Sound ID is a real game changer! Now novice birders ca become very good. Especially helpful during migration time noting birds that you are not used to hearing.

I adore this app and use it almost every day. The sound ID tells you exactly the birds it is recording; that is how I started birding to begin with. My granddaughter and I first used it to figure out what crow-like bird was over the water. Choose day, place size as App call for, next screen, colors of the birds; our birds were Fish Crows; never knew there were fish crows. Get EBird too

Sound ID remarkably good. Easy to use. Powerful. Especially useful in forests with heavy canopy cover

Adds a new dimension to bird watching using your ears. Awesome.

eBIRDERS are obliged to take photos or record birds to prove their identifications. It’s much less expensive to record eBIRD Voice ID. The challenge is background noise whether traffic, wind, waves or other constant or surging noise makes it hard for Merlin. But Merlin is getting smarter quickly. The location “packs” give eBird a limited set of expected species. It would be great if this was made more specific to eBird hotspots so it could reference date and reported species at specific GPS points. Many of us have problems with frequencies. Cedar waxwings and other high pitched birds are hard to hear for us, but also for Merlin. When there is a choir of birds the lowest volume bird is often not heard. When I enter a habitat I often turn voice ID on and see what Merlin finds. This can help focus my search. But be careful, 20-30 % of the birds in Merlin’s report may be mistaken identities.

Extremely helpful and powerful tool as a new birder. Sound ids are fantastic for getting a shortlist of birds to look for

So I just got this and it’s amazinf. That show my excitement for the best app ever but how can I tell if it’s rare I’d like to know

I am a bird watcher and I can’t believe that this app helped me find a rare bird

I never knew haw many birds lived around me!

The sound ID is amazing!! It opened a whole new world for me!! Love this app.

I use it all the time. I like that when using sound ID, it highlights birds as they sound. This makes it easier to ID a single bird in a cacophony.

Love the sound ID feature which has identified more than 20 burns in my yard !

Perfect for identifying birds. I’ve used the sound ID feature most. I can walk through the park and know I’m listening to a catbird, or identify an extended family of American Redstarts. I’d never have know that without Merlin.

The sound id is magical.

This sosftware is amazing. We live in a wooded area at the very edge of a city in Colorado. If you go outside a day break, there are a dozen birds singing. To my surprise, Marlin hears and distinguishes each one, given me a listing of the birds around, and lighting up the name of each bird as it hears it’s song. I’m not really a bird guy, but this is so cool.

Have been using Merlin daily for a month. The audio ID feature has shown what I have not been aware. Also trains my ear for birdID. Used all the time both California and Scotland. Works even in noisy environments.

It keeps telling me to verify my email address but they never send the email

Everything you can ask for and more. Bird call identification is fantastic.

Merlin App is so informative and engaging. It has enhanced our family life in many ways.

I have been able to ID elusive birds by their songs and calls, plus I have enjoyed hearing and identifying the many different songs and calls of familiar birds, the American robin, for example.

This is the real deal, folks - not some fly by night operation.

I’m new to birding and use it often with eBird. I highly recommend it.

The app is ok but it seems to think half the time I open it that I haven’t confirmed my account. But I confirmed it on day one. I even try to send a new confirmation email to my account and it never comes- and I checked spam. Merlin can’t help or answer why it does this and just keeps saying to resend the email. When it does miraculously let me in, it’s somewhat decent. It can’t think of more than 4-5 birds if you try to search a bird with criteria like size color and what you saw it doing. sound ID pretty accurate.

Like an ornithologist in your pocket. It tells me what’s around, tells me what I’m hearing. Astonishingly capable and accurate. As my skills improve, I can attest this app has been right all along… amazing. Never leave home without it.

I use this app all the time, in my backyard, in nature reserves, in new places for me. It works great.

I’m a novice and want to get better at identifying birds in our woods and backyard. I love capturing the calls and then have Merlin identify them for me. I’m getting better at recognizing bird calls thanks to Merlin app.

