller & glints

Bench mode tries to draw a bird’s attention using synthesized calls and brief metallic screen highlights. This specific method has not been validated as a crow attractant. The sounds are original synthesis, shared by broad bird groups, and are not field recordings or an identification aid. American Crow synthesis uses falling, raspy caw-like bursts; the sound description in Audubon’s species guide informs the impression, not a copied recording.

The shiny-object folklore

The shiny-object idea is folklore rather than a demonstrated crow-screen attraction effect. A University of Exeter study found no unconditional preference for shiny objects in magpies. That study did not test crows or phone screens and cannot settle whether this app works.

The American Birding Association recommends limiting audio attraction methods, especially for rare or threatened species and in heavily birded areas. Keep trials brief, away from nests, and stop if birds show alarm or avoid the area. Device volume and nearby people matter too.

Preview plays eight seconds. Bench mode runs for sixty seconds with quiet gaps, then ends. Stop, Escape, leaving fullscreen, navigation, and tab hiding cancel sound and glints. Screen wake lock and native fullscreen depend on browser support; a screen-filling view is provided when native fullscreen is unavailable. Sound uses your device’s existing speaker or Bluetooth route. The app cannot force speaker routing, system volume, or display brightness.

Highlights last 80–170 milliseconds, with irregular 600–1900 millisecond gaps, and cover a small part of the metallic surface. Reduced motion gives a steady surface.

Full-screen white/dim gradient flashes are optional, last 100–180 milliseconds, and start at irregular 700–1450 millisecond intervals. A 28ms rise and 60ms fade soften the edges of each flash. Reduced motion uses a steady surface. The optional flashlight uses rear-camera access only after you press Enable flashlight, requires browser/hardware torch support, and needs HTTPS or localhost. It never requests microphone access or records/uploads images. Camera tracks are released on Stop and session exit. See MDN documentation for torch constraints and camera access requirements. Actual torch timing is hardware-dependent.

No accounts, location tracking, database, or runtime AI. Nothing is saved between visits. Source notes reviewed October 17, 2026. Detailed species references and regional definitions are included in SOURCES.md.