Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab

What’s that bird? Just answer 5 questions, snap a photo, or record its song!

Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab

App stats

Version: 3.5.1 (Last updated: 2024-11-15)
Creation date: 2014-06-26
Permissions
Identity: find accounts on the device, add or remove accounts
Contacts: find accounts on the device
Location: approximate location (network-based), precise location (GPS and network-based)
Phone: read phone status and identity
Photos/Media/Files: read the contents of your USB storage, modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
Storage: read the contents of your USB storage, modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
Microphone: record audio
Wi-Fi connection information: view Wi-Fi connections
Device ID & call information: read phone status and identity
Other:
  • receive data from Internet
  • view network connections
  • pair with Bluetooth devices
  • access Bluetooth settings
  • change network connectivity
  • connect and disconnect from Wi-Fi
  • full network access
  • run at startup
  • prevent device from sleeping
  • modify system settings

Other platforms

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App summary

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
• Choose bird packs that contain 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.

User reviews

I have been into birds since 1985. I have always been a visual binoculars kind of Birder. At 64 I have a problem with my eyes. my right eye has a scar that limits my abilities to id. Merlin has helped me learn the songs of many species and enabled me to increase my knowledge of my favorite past time. My favorite app on my phone by far.
by Tony Lees Jr., 2024-11-30

Disclosure: I'm a member of the Cornell Orthology program, and participate in many of their programs (e g., Feeder Watch). This app is astounding due to the richness of data that supports it (audio recordings in the Cornell database). I find this highly accurate. There are times, with loud background noises (lawnmowers, etc) that you will get an erroneous suggestion... But that is fully understandable. I highly recommend this app.
by Rob Pento, 2024-11-23

Had this app on my old phone and it worked great. But I upgraded to a new Pixel 9 Pro and now the app is a brick: it doesn't work without bird packs, and bird packs fail to download every time. They get to about 25% progress bar and the just silently quit. I have good Internet and plenty of storage space; this is a problem with the Merlin app or their servers.
by Aaron Gable, 2024-11-16
View all user reviews

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