​Scythebill downloads

The current version of Scythebill is 15.7.6 and you can download versions for Windows, MacOS and Linux, as well as a cross-platform version that'll work everywhere else.

You can also download publicly available extended taxonomies from the bottom of this page.

Download links

More detailed instructions are below, but if you know what you're doing, download the appropriate file for your operating system:
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Windows installer
MacOS disk image (see below for those still using Yosemite)
Linux installer (64-bit)

The Scythebill manual is always available online, at http://manual.scythebill.com, but you can download a PDF as well if you'd prefer that.  (The latest such PDF is for version 15.7.2.)


Windows downloads

Windows installer

Instructions:
  1. Quit Scythebill, if it's running.
  2. Download the installer, and run it.  (In some browsers, like Firefox, you may need to find your Downloads directory, look for the installer .exe file that you just downloaded, then double-click the installer to run it.)
  3. Open "Launch Scythebill" inside the new Scythebill shortcut in the Start menu (or double-click on any existing .bsxm sightings file)

If you install over an existing installation before 14.1.0, and see "Error: could not create the Java Virtual Machine", please rerun the installer as an administrator (by right-clicking on the installer .exe file).

If that doesn't work, then please:
  1. First, make sure that you have your .bsxm file safely backed up somewhere.
  2. Find the folder you've installed the Scythebill application into (whatever appears in the first pages of the installer application).
  3. Delete that folder manually
  4. Rerun the installer

None of this should be necessary for subsequent installs.
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Many thanks to BitRock for making their installers freely available for open-source software.

MacOS downloads

​MacOS disk image 

Instructions (MacOS 10.11 - El Capitan - or newer):
  1. Quit Scythebill, if it's running.
  2. Click the "MacOS disk image" link above, and open the .dmg file when it's done downloading .
  3. Open the now-available Scythebill 15.7.6 disk, and drag the Scythebill application from it into your Applications folder, overwriting the previous version of Scythebill if necessary.
  4. Open Scythebill (from your Applications folder)

Scythebill recommends MacOS 10.11 (El Capitan) or newer - which covers all versions of MacOS back to 2014. If you are still using MacOS 10.10 (Yosemite), you'll need to download from this alternate link (still 14.8.1), and also please consider upgrading your operating system;  even if you can't upgrade to the latest MacOS, you probably can upgrade to MacOS Mojave.

Linux downloads

Linux installer (64-bit) 

Instructions:
  1. Quit Scythebill, if it's running.
  2. Download the installer
  3. Open a terminal, and type:
    chmod u+x ~/Downloads/Scythebill-15.7.6-linux-x64-installer.run; ~/Downloads/Scythebill-15.7.6-linux-x64-installer.run
  4. Run Scythebill with ~/Scythebill/Scythebill.run

Scythebill no longer supports 32-bit Linux installations.

​Cross-platform JAR

Cross-platform JAR

You can use this file to run Scythebill on any operating system, but it requires a Java installation, and is missing many of the niceties of the native applications above.

It is possible to use this version to keep you going on 32-bit Windows or Linux - see the 32-bit Java 17 Java installations available from Azul.
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Instructions:
  1. Download the .zip file and unzip into a JAR file
  2. Install Java (Java 17)
  3. Open the JAR file (or run from a terminal with "java -jar scythebill-15.7.6.jar")

Extended taxonomies


Scythebill lets users define their own, custom taxonomies, and share them with other users.  Some of these have graciously been made available for others to download as well.  You must have Scythebill 13.0 or later! (And in the case of the newest mammal taxonomy, you must use Scythebill 15.5 or later)
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If you've built an extended taxonomy, and would like to share it with other users, please let me know.  Do make sure that you've obtained permission from the author of the taxonomy. 

World

North America

Europe

  • Odonates (Dragonflies and Damselflies) of Europe - courtesy of DragonflyPix, via Phil Tizzard
    Click to download (Last updated March 7, 2020
  • Butterflies of Europe - from Harry Rutherford
    This taxonomy requires Scythebill 15.5.0; upgrade first.
    Click to download (Last updated August 9, 2022)
    (Replaces an earlier Butterflies of the UK taxonomy)
  • Plants of the United Kingdom - from Darren Galpin
    Click to download (Last updated March 21, 2019)
  • Moths of Britain and Ireland - from Harry Rutherford
    Click to download (Last updated August 14, 2022)
  • Bees of the United Kingdom - from Darren Galpin
    Click to download (Last updated February 26, 2019)
  • Arachnids of the United Kingdom - from Darren Galpin
    Click to download (Last updated February 26, 2019)
  • Hoverflies of the United Kingdom - from Darren Galpin
    Click to download (Last updated February 26, 2019)
  • Odonates (Dragonflies and Damselflies) of the United Kingdom - from Edward Paxton
    Click to download  (Last updated August 31, 2016)

Others