Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab 4+

So useful

Although in my 70s I am fortunate to still halve able to hear high pitched sounds. After a lifetime of not being able to recognise many birds by their song or call I wanted to learn more. Taking advice from a book I started in January when birds are either absent or quieter I listened carefully and usually identified bird song by hearing and seeing and with the help of a much simpler app. I’ve been learning for about 4 years now and am much improved and love listening as I walk and mostly knowing what I can hear. A whole new dimension to the world. I only started using Merlin this year and on a way I’m glad I learnt the hard way as I didn’t rely on an app and improved my listening skills. But find it so useful now to check what I know, to learn other calls birds I thought I knew make, and to learn a few new ones. I never knew how many nuthatches and wrens there are here in the UK!

Probably good if you’re in North America

This app is produced by Cornell Labs. I presume that’s connected with Cornell University, in the USA. In some ways it’s mighty impressive, but its great weakness is its tendency to identify European birds as American birds. A secondary weakness is making no allowance for what we call our own birds. “Grey” is invariably spelt “gray” (a nuisance when looking for a bird), goosander are called common merganser, our regular swallows (which gave all the other swallow species their name) are called “barn swallow,” and so on, ad nauseam. It wouldn’t be beyond the wit of mortal man to acknowledge English spellings and bird names, even as an equivalent to subtitles. A third weakness is its rather sketchy descriptions of the species. Whether its creators assume you can look at the pictures and work things out from there, or listen to the recordings, I know not, but the details are rather poor. This could be a great app. As it is, it’s merely useful, mostly for its pictures.
[later edit]
The app is growing on me as I get used to it. I’ve found it very useful on sound ID, where I’ve yet to spot it making a” false note.”

Developer Response ,

Please get in touch with our help desk if you are having issues getting good identifications (merlinhelp@cornell.edu). As long as you set your location, the identification suggestions will match your location, based on local sightings.

Brilliant

This is clever (sound IDs based on c. 500 sonograms per species, amazing) and it is very easy to download and use! I am using Merlin to learn bird songs and calls and am almost addicted to it. I think and hope that I am making progress to a fairly advanced level when I haven’t managed this before. Merlin has also improved my listening skills greatly. The app uses a lot of battery power but no wonder given the size of its data base. On a long walk, I would carry a power pack with me. I guess that the red half-circle (for sound recognition) indicates ID uncertainty; my phone doesn’t go back a page to the main menu, wish it did so that I could find out what the details mean. I love the way that the dominant call highlights in yellow, very helpful. Well done Cornell, this app is exactly what I needed to learn and hopefully remember (that not is up to me). Brilliant app.