2026-06-28
An education
I knew most common birds on sight but I wasn’t familiar with their sounds. This app has taught me the sounds of each species so now I know them by sight and/or sound. It’s very addictive and I use the app a lot.
Updating
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#17 in Top Free Apps
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#1 in Top Free Apps > Reference
iPhone Screenshots
Description
What's that bird? Ask Merlin—the world’s leading app for birds. Just like magic, Merlin Bird ID will help you solve the mystery.
Merlin Bird ID helps you identify birds you see and hear. Merlin is unlike any other bird app—it's powered by eBird, the world’s largest database of bird sightings, sounds, and photos.
Merlin offers four fun ways to identify birds. Answer a few simple questions, upload a photo, record a singing bird, or explore birds in a region.
Whether you’re curious about a bird you’ve seen once or you’re hoping to identify every bird you can find, the answers are waiting for you with this free app from the renowned Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
WHY YOU’LL LOVE MERLIN
• Expert ID tips, range maps, photos, and sounds help you learn about the birds you spot and build birding skills.
• Discover a new bird species each day with your own personalized Bird of the Day
• Get customized lists of birds you can find where you live or travel - anywhere in the world!
• Keep track of your sightings—build your personal list of the birds you find
MACHINE LEARNING MAGIC
• Powered by Visipedia, Merlin Sound ID and Photo ID uses machine learning to identify birds in photos and sounds. Merlin learns to recognize bird species based on training sets of millions of photos and sounds collected by birders at eBird.org, archived in the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
• Merlin delivers the most accurate results thanks to experienced birders, who curate and annotate sightings, photos, and sounds, who are the true magic behind Merlin.
AMAZING CONTENT
• Merlin has bird photos, songs, and calls, and identification help for anywhere in the world, including Mexico, Costa Rica, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India, Australia, Korea, Japan, China, and more.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s mission is to interpret and conserve the Earth’s biological diversity through research, education, and citizen science focused on birds and nature. We are able to offer Merlin for free thanks to the generosity of Cornell Lab members, supporters, and citizen-science contributors.
What's New in Version 3.9
What’s new in 3.9:
Observation Deck: Your Merlin home screen now features a swipeable daily feed showcasing Bird of the Day, stunning featured photos, and bite-sized bird tips! Each contains a full-screen view for photos and videos, plus a "Learn more" button to dive deeper into species accounts or related content.
Habitat Photos: Discover where birds live with our new carousel of habitat photos curated for a subset of species, making it easier than ever to find the birds near you or further afield!
New language support for Kyrgyz and Welsh.
Improvements and new species added to Photo ID.
Bug fixes and improvements.
Seller
Name
Cornell University
Information
Developer
Version
3.9
Size
371.6 MB
Game Center
No
VPP Device Licensing
Yes
Rating
Rated: 4+
Compatibility
iOS 18.0 or later
Devices
iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone SE (2nd generation), iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone SE (3rd generation), iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 16e, iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone Air, iPhone 17e, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro, iPad Pro (Cellular), iPad Pro (9.7-inch), iPad Pro (9.7-inch) (Cellular), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (10.5-inch), iPad Pro (10.5-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (11-inch), iPad Pro (11-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air, iPad Air (Cellular), iPad Air 2, iPad Air 2 (Cellular), iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad Air (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini Retina, iPad mini Retina (Cellular), iPad mini 3, iPad mini 3 (Cellular), iPad mini 4, iPad mini 4 (Cellular), iPad mini (5th Generation), iPad mini (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (7th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi), iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi + Cellular), iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (9th Generation), iPad (9th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (6th Generation), iPad mini (6th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (5th generation), iPad Air (5th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (10th generation), iPad (10th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 11-inch (M2) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (A17 Pro) Wi-Fi, iPad mini (A17 Pro) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (A16) Wi-Fi, iPad (A16) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 13-inch (M3) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (M5) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 11-inch (M5) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPod touch (6th Generation), iPod touch (7th generation)
Languages
English, Afrikaans, Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Korean, Malayalam, Marathi, Mongolian, Norwegian Bokmål, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Welsh, Zulu
App Store: Customer Ratings
Ratings & Reviews
4.8 of 5 (9,562 Ratings)
App Store: Customer Reviews
2026-06-27
Hmmmm, not like Clarkson’s
Downloaded this on the strength of how good it looked on Clarkson’s farm - sad to say doesn’t seem to work on my phone. Crashes as soon as I try and change settings. Doesn’t seem to recognise bird song, should it be telling me what bird I’m hearing in the app ? Doesn’t seem to do this on mine.
