A Ruidoso outdoor vacation is an opportunity to explore the wonders of nature — particularly with the help of some portable tools that put field guides, encyclopedias, atlases, and expert research in your pocket. Whether helping you to identify trees, flowers, birds, bugs, and stars, or plan your Ruidoso trip, use these handy apps to inspire and inform your time outdoors in Ruidoso.

Smart Bird ID

With about 500 different birds on New Mexico’s state bird list, bird watching is a great Ruidoso vacation activity. But, do you know a house finch from a mourning dove, a dark-eyed junco from a spotted towhee, or house sparrow? Wouldn’t it be cool if there was an app for birds like the Shazam app for music? There is. Smart Bird ID is it. Identify birds with your camera or your microphone. Just point to the bird and the app will ID it for you.

MyNature Animal Tracks

Find out exactly what type of animal made that paw print you saw along the trail, at your campsite, or in the backyard of your Ruidoso vacation rental. This app helps you to match a set of tracks to a species through seven searchable track categories and five scat categories. Use the illustrations to figure out the species as well as even the gait the animal was using as it traveled. It even has a built-in ruler for measuring track sizes and gives tips for tracking animals.

Google Lens

Identify plants and animals. Find out what plant is in the backyard of your Ruidoso vacation rental, or what breed of dog you saw in the dog park. Look for the Lens icon on your photos and Google Lens lets you search what you see. Using a photo, your camera, or almost any image, Lens helps you discover visually similar images and related content, gathering results from all over the internet. What a great way to learn while you explore.

SkyView®

Ruidoso's high-altitude location and starry nights make it a dazzling night sky destination and perfect for stargazing. You don't need to be an astronomer to find stars or constellations in the sky, just open the app and let it guide you to their location and identify them. SkyView® is a beautiful and intuitive stargazing app that uses your camera to precisely spot and identify celestial objects in the sky, day or night.