Name: iRecord Butterflies
Rating: 4.5 (405 reviews)

Updating

iRecord Butterflies

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

Released: 2014-02-14

Free 0%

Version 2.6.4

Free 0%

Version 2.6.4

Released: 2014-02-14

iPhone Screenshots

iPad Screenshots

Description

Butterflies are in trouble. A third of UK species are threatened and three-quarters are in decline. Butterfly recording is the foundation for protecting these beautiful creatures. The iRecord Butterflies app has been developed by the charity Butterfly Conservation and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology to help you identify the butterflies that you see and to submit your sightings through iRecord so that they can be used to protect butterflies and the environment.

The app uses your location and the time of year to help with identification, presenting the butterflies that you are most likely to see at the top of the list. It has galleries of colour photographs showing all UK butterflies, at all stages of their life cycles, and tips to help with the identification of difficult species. You can use the app to record a single butterfly or create a list of different species seen during a visit to a site.

Over half a million sightings have already been submitted through the iRecord Butterflies app and are being used by scientists and conservationists to provide vital information about how the fortunes of UK butterflies have changed over the decades. Your sightings will be used to help understand the causes of decline and to inform conservation action on the ground to help threatened species.

What's New in Version 2.6.4

Fixed photo picker.

Seller

Name

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

URL

https://www.brc.ac.uk/irecord/about

Information

Developer

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

Version

2.6.4

Size

90.7 MB

Game Center

VPP Device Licensing

Yes

Rating

Rated: 4+

Compatibility

iOS 14.0 or later

Devices

iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone SE (2nd generation), iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone SE (3rd generation), iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 16e, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro, iPad Pro (Cellular), iPad Pro (9.7-inch), iPad Pro (9.7-inch) (Cellular), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (10.5-inch), iPad Pro (10.5-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (11-inch), iPad Pro (11-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air, iPad Air (Cellular), iPad Air 2, iPad Air 2 (Cellular), iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad Air (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini Retina, iPad mini Retina (Cellular), iPad mini 3, iPad mini 3 (Cellular), iPad mini 4, iPad mini 4 (Cellular), iPad mini (5th Generation), iPad mini (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (7th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi), iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi + Cellular), iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (9th Generation), iPad (9th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (6th Generation), iPad mini (6th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (5th generation), iPad Air (5th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (10th generation), iPad (10th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 11-inch (M2) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (A17 Pro) Wi-Fi, iPad mini (A17 Pro) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (A16) Wi-Fi, iPad (A16) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 13-inch (M3) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPod touch (6th Generation), iPod touch (7th generation)

Languages

English

App Store: Customer Ratings

Ratings & Reviews

4.5 of 5 (405 Ratings)

App Store: Customer Reviews

2025-04-17

Needs bug fixes

Unstable, time-consuming to complete a single record, and uses up too much battery- makes iPhone overheat in warm weather when trying to complete site survey. Not a good app for professionals, sorry. Conservation support and data collection deserves better technology than this.

2024-08-18

Limited moth identification

The app is ok for butterflies, but it didn’t have any of the moths I had caught in the moth trap

2024-08-04

Great idea, not user friendly

This is not an app for the general public, it’s for trained scientists or butterfly experts… who would not need the app, surely? One is expected to identify by choosing between geometrids or fritillaries etc. most people would not know this! Some identification options are in long lists that run off the bottom of the screen. You cannot scroll to the next option below. A disappointment and in a smaller phone at least, unusable.

2023-06-26

Issue.

Hi. Fourth time of reloading this app. Why ? Because it keeps freezing on me. VERY annoying as the only way to sort is delete and reload. After reload all my uploaded record vanish. OK still I assume on iRecord somewhere but…. Please sort !

I GIVE UP !!!

Crashed again so I have now deleted permanently. Will just not bother.

2023-05-25

No server available

I’ve been using this app for several years but it doesn’t seem to be working properly - keep getting a message ‘server unavailable’

2023-04-13

Doesn’t upload

Can’t get it to upload sightings despite reloading app and starting again. Get the same error message each time sorry upload failed

2022-11-11

Nov 2022

I have just tried to upload two sightings from September but these have been unsuccessful due to a “network error”. I am also unable to load the app statistics.

All my other apps are currently working and connected to the internet as I write this.

I also tried the image cropping feature and as you zoom in to your butterfly it turns into a giant blob. Not suitable for photos taken at a distance and I would say that it really distorts the image.

Usually the app works quite well.

2022-07-23

A really useful App for butterfly fans !

This is a very user-friendly App for rapidly and systematically identifying UK butterflies and recording relevant data, such as the geographical position where the butterfly was seen. You can easily add a mobile phone photo of the butterfly to your record and quickly upload everything to the iRecord website. I strongly recommend this App !

2022-07-20

Helpful and easy to use

This is a great app, very user friendly. It shows the butterflies in your area for the current time of year which makes identification much easier.

I have spent the last year and a half making my garden into a butterfly friendly area. My efforts have paid off and it’s great to be able to record my sightings and make a very small contribution to the national monitoring of these beautiful creatures.

