What's that bird? Ask Merlin—the world’s leading app for birds. Just like magic, Merlin Bird ID will help you solve the mystery.
Merlin Bird ID helps you identify birds you see and hear. Merlin is unlike any other bird app—it's powered by eBird, the world’s largest database of bird sightings, sounds, and photos.
Merlin offers four fun ways to identify birds. Answer a few simple questions, upload a photo, record a singing bird, or explore birds in a region.
Whether you’re curious about a bird you’ve seen once or you’re hoping to identify every bird you can find, the answers are waiting for you with this free app from the renowned Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
WHY YOU’LL LOVE MERLIN
• Expert ID tips, range maps, photos, and sounds help you learn about the birds you spot and build birding skills.
• Discover a new bird species each day with your own personalized Bird of the Day
• Get customized lists of birds you can find where you live or travel - anywhere in the world!
• Keep track of your sightings—build your personal list of the birds you find
MACHINE LEARNING MAGIC
• Powered by Visipedia, Merlin Sound ID and Photo ID uses machine learning to identify birds in photos and sounds. Merlin learns to recognize bird species based on training sets of millions of photos and sounds collected by birders at eBird.org, archived in the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
• Merlin delivers the most accurate results thanks to experienced birders, who curate and annotate sightings, photos, and sounds, who are the true magic behind Merlin.
AMAZING CONTENT
• Merlin has bird photos, songs, and calls, and identification help for anywhere in the world, including Mexico, Costa Rica, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India, Australia, Korea, Japan, China, and more.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s mission is to interpret and conserve the Earth’s biological diversity through research, education, and citizen science focused on birds and nature. We are able to offer Merlin for free thanks to the generosity of Cornell Lab members, supporters, and citizen-science contributors.
It makes my life so much better, when I could understand who makes all this birdy sounda and even discover new species❣️The highlighting recognized bird, when sound repeats, helps to parse every each one from polyphony. You are the best 🖤
So great!
Dasha Brts
This app is teaching you how to know what bird is singing or how does it looks like. By the way in this app no adding and it works without internet connection! I love it! Thanks to people who created this app! But when you are trying to understand what bird is it they are making you to download that bird and it is not so cool but I still like this app!
my fav
maksim_xxx
amazing app, always works precise, especially its fun to identify birds real time! genius! a hidden gem for everyone who likes to spend time outdoors. I want you guys to add Ukrainian bc it’s getting popular here and it’s very uncomfortable to google birds you have never heard about.
Problems on iPhone
bdicnsksjc
Bird packs never finish installing on iPhone. Works on iPad (although the app is in iPhone size there). Could be a great app. Having bird names in few languages simultaneously would also be very beneficial as well as the link to a Wikipedia article.Update: managed to download the packs after connecting to VPN, although the server was in the same country I am present.
What's new in 4.2:
Identifying birds with a picture is easier than ever. No need to crop your picture - simply upload your photo, add the location, and we'll take care of the rest.
The sound recordings now include descriptive captions for some species, helping you understand what you're hearing and learn the key sounds that identify each species
Seasonally Dynamic Media: See how birds change throughout the year! Photos and sounds now adapt to the changing seasons, highlighting how birds can look and sound different throughout the year
Bug fixes and behind-the-scenes improvements
Version 4.2
The developer, Cornell University, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Linked to You
The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
Identifiers
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
Location
Contact Info
Usage Data
Privacy practices may vary based, for example, on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Provider
Cornell University
Size
335.1 MB
Category
Reference
Compatibility
Requires iOS 18.0 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 18.0 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 15.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
