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What is Pocket Wild?

A pocket-sized field journal for real species. You log what you find outside; the app names each creature, captures the moment, and adds it to your collection. There are 228 American species in the Registry and an unlimited Field Log for everything else.

Does Pocket Wild cost money?

Yes — it's a one-time purchase. No subscription. No ads. Yours forever.

How does the app identify species?

Pocket Wild runs its own identification model, built on open research into the tree of life. You photograph what you find, the app offers a few suggestions, and you pick the one that looks right. It's often correct and sometimes not, so treat it as a good first guess rather than a final answer.

Why do my sightings have names?

Every creature deserves a name. Pocket Wild gives one automatically from a curated list (Clover, Wee Biscuit, Down, and others). You can rename any sighting yourself by tapping the entry and editing the name.

What's the difference between the Registry and the Field Log?

The Registry holds 228 essential American species across eight categories: birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, plants, trees, fungi. The Field Log catches everything else, sorted into families and groups, so a sighting outside the Registry still has a place to live.

What are traits?

Each sighting rolls a few personality traits (Curious, Bold, Fierce, and others). Doubles upgrade to "Super." Triples upgrade to "Extremely." Trait combinations affect rarity, so no two sightings are the same.

Who's Aldo?

Aldo is a frog who lives in the app. He notices what's around and points things out — what's in season, what's nesting, what to look for today. He's named after the American naturalist Aldo Leopold.

Does Pocket Wild track me?

Pocket Wild stores your sightings on your device. We don't sell or share your data. Location data is used only to enrich your journal entries and is never shared.

I found a bug. I have an idea. I want to say hi.

Email hello@pocketwild.app. We read everything.

A note on identification

Pocket Wild identifies sightings with its own model, running on hardware we rent. The photo goes there and nowhere else, without your name or location, and no copy is kept. The model itself is BioCLIP, open research from the Imageomics Institute, and we're grateful it exists.

It won't always be right. Small brown birds and look-alike mushrooms are genuinely hard, even for people who've studied them for years. Treat a suggestion as somewhere to start, and never as grounds for eating, handling, or moving anything.