Accelerated Learning with Bird Sounds on Merlin App
The Merlin App by the Cornell Lab (iPhone or Android) is one of my favorite apps. I’ve used it for several years to get better at visual identification of birds.
But in the last couple of years, the app has become even better with sound ID.
It’s absolutely amazing and dramatically accelerated learning in an area that I just assumed I’d never be able to figure out – IDing birds by their song.
Before Merlin, the idea of IDing a bird by its song seemed amazing but completely unachievable. I’ve been on so many summer hikes in the Southern Appalachians knowing that I’m surrounded by dozens of interesting species with no way to see them (too much canopy & mid-story) or ID them (or someone to say, “ahh yes, that sounds like X”). And the song descriptions in books are hopeless.
But with Merlin, you just hit record, let it listen, and species pop up as it records. It doesn’t need 4G or Wifi. It just works.
Merlin Bird ID is an app for both iPhone & Android that helps identify bird species by sound or appearance. The app is provided free by the Cornell School of Ornithology.