I live on 5 wooded acres, surrounded by old wood maples and beech trees and a few old oaks. I have bird feeders up, but I know I don’t a lot of our “bug” eating birds at feeder. Our family lives sitting out in our patio/deck and just laid ten to nature. There are birds in the woods I don’t see but hear. This app is great! I found out there are warblers, and wood thrushes, an occasional hawk, different woodpeckers. And they all were recognized by there song. This app is wonderful.

The app identifies birds by their songs that I’ve never or rarely seen. It often identifies upwards of 20 different birds. It works amazingly.

My family and I love this app! Our backyard is bird friendly and we can spend free time listening and watching birds in our feeders and trees. The Cornell app has been both educational and a lot of fun. I ve shown it to many friends and family and all have downloaded it. I’m very impressed by its accuracy and how it hones in on birds and not ambient noise. And yes we will continue to support the ornithology lab with donations. Thank you for this wonderful tool!

I just started using the Sound ID and I had no idea I had so many more kinds of birds which I never even see! And even some rare ones for my area! I installed the US and Canada package (free) and it gives you pictures and recordings and of each bird’s sound and more. I thought the photo ID was great but the sound ID is amazing! Thank you, Cornell Lab, for providing this awesome ap and for free! I would’ve never loaded it if had a cost. I’m so happy to use it every day. It’s addicting!

Merlin’s sound ID is so much fun! I like to turn Merlin on during the dawn chorus and watch the bird names pop up. Sure, I would never rely on it fully for a positive ID, but it has alerted us to some birds we didn’t know we had and were able later to verify by sight.

I’m a casual bird enthusiast who enjoys sitting on my deck listening to and watching the many birds here. One day I heard a curious call new to me and wanted to ID it. I found this app and being familiar with the Cornell bird lab, thought I would give it a try. I was surprised how well it worked an how many different species it can detect just using my iphone. IT IS GREAT. EASY EFFECTIVE AND FUN. What more could you ask for!

Normally this would be a five star, but the most recent update, under explore, only about 20 birds show up. Also for ID’ingIf I go into the pack list it shows 716. No filters are selected, everything is just gone. it’s the same for the ID as well. I tried ID’ing a robin just to check and see how it was working using “robin sized” brown, white, orange, in the trees, and got “barn swallow” as the only option. Then I tried another and barn swallow is literally the only bird that comes up as an option for anything I try. Please fix this bug!

I record for 10 minutes every morning to see what’s out there. I live in west central Florida with an amazing amount of different feathered friends. I love birds, the are by far my favorite species. This app makes it so simple to identify them and learn about Gods wonderful creatures. Thank you Merlin.

This feature can be used when bird’s hard to find and gives you an idea of what you’re looking for. I used it on trip to North West. I’m from Florida. App was invaluable!

Been birding for a couple of years now and Merlin is the best birding app I’ve ever found! I super recommended this if your passionate about birds or just curious what bird is in your backyard. Loads of fun, extremely helpful!!

I feel like Dr. Dolittle being able to talk to the animals. I’m sitting outside and doing calls and response with multiple song sparrows. The app helped identify the bird for me first and next I’m able to play different calls to bring the birds even closer to me. I’ve identified some birds by sight, but most thorough the recording that the app captures. This is definitely the favorite app on my phone and it’s not even close.

We love this app.

I love this app and it’s great for bird songs and quick ids. I use it often. The app describes the birds well. They don’t give the greatest size comparison and habitat description for a lot of species. I find that a good field guide is a lot more helpful for this. As well they haven’t come out with a Southeast Asia bird pack.

