iNaturalist

We've been taught: a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language. Everyone. That means any bird, butterfly, or even fern.

I have over the years loved to name the birds I saw on the road. To get a feel for what I might chance upon during my recent New Zealand trip, I brought Andrew Crowe's bird guide to get acquainted with species like tūī, takahe, pūkeko, and fantail.

Now, instead of looking up their names in a pocket-size guide, I was introduced to my new guide, iNaturalist.

The moment I heard from a like-minded travel buddy of mine about this free smartphone app supported by the National Geographic Society, I felt a connection to this digital crowd-sourced naturalist guide. iNaturalist, it turned out, to be the perfect companion to vacation hikes. All we need is a snapshot and a button click to submit the wildlife photo. And within minutes we will hear from the entire community, suggesting names followed by short descriptions of the wildlife.

It is that simple - and that powerful.