Customers: Tech Toys They're Using

The bird feeding and bird watching customer is no longer the stereotypical older woman hunched over a spotting scope with a paper based life list and a old Peterson's Field Guide tucked in a pocket. Customers of all demographics are using electronic field guides, iPod based bird call identifiers and global positioning system devices to find and log bird sightings (just to name a few). Research at home can begin at a site like Mitch Waite's WhatBird.com. As a service to our customers and as a tool for Wild Birds Unlimited's store owners to use, we re-branded WhatBird.com as rightbird.com and launched it as part of our web site. (WhatBird is available for others to use on their site, contact Mitch here.) This has proven very valuable, we use it to reference the birds that are most popular at feeders, those that might be seen migrating through a certain area, or to find out more about a bird seen during a recent walk or one visiting a backyard feeding station. This certainly does not eliminate the need for the paper-based field guides, rightbird.com provides further detail and benefits from the instant and constant updating from its authors. Yes, we can definitely attract a broader demographic by using the electronic goodies available in this industry!