This app is very good and easy to use. I have been using it since mid-March 2022. I especially like the sound ID mode, because one can learn the songs of common backyard birds, and also identify birds calling in the woods, meadows, and other remote places. Those birds you may or may not see. The scrolling sound graph is also very interesting and useful. Now a suggestion for future improvement. I have noticed that many birds in northern Vermont make their own unique songs. For example our cardinals make a incredible variety of songs, all different than the recordings offered on the app, including those made in neighboring New York state. To be sure they are “cardinal like” songs, but nevertheless are unique to our region. The tufted titmouse likewise. Even less common birds such as the hermit thrush, our state bird, make their own version of the hermit thrush song. This may seem bizarre and hard to believe, but it is a true and (so far) frequent occurrence, when I compare my recordings to those offered as examples. Given the local variation in bird songs, it would be helpful to allow people to upload their recordings. Those recordings could be vetted for quality and usefulness (e.g. exact duplicates need not be used), then be offered on the app, maybe in an “amateur” section. My recordings are all done by cell phone, sometimes have stray sounds, and often more than one bird. But they still might be useful to someone, and it certainly would be interesting to have an expert evaluate the sounds and verify the ID(s). I am not a bird expert, but would venture a guess that a collection of recordings from one’s own state (or the state one is visiting) would be the most accurate, and the most helpful. Fortunately the app is typically able to identify a bird, but its speed and accuracy would likely be improved if more local audio recordings were in its database. And more importantly, local recordings would reassure the user that indeed the correct bird has been identified. Overall a fun and useful app, highly recommended. Thank you Cornell for offering it to the public, free of charge!

Excellent!

After using this app for many years, the last few updates have made it difficult to enjoy. Now if I go into explore birds, and try change to another location or a different date, the entire app locks up and I have to force close it. I haven’t been able to successfully change it for months. This has occurred since the last two updates. Would love for it to work again because it’s a wonderful app!

Just love how easy it is to find out what birds I see, and has got me to looking more carefully so I am Able to IF more. Enjoyed participating in the worldwide bird count it recommended I’m advance to join.

In real time you sit outside and listen for birds like usual. Then as your listening with the app, you and the app are identifying the song at the same time, quickly, efficiently and effectively. It seams to be spot on. Watch out for the mimic birds like Northern Mockingbird and Brown Thrasher fooling the app and you with their mastery of mimicry. We love using it everyday and our record is 34 species in 18 minutes in late May 2022, Haw River NC

I got Merlin Bird ID about 2 weeks ago, it’s a pretty cool app that you can use in your backyard to find out what birds there are and when you find a bird you can download that birds region and hear that bird’s call. But every once and a while the sound ID is wrong, and I know you might be thinking, “Well maybe there’s a bird that you didn’t know was there.” But I’m sure that there’s not a bird from the ocean shore in my backyard. It’s a nice app but it has its flaws ( as all apps do) I would recommend getting this if your checking out what birds you can find but maybe double check because the results aren’t 100% accurate.

Life changing! A phenomenal creation. So enjoyable . And good for publicizing the wonder of birds. Thank you!!

I’ve been using this app for years and it’s helped me know who I hear and see out there! Vacations are a great time to expand my ‘lifers’!

We’ve enjoyed using Merlin for several years in MN, WI, UT, Hawaii, Maine. All the ID modes have worked great—5 questions, sound, and photo.

Love and appreciate this bird app. Professionally done and user friendly. Variety of bird songs and photos are astonishing. Works as you visit new locations. Wouldn’t be without it !

This a perfect accompaniment to all of your bird watching events. I downloaded the pack of birds for the western united states, since I live there. You can ID birds with sound recordings, which lists the birds it hears and then highlights them every time it’s heard so you can pinpoint what your hearing. There re multiple clear pictures of every bird, which makes identifying super simple. You can also search the database by providing a few basic details to narrow down what you might be looking at. You can also take a picture from your phone and load it to identify using your own picture. I love, love, love that I can set up an account and keep track of my life list right there in the app. This has been so much fun to use, from my back yard to vacations, and I can’t wait to see or hear something new so I can open and use this wonderful app!