2022-07-17

Love this app.

Love this app. Information and easy to use.

2022-07-13

Superb!

A great app. Whether you’re looking for information on butterfly identification, want to record a one-off sighting or conduct a full survey of butterflies, this is THE app.

2022-07-07

Best butterfly app by far!

This superb app has been so useful when out in the field. With the link to the website this app is all the guide you need for identifying butterflies.

2022-07-04

Great for identification

Excellent way of identifying butterflies. This is a new interest so it’s helpful to see a selection of the butterflies you are likely to see at that time of year in the area you are in. Thank you

2022-07-01

Great app

Currently trying to use it on a survey and the request to write a review comes up. That tells how useful it is, that I’d stop the survey to to say great app and thank you for it!! 😊

2022-06-22

Good tool out in the field, could be better

iRecord is great as a tool when out recording butterflies in the field as it gives your OS reference & descriptions for each UK butterfly. The maps & stats section could be developed more & be more interactive & the photos of each butterfly are quite limited.

2022-06-03

Great App !

A joy to use, easy to navigate through and an important app for the butterfly recorders !

2022-05-28

Unable to log in with Website password

Have registered sightings via website, email/password combo doesn’t work with this app preventing any member participation, such as recording sightings. Returns error500. Hopeless for recording

2022-05-13

Excellent app

Excellent app easy to use and send sightings to Biological Records Centre.

2022-05-07

I record butterflies

This is a marvellous app. It helps to identify and then record butterflies. I like the feature that it tells you what you are likely to see for a particular area. There are quick links to detailed identification.

2022-04-17

Rubbish

Far from intuitive, no easy access to your account details or how to delete account. Works on the fly, who carries a large iPad about with them?

2022-03-15

App won’t open

Saw my first butterfly of 2022, so wanted to report the sighting. But only get a blank white screen. Have removed and installed but no difference.

2022-03-15

adjcook.

Why doesn’t this App work with my iPhone anymore ? All I get is a white screen !

2021-10-06

Terrible

Had recorded various sightings over the weeks but won’t let me upload and has now locked my profile. Was guided to logout and reset password due to an error but since then will not accept my email or password. So frustrating so have deleted the app - won’t bother.

2021-08-28

Useful and informative

Really enjoying using this app and contributing to recording doctors presence.

2021-08-22

Very enjoyable

Very satisfying “collecting” the butterflies. Nice to have the statistics to tell you how many species you have identified so far and the “flying now in your area” makes identification a lot quicker.

2021-08-20

A bit erratic

This app does play up, when you tap on a species it disappears! Sometimes you are stuck on the species page and can’t get off. I’m getting a bit fed up with deleting and reinstalling!

2021-08-18

Easy to use citizen science

The app is easy to use and submits valuable butterfly data

2021-08-09

Brilliant butterfly app

So easy to use and great to know I can help with butterfly conservation while I’m enjoying butterfly spotting.

2021-07-26

Love Butterflies

Great little app for recording our diminishing butterflies and bugs - helps you to recognise and identify a variety of butterflies- recommend for all of you budding flutter by watchers!

2021-07-18

Frozen

Having successfully made over 60 recordings on the new app it has now frozen at the ID page so I can’t use it. I could try downloading again but don’t want to lose my current recordings. Can the app be unlocked? Meanwhile have been using Big Butterfly Count but it has a limited number of species eg no small heath.

2021-07-06

IRecord app

If you want to get interested in butterflies this is a wonderful app. If you have a camera or phone with you you can then check your finds over a coffee later. Really interesting especially when you see a new one for the first time.

2021-07-03

Very useful app

I find the app very useful in helping to confidently identify butterflies. What’s in my area narrows down the search and also prompts me to keep an eye out for species. I haven’t recorded many, but intend to do so going forward.

2021-06-26

Orange tip eggs!!!

Able to identify them on vetch Ickenham marsh today!!!!

2021-06-26

Location won’t work

Won’t find my location nor accept if I write village name nor postcode.

So can not record sightings. Shame

2021-06-15

Terrible

I love butterflies and take part every year in the butterfly count. I was pleased to see a year round count/app and downloaded it at first sight. The app has a super identifier section but when it comes to recording things start to go terribly wrong. In short the app point blank refuses to accept the location of the sighting rendering the whole point of the thing as useless. What is wrong with you app people? If we can’t record sightings what is the point of a recording app?…

2021-06-07

Problems putting in location

I really enjoy submitting my sightings. I’m on the updated app. I may be doing something wrong, but when I want to submit a sighting once I arrive home, I have to google the location I was at to find the grid reference. There must be an easier way of doing this.

2021-05-31

Great app

Enjoyed using the old app but this is much slicker and easy to use. Also a great source of information.

2021-05-20

Good until they changed it

This was a wonderful simple app, which I could use despite being both visit visually impaired and dyspraxic.

