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.
This birding app is one of the greatest apps that you will get for free. It has many bird packs from all around the world of which can be downloaded and installed at any given time. So if you are a traveller, be sure to download the bird pack of the region you are travelling to in order to more accurately identify the birds that you come across. This app has helped myself so much with identifying birds of all kinds. The sound recording and photo matches works extremely well and accurate. The only downside of this app in my own personal opinion is that one is not able to add a bird to your life list from the “Explore” tab. This is not necessarily a major issue but more of an inconvenience to the user as you now need to go through the step-by-step ID to find your bird. In some cases you do not find the bird from the step-by-step ID when trying to search for it which makes it a bit frustrating.I really hope that the app developers will add this function to the app with the next update.Happy Birding!
Brilliant, but…
BaasPiet77
Absolutely brilliant app that does what it says and does it really well. The sound and picture ID’s work really fast and accurate. But please, add the ability to add a bird to your life list from the Explore Birds section. Right now it seems you can only add a bird after you’ve identified it using the sound or picture ID functions. Please guys! I know what bird I saw, but I didnt take a picture and didnt record the sound. I’d like to add it, but the bird ID section where you describe the bird doesnt find the bird, and I cant add it from the Explore birds list… 😢
SA compatible
KerryBerry36
Love this app!! Found most of my garden variety birds even one or two rare ones. My only feedback is that it doesn’t give an option to add a bird to your list from the explore page. The bird I saw was listed there but would not appear in the ID search, not matter how many times I changed the search parameters.
Really helpful guide
MrPlodsa
I have really enjoyed the photo identification feature on this app. Living in Southern Africa we are blessed with a multitude of birds and some of them, especially the LBJ’s, are difficult to id. Merlin works his magic within moments for an identification. Cannot wait for the sound identification of Southern African birds. Thank you for this wonderful tool.
What's new in 4.2.1:
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 4.2.1
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
334.9 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.