2026-06-27
Real life Pokémon
Love, love, love this app. It’s like real life Pokémon hunting, I use it while I’m walking the dog. I especially like finding a rare bird.
2026-06-26
Fantastic
I trialled this app when it was at the beta stage and it was not good, but the developers must have listened to feedback because now this is incredibly easy to use, quick, accurate and fun as well. Can’t recommend it highly enough.
2026-06-26
Amazing!
Had a lovely lady recommend this app to me yesterday while i was walking my dog, i saw a bird i couldn’t identify and i ended up talking to a random lady about what bird it was, within 1 minute of downloading the app i had identified what bird it was! Literally a great app i cant wait to show my kids. Im easily amused but its bloody great 😭😂 cannot recommend it enough
2026-06-26
Wonderful App would give it 10 stars if I could!
I downloaded this app on my son’s recommendation. It was so lovely to use during a recent visit to Bulgaria. I added many birds to my Life List and learned their calls too! Every different place we visited we heard different birds. Now we are home and are thoroughly enjoying being able to identify the visitors to our own garden. I have been recommending it to anyone who will listen to me!!!
2026-06-25
Great App
Addicted to this app, picked it up from Clarksons Farm and now use it all the time when at home and out and about. The whole family have also downloaded. One thing slightly annoying. I thought that when birds were identified it was automatically saved to that day. But no, I shouldn’t have assumed. When the recording stops you have to press save.
2026-06-25
Brilliant
Great app, very accurate and so interesting.
2026-06-23
Brilliant
Such a simple, well thought out app. Love the way the name of the bird is highlighted when singing is heard. Thank you. Has brought me a lot of pleasure.
2026-06-22
So adorable
After watching Jeremy Clarkson use this on his show. I had to have a shot. Absolutely love it. Fascinating how it works. Can’t wait to start explore my new knowledge of birds.
2026-06-22
.
Great
2026-06-22
Wants Data
Out of nowhere the app suddenly seems to require an email address to function. I can’t even get to my older recordings.
2026-06-21
So fun
After seeing it on clarksons farm I assumed it would be some bs you’d have to pay for. Not the case. This has become my new ‘tism! I love sitting in the garden and using it! Best app for free
2026-06-21
Fantastic
What a fantastic app thank you so much
2026-06-21
Gutted, keeps crashing
Doesn’t record, keeps crashing on my iPhone. As soon as I click record/listen it errors
2026-06-21
Amazing life changing
This app recommended was to me by my son when I was curious about telling the difference between this bird and that while out walking. It has changed my life. Now the dog is coming birding instead of birds being spotted on a dog walk. Why 4 stars then? For free it’s incredible, but I wonder why you can’t log multiple birds at the same time. Also sometimes I need to quickly make a new recording for ID but I’m too many clicks away to get there quick enough. So are there plans for a quick link to record again?
2026-06-21
Terrific
Reminds me of apps in the early days of App Store. No subscription, no horrendous popup ads for terrible games, just an app created by people for people with shared interests. Probably should be a paid app at 2.99 or so.
2026-06-21
OMG AWESOME
<3😍😍!! don't have to pay, it's very good at identifying!You can check by many ways! But, to the creators: can u add a way to see how rare the bird is?also.. Can u name the places on da map cos I ain't good with em : )
2026-06-20
Great App
Downloaded this app after seeing it used on a certain Amazon TV show about a farm… and we are absolutely loving it. Taking time to sit in our garden is so much more enjoyable now that we know what birds we are hearing.
I would love to see an update that brings an achievement style system that remembers and ticks off birds that we have heard. Would love to start a friendly competition with my household to have the most achievements and hear the most birds!
2026-06-19
Superb App
Wouldn’t use any other. Really enjoy using this walking my dogs.
2026-06-18
Superb!
Fantastic, easy to use app, you should be proud! Thank you for creating this!
2026-06-17
Bloody brilliant
Now I’m not really one for leaving a review. Saw jeramy clarkson speaking about this app and didn’t really believe it was accurate… until I downloaded it. I couldn’t believe the accuracy of it. Highly recommend!!
