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Merlin Bird ID

merlin.allaboutbirds.org

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Re: Merlin Bird ID

#151

Post by PeeMcGee »

xirdstl wrote: post #122
gcr wrote: post #4

I'm friends with some of the researchers on the Sound ID portion of this app! The team's gone to great lengths to make sure the machine learning models and evals are solid. Under the hood, Sound ID is a great example of how "domain-expert-driven" careful research can give more reliable results than just feeding in data and hoping for the best.

It is amazing, but it does often give false positives. That probably can't be avoided, though

I like how the app shows reference calls/songs for detected birds so I can verify using my own judgement, or to figure out which birds are which when there's a lot of chirping going on.

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#152

Post by busyant »

barefootcoder wrote: post #135

Be careful when playing the bird songs. A few days ago I clicked on the cardinal song that was in my identification list and the male cardinal nesting in my hedge went NUTS and I’ve not seen either of them since, and used to see them daily. They’re very territorial. I’m afraid that I scared them away from an active nest by accident just playing around with the app. :(

I have "butt Merlined" a few times...

Each time, I think to myself ... That bird is CLOSE! Let me take my phone out of my pocket and see if Merlin knows what it is ... DAMMNIT!

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#153

Post by UncleOxidant »

jcalx wrote: post #130
CoffeeOnWrite wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iNaturalist is another gem. Hackers please support these apps so they don’t turn into the AllTrails and Couchsurfing type rackets that we deserve.

Merlin is run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, so it should (hopefully!) remain good and free, unlike apps by private companies with a profit motive.

With all of the federal cuts to university funding I'm not sure this is a given.

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#157

Post by busyant »

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…

> The sound ID works very well, especially in the jungles/forests of Colombia with zero network availability.

Interesting. I find that the sound ID works well if:

- I have my phone out of my pocket and exposed to the air (obviously, if the microphone is muffled, it may cause problems).

- I'm not moving (my footsteps seem to interfere no matter how loud the bird is)

- The Merlin App is running with "focus" (i.e., if Merlin sound ID is running in the background, it seems less likely to detect songs and calls). I don't know if this is really true or if I have a subconscious bias.

- There are also weird effects where it will sometimes fail to notice really loud obvious birds nearby (e.g., baltimore orioles directly above me) but it will nail a faint and distant song.

It would also be nice if it could show the part of the sonogram that forms the basis of its ID call. It is especially difficult for me to examine a sonogram when there are multiple birds singing at once.

> 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.

I have the opposite experience, but that may be a phone-specific issue??

Nevertheless, it's a fantastic app.

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#158

Post by jononor »

genvmunix wrote: post #87
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 also use a dslr for my bird pics. When it comes time to id the bird I take a picture of my monitor and feed that to the app. The app doesn’t need my 48MP images to do the job. The screenshot is fine.

The analog loophole copy/paste :D
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