Identify Birds by Sound or Photo with Your iPhone and Merlin

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If you’ve ever heard a bird and wondered what it was, the free Merlin Bird ID app for iPhone offers one of the easiest ways to find out. Developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Merlin has quietly become a favorite among everyone from casual birdwatchers and more serious enthusiast birders alike, thanks to its ability to identify birds by sound of a bird call, photo of a bird, or even a few simple questions.

What makes Merlin especially compelling is how little effort it requires to use, all you need is your iPhone and the Merlin app. You don’t need to know anything about birds to start using it, making it perfect for everyone from beginners, the curious, to lifelong Birders. It works this simply; open the app, tap a button, and let it listen, and in moments it will report back the type of bird. Think of Merlin as kind of like the Shazam music identifier, but for bird calls and bird song.

Merlin is available free for iPhone, and for Android too.

Identify Birds by Sound in Real Time

The standout feature in Merlin is its Sound identification tool. When Sound ID is activated, the app listens to the environment and analyzes bird calls as they happen, identifying species in real time. And yes, it will identify multiple different birds.

It’s surprisingly effective, sit in a backyard, a park, forest, or even near an open window, and you’ll start seeing names appear as birds chirp nearby. Merlin highlights each detected species and often updates as new sounds are picked up.

Identify Birds with a Photo too, or Answer a Few Questions

If you prefer a more traditional approach to birding and bird identification, Merlin also supports photo identification. Take a picture of a bird from the bird app, or upload one from your Photos library, and the app will suggest likely matches.

There’s also a handy easy guided identification mode, where Merlin asks a few simple questions, like; where did you see the bird, what size was the bird, what colors were prominent,…

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