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Merlin Bird ID

merlin.allaboutbirds.org

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Re: Merlin Bird ID

#161

Post by ggerules »

xpe wrote: post #150

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?

I'm also a regular user.

Q1: To my knowledge for the merlin app, no. Just local storage to your phone as a WAV file.

Q2: If you've started down the path of using Merlin, there is a companion app from the Cornell group called ebird. It used GPS to list birding Hotspot near your location. You can keep track of what you've seen. If you want to get extra verification on your sightings you can upload pictures and audio files at a later time on the ebird website. Real live humans, volunteer birding experts, will verify your sightings. I've gotten to meet some very knowledgeable birders through this process. All of this data goes into scientific research. On the ebird website the have specific protocols on what make for a good observation. It is my understanding that submitted and vetted photos and audio files will make it into the NN models used by the Merlin app.

Happy birding to everyone!

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#162

Post by parpfish »

pgn674 wrote: post #6
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.

I'm definitely impressed with the sound ID. One time there was a cacophony of birds singing outside my house at varying distances, and the app was able to identify 6 different bird species within 30 seconds. All 6 suggestions seemed reasonable to me.

I’m really impressed about how well the sound ID works for birds doing mimicry.

We had a brown thrasher stringing together a long series of mimicked calls that got labeled correctly as a brown thrasher.

I don’t even know how you’d approach the ML for that seeing how unique each song is to each bird

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#163

Post by ggerules »

krunck wrote: post #154

Does this have ads? What is the Schibsted tracker for?

It does not have ads. They will put up a notification 2 or 3 times a year for global non paid bird events.

The GPS location is used by the model to narrow search results.

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#164

Post by ggerules »

erickhill wrote: post #5
andsoitis wrote: post #2

Great app. One improvement I'd like is that if you play back sounds from the app you are allowed to cast the sound to an external speaker. I cannot.

I wish when I uploaded a photo for analysis, and the app identifies my bird, that I could keep MY photo and not the generic one in their database. It's great at building a checklist, but not so much for making it feel like my own.

If you use the companion app called ebird, you can save your checklists. Later you can upload your photos and any audio you have recorded. Those get vetted by regional bird experts and get added to the scientific data. It's fun to go back and relive past hikes and trips viewing your pictures on the ebird.org website!

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#165

Post by teaearlgraycold »

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…

Works very well on my iPhone as well.

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#166

Post by lxe »

Didn't realize they had a photo ID now. I've been using it for sound id all the time.

The photo id function correctly and quickly identified the house finch hatchlings in my backyard spider plant nest when ChatGPT or Claude could not.

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#167

Post by dsizzle »

rigrassm wrote: post #138

I love this app! Just started using it a month or so ago to figure out who the loud ass bird in the woods behind my house was which ended up being a Tufted Titmouse (who are now one of my favorites, so awesome looking) and a Carolina Wren (not as pretty but makes up for it with its songs). For the last month, my morning routine has completely changed and instead of sitting inside. I now spend my mornings out back ref…

Not sure what you mean - both the "Explore" part and the Life List both have the pics and the calls together?

It is indeed a good app, but my beef is how bad it is at adding birds to your life list. After ID'ing a bird by sound or picture it'll ask you where/when you found it with the worst defaults -- it'll know where you are and what time it is, but it sometimes randomly picks some time/place you've been at months ago (even ignoring that you may have just entered several at your current location)!

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#168

Post by kiddico »

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.

I'd love an API of some sort. I have some birdwatching/tracking ideas that require I can id a bird by sound and Merlin would be the best route if they just let people us it ...

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#169

Post by kiddico »

parpfish wrote: post #162
pgn674 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm definitely impressed with the sound ID. One time there was a cacophony of birds singing outside my house at varying distances, and the app was able to identify 6 different bird species within 30 seconds. All 6 suggestions seemed reasonable to me.

I’m really impressed about how well the sound ID works for birds doing mimicry. We had a brown thrasher stringing together a long series of mimicked calls that got labeled correctly as a brown thrasher. I don’t even know how you’d approach the ML for that seeing how unique each song is to each bird

Equally so I've had a red wing black bird mimic a cardinal and it appeared as a cardinal.

The waveform was too thick and looked funky which is why I tracked down the bird doing it. (I Was at the Ohio bird sanctuary)

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#170

Post by rigrassm »

dsizzle wrote: post #167
rigrassm wrote: post #138

I love this app! Just started using it a month or so ago to figure out who the loud ass bird in the woods behind my house was which ended up being a Tufted Titmouse (who are now one of my favorites, so awesome looking) and a Carolina Wren (not as pretty but makes up for it with its songs). For the last month, my morning routine has completely changed and instead of sitting inside. I now spend my mornings out back ref…

Not sure what you mean - both the "Explore" part and the Life List both have the pics and the calls together? It is indeed a good app, but my beef is how bad it is at adding birds to your life list. After ID'ing a bird by sound or picture it'll ask you where/when you found it with the worst defaults -- it'll know where you are and what time it is, but it sometimes randomly picks some time/place you've been at months…

Oh yeah, I use those features, what I want is to be able to isolate specific calls and store that exact sound clip along with pictures I took to try and keep track of individual birds that visit regularly.
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