Are you curious about the birds that flutter outside your window every morning? Would you like to know more about the animals you see while hiking on your favorite trail? How about what butterflies visit your local community garden? If you are interested in getting back into nature and learning more about the natural world, you’re in luck. Below are five smartphone apps that will help you identify almost any flora or fauna.

Seek by iNaturalist 

iNaturalist is a joint initiative between National Geographic and the California Academy of Sciences that helps you catalogue and identify virtually any plant or animal around you. You can also connect with a community of over a million scientists and naturalists. By recording your observations with the app, you are also helping scientists track species across the world, as iNaturalist shares your findings with scientific data repositories like the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. The app can be used with or without WiFi or cell reception.  

Birdnet 

While it may be difficult to identify birds by sight alone, their sounds are quite unique. Birdnet is an app that functions like the Shazam of bird sounds. When you launch the app, it records background sounds and you can choose a snippet of audio–a chirp, song, or bird sound–you want it to analyze. With your phone’s GPS, Birdnet uses your location to identify the bird that most likely made that sound. 

Leps by Fieldguide 

To identify butterflies and moths, Leps by Fieldguide is one of the most useful apps out there. You can scroll through photographs to identify species, record your observations, and digitally display your collections. 

MyNature Animal Tracks 

Sometimes the only evidence an animal visited is in their tracks, but that doesn’t mean you have to keep wondering which animal was one step ahead of you. With a built-in ruler to measure track sizes, seven track categories and five scat categories, MyNature Animal Tracks is a robust app that helps you match a variety of tracks.  

Plantsnap 

Plants are some of the most difficult species to identify, even to expert naturalists. With over 600,000 species on file, Plantsnap claims to be the most accurate and comprehensive plant identification tool. All you have to do is snap a photo, and the app identifies it in 37 languages in seconds.