Now, instead of having three simple large buttons, you have to navigate using tiny menu buttons at the bottom of the screen, the list view in the butterfly guide has been turned into a grid (which adds a considerable difficulty for my particular sight problem of having to track sideways as well as down to find anything) and they have taken the Latin name off the list page which used to have, so you have to go to an individual butterfly’s page to find out what it actually is (matters a lot with some species where the common names are a complete muddle, like some of the whites).

When you go into “select species” from the record page the identification pictures of species (which are no longer photos of how the butterfly looks against its environment but are specimen pictures against a white background) are just under a quarter covered by an information button. The background contrast has been lowered, there is a lot of orange and green text, and on the record page you now have to click tiny plus and minus buttons rather than simply being able to type a number in or click on a tick box for an approximation.

Basically everything has been made tiny and awkward. There are some useful additions like being able to record caterpillars as well as butterflies, which is nice but it didn’t require such a massive change of the interface. I am really upset because I was enjoying recording the butterflies in my garden with an app I could actually use, and I think it’s quite possible the process will now be too difficult for it to be practical.

I appreciate most people don’t have these particular problems, but seriously, is it really necessary to mess around so much with the way things look and work? Having to learn to use apps again and again because they’ve been changed is an awful waste of anyone’s time and energy. It would be nice to learn to use an app and find that I could actually continue to use it long term, rather than finding after a few months that it’s been ‘improved’ such that the accessibility is seriously lessened.

2020-09-06

Password problems

Loved using this till I had to re enter my password. By this time I had changed my e mail address and was not sure which address to use to gain access. It did not matter which of the two addresses I used it told me I was already registered and would not let me in. I emailed for help and received a reply that they would look into it and then never heard from them again

2020-07-26

Nice idea

Interesting app & great idea to encourage people to monitor the appearance of butterflies.

NB The designer needs to be aware that the top of the app is not fully visible on an iPhone 10

2020-07-18

Great app

Really easy to use. Great app.

2020-07-07

Bugs need ironed out

It looks good but the keyboard doesn’t ping up making it impossible to add notes or site names etc. So only basic functionality possible.

2020-07-03

Unusesble

Never sends verification email so cannot use it!

2020-06-20

Fantastic!

Great app for recording butterflies and contributing to nationwide understanding of our butterfly populations! Not had any issues with the app

2020-06-07

BrillIant

Brilliant app, it works well and I hope people engage fully engage with it. It’s crucial we look after butterflies!

2020-05-18

Where are the moths?

I was sent here from a moth site, telling me to download it to record my moth sightings - but it doesn’t include moths! Where are they? 🤷🏽‍♀️

2020-04-21

Doesn’t work

You can’t send sightings data back so makes it useless. Use butterfly count app

2020-04-10

Great App for ID in the field

Strange that some reviews negative as it works perfectly for me with my iPhone even in remote areas. Like the fact you keep a historical record with photos on your phone.

2019-09-18

Can’t sent sighting

Lovely little app to encourage little one on a nice summers day I love it but can’t send any sighting

2019-02-25

No longer works

The app gives me server errors now whenever I try to upload a sighting. Loses your sightings every time the app restarts. App also crashes frequently.

2018-07-14

No longer fit for purpose

What was a useful app has become irritating. It crashes for no good reason. It freezes. It loses your sightings and it loses your favourites, thus negating the usefulness of these features. It asks you repeatedly to login to submit the sightings. It is virtually unusable in its current form. Existing users like me may persevere but new users would soon drop it. It desperately needs updating.

2018-07-05

Keeps crashing

Nice app i.e easy to use but it keeps failing to load which is tiresome. Eventually I had reinstalled it in the hope that will sort out the problem

2017-06-04

Great app but can't send my records! :(

The title summarises my feelings well - will this be fixed?

iRecord Butterflies

iPhone Screenshots

iPad Screenshots

Description

What's New in Version 2.6.4

Seller

Name

URL

Information

Developer

Categories

Version

Size

Game Center

VPP Device Licensing

Rating

Compatibility

Devices

Languages

App Store: Customer Ratings

Ratings & Reviews

Needs bug fixes

Limited moth identification

Great idea, not user friendly

Issue.

No server available

Doesn’t upload

Nov 2022

A really useful App for butterfly fans !

Helpful and easy to use

Love this app.

Superb!

Best butterfly app by far!

Great for identification

Great app

Good tool out in the field, could be better

Great App !

Unable to log in with Website password

Excellent app

I record butterflies

Rubbish

App won’t open

adjcook.

Terrible

Useful and informative

Very enjoyable

A bit erratic

Easy to use citizen science

Brilliant butterfly app

Love Butterflies

Frozen

IRecord app

Very useful app

Orange tip eggs!!!

Location won’t work

Terrible

Problems putting in location

Great app

Good until they changed it

Password problems

Nice idea

Great app

Bugs need ironed out

Unusesble

Fantastic!

BrillIant

Where are the moths?

Doesn’t work

Great App for ID in the field

Can’t sent sighting

No longer works

No longer fit for purpose

Keeps crashing

Great app but can't send my records! :(