A veteran bird-watcher gives Merlin bird ID app a test drive

Merlin was on the job at Westwood Hills Nature Center in St. Louis Park one recent day, helping birders identify bird songs. Not Merlin the storied magician, although what was happening could be likened to magic.

This Merlin is a smartphone app that first records birdsong, and then does very well at putting a name to the singer. I can vouch for that.

The bird walk was organized by a man named Vic Lewis, a migrant, like a bird, summering in his home territory near Westwood after wintering in Arizona.

There were 15 of us, including me and friend Peter, both of us relying on Ye Olde identification method that used recordings in our heads, not our phones.

We learned bird calls/songs by repeated listenings to songs commercially recorded on vinyl records or tape cassettes (remember those?).

This day, some of the walk participants moved along the paths with one hand outstretched as though expecting a gift. They were holding their phone face up, using the Merlin app in recording phase, awaiting assignment of a species name to the sounds.

Merlin is the product of the wizards at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in New York state. It is free, available online at the Apple app store or Google Play, and it is amazing.

The Merlin website explains: "Sound ID listens to the birds around you and shows real-time suggestions for who's singing. Compare your recording to the songs and calls in Merlin to confirm what you heard.

"Sound ID in the Merlin Bird ID app is currently available for 1,054 species of birds. This includes comprehensive coverage in the United States, and Canada with more species and regions coming soon."

Perhaps the best part is the visual assistance there in your hand. All the birds known in the world — ALL 10,300-plus species — now can be loaded into your smartphone.

Merlin gives you several photos of each species, range maps and text detailing the bird in question, plus calls and songs.

You load this information into your phone one world region at a time. My phone holds the North American set. Previously, I admit, I had ignored the sound ID function.

I tried Merlin for the first time several days after the Westwood walk, in our yard. In the first minute of listening Merlin identified 10 species of bird by song, including two unseen, yellow warbler and common yellowthroat, hidden in the brushy swamp touching our backyard. I have seen them there.

Between 6 and 6:30 p.m., not really prime birding time, the app created a list of 14 species. That included cedar waxwing, a bird with a high, thin song, difficult to hear. I've seen that species out back, so I probably should believe Merlin's impressive call at a distance of about 100 feet.

The next morning it added two species which I doubt — rose-breasted grosbeak and chimney swift. I haven't seen these birds near our home recently, but when do I question sounds that I probably can't hear?

The software identifies the bird by name and image, includes a sonic graph of the recording, and highlights a name each time a repeat call is heard.

Merlin also puts names to images. You also can take a photo of a bird, or pull one from your camera file, and Merlin's photo ID will offer a short list of possible matches.

The app and all of its impressive skill is free. Just download it from an app store.

Cornell says there are more than 3 million Merlin users. Almost 10 million birds have been identified with answered questions, and over 6 million identified with the photo feature.

An amazing 171 million birds have been identified with sound ID. Just like in our backyard and at Westwood. Magic indeed.

Lifelong birder Jim Williams can be reached at woodduck38@gmail.com.

Top 5 bird IDs

Merlin reports that these are the birds that have been most frequently identified in the U.S. and Canada using the app during April. Click the link to hear their song.

2. American robin.

3. Tufted titmouse.

4. House sparrow.

5. Red-winged blackbird.