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Merlin Bird ID

merlin.allaboutbirds.org

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141–150 of 221 posts

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#141

Post by cypherpunks01 »

Balgair wrote: post #119
togume wrote: post #101

It’s so great this app is getting attention. Hopefully the devs/PMs come here and pay attention. The sound ID works very well, especially in the jungles/forests of Colombia with zero network availability. The rest of the app needs a lot of love, though. Buttons don’t work often, screens are inconsistent, results get lost, and more issues. Features: I’d love an iNaturalist bridge. Going back into a previous recording…

Love the app! But it crashes for me every 255 seconds after start-up on Android. Yes, I timed it. Is there a way to submit bug reports?

Android app store says merlinhelp@cornell.edu

Definitely submit full OS and hardware details, and adb logcat crash logs if you can. There's a million possibilities of the cause of the problem, with all the different android hardware out there.

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#142

Post by tristor »

I really love Merlin as a hobbyist nature photographer. Not just the sound ID, but even more importantly it has a wonderful function that allows you to visually ID a bird from a photo. I don't know much about birds, other than having an appreciation at a distance and finding them photogenic, and Merlin has helped me learn a lot about the birds I've photographed as well as identifying them. This is one of the most important apps on my phone. One of the best things I've seen come out to the public from academia.

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#143

Post by rigrassm »

AnotherGoodName wrote: post #7

In general as a bird watcher i’ve been extremely impressed by this tech. I generally trust it. There’s only a couple of times i’ve been sceptical of it’s id and thats where there’s similar species in the area. Eg. I’m not convinced there really is a purple finch where i live when all i see is house finches all day. But i could be wrong too! It’s proven itself enough that i’m not ready to call it wrong on that one.

I have a bunch of Blue Jays around my house and it turns out they are so good at imitating a specific hawk species(blanking on its name) that Merlin actually reports it as the hawk! I went and listened to real recordings of that hawks call and I couldn't tell it apart from the Jays imitation call.

Now, I know it's technically possible it was a real id, but Im pretty sure the bald eagle it detected was actually one of the kids down the street running around screaming lol

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#144

Post by tristor »

codingdave wrote: post #84

I love this app. I use it all the time. But I do have a complaint, that you can't upload an image via the web from your PC. For those of us who use a DSLR for our birding photos, the UX to have to transfer images to our phone to send them through the app is really painful. It isn't the end of the world. It just makes me ID my birds in other ways. But it would be nice to provide non-mobile UX options.

I do the same thing, but I only ID photos that I consider good enough to post, once posted they're accessible from my phone (Flickr, IG, et al) so it's no big deal to grab them and insert them into the app.

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#145

Post by rigrassm »

plastic3169 wrote: post #112

I love this. It used to work like magic but something happened and now it barely recognizes birds for me. Only if they are really close. Anyone else? Maybe my hardware is failing? I also travelled and loaded other packs and wonder if I messed up my DB.

I noticed it had a hard time when there was a consistent background noise going. If my home's AC is running, it can only ID the highest pitched birds and will fail to detect the lower pitched calls.

I've actually started setting my AC to keep the temp a little higher in the early mornings so it doesn't run as much while I'm outside.

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#146

Post by I_dream_of_Geni »

hoseja wrote: post #83
hydroweaver87 wrote: post #17

iNaturalist is yet another nice app

And for birdsong there is specifically BirdNET, operating on a similar principle as this. I might check out Merlin specifically just for the ID wizard, for raptors which are pain to photograph and are best IDd by shilouette.

Interesting to note that Merlin and BirdNET are both through Cornell Labs...

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#147

Post by drstewart »

HelloMcFly wrote: post #109
togume wrote: post #101

It’s so great this app is getting attention. Hopefully the devs/PMs come here and pay attention. The sound ID works very well, especially in the jungles/forests of Colombia with zero network availability. The rest of the app needs a lot of love, though. Buttons don’t work often, screens are inconsistent, results get lost, and more issues. Features: I’d love an iNaturalist bridge. Going back into a previous recording…

> Buttons don’t work often, screens are inconsistent, results get lost, and more issues. What device are you using, out of curiosity? I use this app almost daily for months at a time across several generations of the Google Pixel, I haven't had any of these issues even one time. I'm not even sure what you mean by "we ID something, but it’s gone by the time we show it to someone". Like, it shows a match while you're r…

> I've found the app starts hiccuping when I'm making a very long recording, but I've learned to just cut it off and start a new one after about 10 minutes.

What phone are you using? I record ten hours a day and never get any issues whatsoever, so I'm not even sure what you mean by "hiccups".

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#148

Post by yakk0 »

Another parent in my kid's Cub Scout pack told me about this a few years ago. It's been really cool to use on camping trips, and lately I've been using it while walking the dog. There's a lot more different types of birds around me than I had realized.

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#150

Post by xpe »

I'm a regular user, and I highly recommend it. / Here are some things that I'm not clear on (admittedly because I haven't researched them yet):

1. Are recordings shared with Cornell? By default?

2. Is it "recommended" or "expected" that I try to get a visual id on the birds, too?

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