BirdWise teaches birds. Nature By Name teaches the rest too.
BirdWise is the Cornell Lab’s bird identification trainer. It quizzes you and adjusts the mix as you improve. It is well made, and it only covers birds.
Nature By Name covers birds, plants, insects, fungi, mammals and more, builds decks from your own place or sightings, and schedules each species for when you are about to forget it.
BirdWise: adaptive quizzes
Questions adjust as you answer, so harder birds appear more often. Good for testing what you know.
Nature By Name: scheduled recall
Each species has its own review date. Ones you miss come back soon. Ones you know space out to weeks and months.
Side by side
| BirdWise | Nature By Name | |
|---|---|---|
| Wildlife covered | Birds | Birds, plants, insects, fungi, mammals and more |
| Method | Adaptive quizzing | Spaced recall scheduled with FSRS |
| Decks | Preset quizzes | Any place, filtered by group, month or trait |
| Your sightings | Not connected | Import iNaturalist or eBird observations |
Using them together
Use BirdWise for focused bird quizzes, and Nature By Name for your local decks across every group and for long-term review.
Reach for BirdWise when
- You only want birds
- You prefer a quiz format
- You value the Cornell Lab’s curation
Reach for Nature By Name when
- You want more than birds
- You want decks for your place or trip
- You want reviews scheduled for the long term
Learn all the wildlife, not just birds.
Other comparisons: iNaturalist · Merlin · Anki · eBird · Seek · Field guides