For me, the big advantage that the Gold edition has (in addition to 257 additional species and 277 additional video clips) is the ability to import your own photos, songs and videos to make quizzes on foriegn birds.

This is very easy to do. Start by watching the three videos that are available on our web site: "Create Categories and Quizzes," "Add an Item," and "Build Quizzes and Take a Quiz."

[The Gold edition uses the term "Item" rather than "Bird" because you do not need to limit yourself to just birds. You can create quizzes on Frogs, Butterflies, People, or anything else! Free quizzes are available at ThayerBirding.com]

To make a quiz on foriegn birds, you start by clicking the Quizzes icon in the Gold Edition. Then click the "Manage My Quizzes" button at the bottom left corner. Then Click File --> New and create a Category (such as Mexico or Foreign Birds). To add birds to this Category, just right-click on the Category name and select Edit --> New.

At this point you enter the bird's name and select up to two photos and a song for each species. Later you can create quizzes and move selected birds into your quiz. Once you add the photos and songs for a bird to a Category, you can have that bird appear in many different quizzes.