Garmin BirdsEye Satellite Imagery
July 25, 2011 by Rich Owings
Garmin BirdsEye Satellite Imagery is a $29.99 annual subscription plan that allows you to transfer satellite imagery to compatible Garmin devices. At this point, the following series are compatible:
- Astro 320
- Colorado series
- Dakota series
- Edge 800
- eTrex 20 and 30
- GPSMAP 62 series
- GPSMAP 78 series
- Montana series
- Oregon series
- Rino 6xx series
Is BirdsEye right for you?
IMHO, BirdsEye is most helpful for folks using it in urban/suburban areas (geocachers), other open landscapes (parts of the western US), and on lakes and rivers. I find it less useful in my area, under the dense canopy of the Southern Appalachians.
Things to know
- BirdsEye imagery is downloaded and transferred to your device using Garmin’s free BaseCamp program
- These are large files and downloads can be slow, especially at peak times (like the start of the weekend)
- If you have vector maps loaded, some features such as roads and contour lines will show as an overlay on top of the BirdsEye imagery (seen above, at right)
- BirdsEye subscriptions are sold on a per device basis; imagery cannot be transferred to another unit
- Imagery can be loaded to internal memory or a micro-SD card
- You can try BirdsEye imagery out before buying a subscription
- Imagery downloaded to your device or a micro-SD card does not expire if your subscription lapses
- You can adjust the brightness level (see screenshot above at right); on my 62s this is found under Setup > Map > Map Information/Select Map > BirdsEye Satellite Imagery
- A new product, BirdsEye Topo US and Canada, will let you put USGS and NRC topos on your device
Sound off!
Your turn, readers. What has your experience been with BirdsEye? How do you use it? Is it helpful? What have I left out?
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Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way that might be helpful. Be sure to register your GPS before purchasing Birdseye. When you do, Garmin will send you a code to use for a 10% discount on any purchases, including Birdseye. If you’ve got any old Garmin products lying around, you can register them and get another discount code also.
Even though subscriptions are specific to each GPS, the you don’t need to download the files again to use them on another unit. Just send them from Basecamp to the new unit. If you have more than one subscription, Basecamp will ask which unit you want to unlock it for. I just did this on my Montana with 14GB worth of imagery that I had previously installed on my Oregon. But you will need to transfer the files directly from Basecamp to unlock them. Just copying the .jnx files from another unit gives an “invalid birdseye file” error.
Don’t assume that the imagery won’t be useful out in the woods. In my area, it shows pretty much everything since the orthophotography was done in the Winter when the trees were bare.
Thanks Boyd. Good tips! I appreciate you taking the time to share them.
HI,
Any idea where I can get a preview of what imagery is actually available on birdseye? I live in Malawi, Africa and after getting the subscription I have noticed that High res imagery is not available every where. Just like in Google earth where in this part of the world some of the coverage is not that good.
I have looked everywhere on the web for this, but have so far hit a blank!
Looking for a birdseye specialist/expert!
cheers,
Mick
Do you have a compatible GPS – Oregon, Dakota, Colorado, GPSMap 62, etc? If so, then just connect it to your computer and run Basecamp. You can then download all the imagery you want for free and use it on your computer. You don’t need to pay unless you want to unlock it for the GPS itself.
Otherwise, I don’t think it can be done (although I suspect a hack might be pretty simple)
Yes, do have an Oregon 300.
The issue is that with limited bandwidth, I need to download an area before I can see the imagery quality. I followed the link form Guido below (thanks Guido!)
http://dgl.us.neolane.net/res/dgl/survey/Oracle_Coverage.jsp?deliveryId=6206936&id=
And discovered that the imagery for my part of the world is largely 15-30 meter resolution. Which is pretty useless to all intents and purposes. A pity as I love the idea of downloading the imagery for my use.
cheers,
Mick
I guess I don’t understand what you want then. If you have an Oregon 200, just connect it to your computer and run basecamp. Choose a small area with which you’re familiar and download it. You can then see exactly what you get with the subscription. It will even allow you to send a small sample to your Oregon for free – IIRC it is about 1 mile x 1 mile at the center of the are you have downloaded.
Your question was “Any idea where I can get a preview of what imagery is actually available on birdseye? “. And the answer is YES – just do as I have described. You can choose a very small area to download and let it run all night (or whatever). However, if your connection is really slow, it may not work well for Birdseye. It seems like the procedure I have described would also be a good way to find out whether it’s even practical, aside from any image quality issues.
I have been downloading birdseye since it was available. As written above it is not very usefull in a woody surrounding.
But when in a desert of water or even city it can give a lot more info for just a small price.
Coverage is differant thrue out the world. See also http://dgl.us.neolane.net/res/dgl/survey/Oracle_Coverage.jsp?deliveryId=6206936&id=
With the latest firmware you can see the differ in brightness ( http://www.gps-info.nl/garmin_birdseye.php#3 in dutch)
I Also tried birdseye select with give a lot more info, but there is a maximum of square km to download. Download is done by credit.
My oregon was replaced, the birdseye subscription was transfered. It is possible to load the images again thrue basecamp.
guido
If the BirdsEye subscription was transferred, yeah, I woud think you could reload them. See Boyd’s comment above.
I find it useful to get a better idea of the vegetation and terrain. Sometimes I can see trails, roads, and objects that are not on the map.
I use Delorme, and wonder how they compare?
I believe they are using the exact same imagery. Can anyone verify that?
I live in a rural area in the mountain northwest and use Birdseye quite often. Working in natural resources I’m contantly using birdseye to pick up wetlands and small ponds that no other maps do either because they were recently created (beaver) or USGS just hasn’t mapped them. I also hit a few rivers in the summer and if you’ve been out there you know that vector representations of river channels are often not as accurate as one would like. With BirdsEye, you can see if that braid reconnects to the main channel, which way to go at a fork, has the river migrated from the old USGS survey, etc. Great for floaters!
I’ve learned not to trust most vector road maps, especially in rural areas, because they are often quite lacking and innacurate. Dirt roads, two tracks, and most trails are unmistakable on a BirdsEye aerial photo.
Hunters sholdn’t be without BirdsEye either. Knowing what kind of habitat is just over the ridge or around the bend (meadow, forest, clear-cut, wetland, etc) has proven to be invaluable in attempting to strategize a hunt. For $30 it’s plenty worth the extra advantage it gives me when up in the hills.