While enjoying the nature sounds of our cozy neighborhood, I never considered that these were mainly avian sounds nor which particular birds were making which noises. It was just a cacophony of birdsong to my ears.
A friend introduced me to the Merlin Bird Identifier app recently. This changed everything.
The Sound ID option listens to the birds around you and shows real-time suggestions for who’s singing. Compare your recording to the songs and calls in Merlin to confirm what you heard. Data packs are available for birds in the US, Canada, Europe, and Central and South America common birds and more.
The first time Merlin hears a bird in a listening session, it adds it to the list. The next time it hears the same bird while it continues recording, the bird lights up the listing and you come to recognize each bird’s song.
After Listening for 20 Minutes
After 20 minutes of listening on the back porch, Merlin identified the following birds by song: Warbling Vireo, Orchard Oriole, Red-winged Blackbird, Northern Cardinal, Baltimore Oriole, Downy Woodpecker, House Sparrow, Cedar Waxwing, American Robin, House Finch, Canada Goose, European Starling, Northern Mockingbird, Chipping Sparrow, Black-crowned Night-Heron, American Goldfinch, and Black-capped Chickadee.
Identify Birds in a Photo
Merlin will also ID birds in a photo. Snap a picture of a bird, or pull one in from your camera roll, and the Photo ID feature will offer a short list of possible matches. Photo ID works completely offline, so if you can photograph it, you can identify it.
In June of 2022, I was sitting in my running car, about to put it in reverse, when a bird landed on my rearview mirror. It just stayed there, jumping back and forth from the top of the mirror to the door frame. It was so brightly colored and seemed so unafraid of human interaction that I suspected it was an escaped pet. The first thing I did after hearing about this feature was to check out the photo to find out what kind of bird this was. It turned out to be an American Goldfinch. Mystery solved.
Merlin does lots of other stuff, like saving your birding memories with the Save My Bird, feature and it’s free for iPhone or Android. Here’s a video from Merlin’s website that hits the high points.