Whilst this isn't necessarily 'news' or even new as a product (BirdGuides have been selling the DVD for a while now) it was new to me and it may certainly be of great interest to some of you - I know that it will be an invaluable aid to me!
It all began a couple of weeks ago whilst I was browsing the BirdGuides website and I came across the products that they do for iPod and MP3.
These looked great and a fantastic idea as a field guide. As we all know, at this time of year those pesky leaves make it very tricky to get a good view many birds, particularly warblers. Even if you do get a good view it can still be very difficult to be certain which of the 'little brown jobs' it is without also being able to recognise it's song - and that is where guides such as these really come into their own!
Using video the guides provide an audio and visual guide with clips for over 260 species - pretty much covering all but the most infrequent visitors to the British Isles.
Whitethroat: One of the many species covered.
For each bird a video essay is shown, lasting a couple of minutes, showing birds singing, their behaviour, plumage, displays and feeding habits - a very comprehensive amount of information and in a form that will very often be more beneficial than a bird guide book.
Whilst I really liked the idea, the not so slight problem is that I don't have an iPod! What I do have is a fairly good level of technical knowledge and plenty of curiosity. I contacted BirdGuides enquiring whether it could be made to work on a mobile phone (Nokia 6120i in my case). Pete from BirdGuides replied that although the product wasn't designed to work like that it may be possible and sent me a test file to work with.
The rest of the article is a quick guide as to how I converted it to work on my phone. I am sure that it will also work on a large variety of other phones but you will likely need to adjust the info below to suit your model.
Firstly, you will most likely need more memory via an external card. I purchased a 4GB microSD card for £10 delivered which is fine, being that the original files are 3.2GB and the converted ones smaller at 2.4GB.
I tried to play the test file without any alterations (using Real Player that came pre-installed on the phone) but this didn't work. A quick google turned up this site and having downloaded the (free!) Super© software and using the recommended settings I converted the file and it worked really well.
Having established that it does all work fine I then bought the full DVD, copied all of the files of it and converted it one volume at a time.
....and its all up and running!
The next slight obstacle is the lack of menus. To overcome this I simply used folders. I decided not to recreate the family structure that the DVD uses as my phone only displays 8 lines; this being the case I made up my own groupings with rather non technical names such as prey birds, water birds, warblers, waders etc. I then removed the prefixes from the files leaving only the actual bird name. These were then moved into my folders and, in some cases further subdivided, leaving me with my own little reference library of, unless I am very lucky, every bird I am likely to come across in the UK. As I tend to have my mobile phone with me almost all of the time (on silent in the field of course! 
) then its like having a super powered reference book and is a great aid!
As mentioned above I think it will be particularly useful for the elusive warblers (whose song I always seem to struggle with) but hope to use it to master many more bird songs!
Finally it is perhaps worth noting that I do use headphones with my phone at all times when in the field and, whilst this could be used for tape luring birds I do not intend to use it in this way.
Tape luring seems to be a somewhat controversial subject but one thing that is consistent from both sides is that it should certainly not be used during the breeding season. Even outside these times its use (other than by scientists) is generally frowned upon - far better and much more rewarding to rely on skill and patience!
I hope that the this information may be of interest to some of you with compatible phones and whilst I am not an expert in the AV department please feel free to post any problems into our Forum where I or others may be able to help.