There several apps for phones that would help a person,
eBird by Cornell Lab (This one is supposed to be worldwide)
The Audubon Bird Guide App (Limited to North America)
Merlin Bird ID App (North America and Europe, will also help identify the bird from a picture)
Beyond that you could look for small easy to carry books for the region you are going to.
Finally, the members on this site are really good at tracking down what species an animal is or what type of object something is, so if you take a picture and write a question here, I bet we could figure it out after the fact.