Merlin Bird ID • Hacker News Board

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#41

Post by neilsharma » Wed, Jun 04, 2025, 7:41 AM UTC

The Sound ID is amazing. Been using it for a few years now. I usually just keep it on while I'm hiking and it identifies over a dozen birds in 20-30min, nearly all of which I've eventually verified are in the area.

The photo ID feature is okay, but I assume that's because the photos I take on my phone of far away birds is too pixelated.

I actually want a similar ID feature frog species; i hear a lot of croaking

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#42

Post by physicsguy » Wed, Jun 04, 2025, 7:44 AM UTC

I love this app, it's incredibly good on the Sound ID stuff. There is a Wildlife Trust nature reserve near where I live and I've found it incredibly useful to work out what I'm hearing/looking at.

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#43

Post by 0points » Wed, Jun 04, 2025, 7:57 AM UTC

I really like this app, but last night I had an encounter in the dark with the most weird alien sounding bird, that uses so low frequencies that the app couldnt make anything out of it.

I realize this is a fault of my phones mic and not the app, btw!

I think the bird was one of the snipes (dvärgbeckasin?) because I met them before.

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#44

Post by zabil » Wed, Jun 04, 2025, 7:58 AM UTC

Love this app, saw a guide using this app on an early morning birdsong walk—gave it a try and it's really good. Very accurate and super easy to use.

I think a lot of serious bird enthusiasts use this in the UK.

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#45

Post by specproc » Wed, Jun 04, 2025, 8:01 AM UTC

hydroweaver87 wrote: post #17

iNaturalist is yet another nice app

Came here for this. My wife is a big Merlin fan, but I'm pretty hard of hearing and much more visually-orientated when it comes to the natural world. INat is a fantastic project, I've learned so much through it.

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#46

Post by ololobus » Wed, Jun 04, 2025, 8:08 AM UTC

Love it. I do very occasional birdwatching, so I still don’t know most of the birds I meet. What I like about Bird ID is that when I see in binoculars a singing bird I can quickly identify it, check photos, and really confirm that it’s exactly that bird.

I’ve heard from more experienced birdwatchers that it can false identify in some cases, so I always try to confirm visually, but anyway, for my casual use it’s more than accurate enough.

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#47

Post by popol12 » Wed, Jun 04, 2025, 8:10 AM UTC

I recently discovered after years of using this app that it's possible to have the names of the birds in other languages than English, it's an option in the app settings.

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#48

Post by MrOrelliOReilly » Wed, Jun 04, 2025, 8:15 AM UTC

0points wrote: post #43

I really like this app, but last night I had an encounter in the dark with the most weird alien sounding bird, that uses so low frequencies that the app couldnt make anything out of it. I realize this is a fault of my phones mic and not the app, btw! I think the bird was one of the snipes (dvärgbeckasin?) because I met them before.

Did you actually see the bird? Some animals make sounds that are deceptively similar to birds (ex chipmunk chirps). Merlin won’t recognize these as “not a bird”; it just doesn’t recognize the sound at all.

Usual disclaimer IANABL (I am not a bird lawyer)

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#49

Post by gokaygurcan » Wed, Jun 04, 2025, 8:38 AM UTC

Love this app. You don't have to be a professional birdwatcher (if that's a profession) to use it. Just open it, and start listening. It's really fun to see what kind of variety of birds around you.

Re: Merlin Bird ID

#50

Post by foretop_yardarm » Wed, Jun 04, 2025, 8:41 AM UTC

michaelmior wrote: post #22

BirdNET-PI[0] may be of interest to this crowd. It uses a Raspberry Pi with a microphone to identify birds continuously based on their calls. [0] https://www.birdweather.com/birdnetpi

In particular, it makes nocmig drastically more approachable. Be warned, though, that the false positive rate is extremely high (which is to be expected).