New Save Our Seabirds app takes flight

Save Our Seabirds’ mission is to rescue, rehabilitate and release sick and injured wild birds. 

But another part of its mission is to educate the community about the birds and their habitats.

Save Our Seabirds Interactive, the organization’s new iPhone and Android app, takes the organization’s education mission one step further. When guests approach a bird cage, they can open the app and hold their phone’s camera up to a sign and their phone will unveil videos, habitat tours and more. Recordings will explain how people can keep birds out of harm’s way. For example, when you approach an owl’s cage, the video explains that throwing food out the car window can draw owls close to the road, putting them in danger of getting hit.

“We want to make the education experience here as interesting as possible,” said David Pilston, Save Our Seabirds’ CEO. 

About two years ago, Sean Morris, of Mixed Viz: Educational Product Development, heard that Pilston wanted to create an app for SOS. The two collaborated, and on Oct. 20, the app went live. 

All users have to do is download the free app, connect to Save Our Seabirds’ free Wi-Fi and choose English, Spanish or German. 

“The central message is making a tool that would make it fun for them to learn and easy to remember what they can do in their day-to-day lives to help these particular species,” Morris said.

When users unlock the tour tool, it gives them a virtual look at a species’ habitat. For example, at the sandhill crane exhibit, the app gives them the option to tour the animal’s natural habitat — in this case, a golf course. Users can tilt their phones for a broader look around the habitat before they reach a video screen.

“The ultimate goal really is for the app to be a megaphone for what issues Save Our Seabirds deemed important,” Morris said.