Media We Love: The Merlin Bird ID App

On a relatively quiet Sunday evening in my neighborhood, I sat out on my porch about an hour before sunset. With the construction, lawn mowing and car sounds of the weekday finally absent, the air came alive with a chorus of birds. Using my recently downloaded Merlin Bird ID app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, I clicked on Sound ID and the app began recording all the tweets, chirps, caws and coos surrounding me.

I let the app run for 20 minutes, recording bird sounds the entire time. It automatically identified the birds behind the noises. As it did, it kept a running list in the window and would light up yellow beneath each bird’s name to indicate what my phone – and my ears – were hearing.

Over the 20 minutes, the app identified 15 birds. Most of them I was well-acquainted with, as they visit my bird feeders or hang out on my lawn. One of the birds, the common nighthawk, had a special half-filled circle by its name. The half circle indicates that it’s an uncommon species (apparently despite its moniker). Rare species would be indicated by a solid red circle.

It felt a bit like I was getting to know the neighbors better as I saw each new bird species pop up on the list.