2026-06-17
Beat
For some reason, every time I open the app it asks me to sign in and that an email will be sent. To date, no email has ever been received either in inbox or junk folder.
Eventually, I created a different account and now it works
2026-06-17
Brilliant app!
I absolutely love this app, cannot stop using it, away on hols, amazing what birds you hear, never think the sounds matches the birds they are! Brilliant!
2026-06-17
Needs internet
Works great if you have an internet connection, but if you don’t, and let’s face it when you’re out in the great outdoors you generally don’t., it doesn’t work. Also, if your phone can’t find its location for whatever reason it also doesn’t work.
2026-06-15
Peacock
Identified a sparrow in my garden as a Peacock- I don’t think so !
2026-06-13
Informative fun app
This app is fabulous for identifying birds I hear on walks but can’t see. I have learnt so much about the birds in my local area and on trips to other places in the UK. The photo id is a great addition too. Would have been 5 stars but often doesn’t recognise or save a location and defaults to home town. I have to add the location manually for each bird, which is a fiddle.
2026-06-12
New update
This app was fab until a couple of weeks ago & now it doesn’t work properly at all so I haven’t been using it lately. The bird of the day shows no name just a picture & it’s useless to new bird watchers
2026-06-12
Joy with bird song
Appreciate this app, really helps me to recognise a number of regular and summer migratory birds. Finding out more information about each bird is a joy and fascinating.
2026-06-10
Request
I love the app! Please could you create a widget for easier access?
2026-06-09
App for All
Merlin is an excellent app for beginners and seasoned bird observers
2026-06-07
Brilliant
This app is brilliant ! It is very sensitive to picking up bird sounds. It will help me recognise birds by my own ear 😅
2026-06-05
Love this app
This app is a joy I didn’t know I needed and wish I had found before. Best walk is 22 birds! It’s solved mysteries of sounds. Absolutely love it. Thank you
2026-06-05
Great resource!
Brilliant app, full of information, photos and bird calls. My favourite part is the bird identifier - I set it going when I walk the dog in different places and look forward to seeing which birds it has recorded by the time we get home…
2026-06-03
Excellent
I thought I’d try this as we were headed off on holiday within the UK. I tried it at home and was impressed, used it on hols and was astounded how many bird calls it identified in a short time frame. It’s motivated me to learn more about them and appreciate it more. Thank you Merlin!
2026-06-03
Holy moly
This is BY FAR the best app I’ve every stumbled upon on the App Store, its appositely brilliant, I can’t give an even more glowing review, well worth the donation
2026-05-31
The greatest thing the Internet has ever given us
Makes you feel like St Francis of Assisi. Just. Amazing.
2026-05-29
Brilliant
Love to listen to the birdsong of an evening. This app helps me identify what I am listening to and find out more about the birds themselves. Fab.
2026-05-29
A Great App, but…
This is undoubtedly a great app and has revolutionised my bird watching. HOWEVER, it often takes an eternity (30 seconds?) to download the geographical position from phone (my phone always knows where it is!), by which time you have missed the bird that you asked it to recognise the song of. Also, I have a suggestion for an upgrade: it should be possible with most smartphones to get a phase difference between microphones at either end of the phone to get an approximate direction (eg: to the nearest compass octant - like a radar warning receiver).
2026-05-29
My favourite app - ever!
Merlin has been a game changer for me. It has introduced me to a brilliant new hobby, made every walk an adventure and helped me to learn so much about the birds around me. The kids love it too, and get very excited when we add another species to our life list! Honestly can’t believe an app this good is free.
2026-05-27
Amazing App
This a gloriously fun, easy to use app
2026-05-27
Christchurch Kev
Top app, I will use this a lot when out walking. I was at Christchurch Quay early morning and so many birds identified. It is very accurate. One song I always wondered what bird it was but could never see it (Cetti’s Warbler which was identified in seconds).
2026-05-27
Brilliant app
Everything it does it does amazingly well. Love the way it can identify birds so well and highlights the bird identity when it sings again in a myriad of other bird songs but appears able to completely ignore traffic or wind noise etc. or human speech.
2026-05-25
Fabulous
This app is as the title says Fabulous. Well done to the creators you are stars
2026-05-24
Wonderful App
Please make geolocation a non-blocking (background) process and also remove requirement to enter a unique name for the location.
2026-05-24
Brilliant app
I’ve been using this app for ages now everywhere I go. I think there should be a feature where you can see all the places a bird has been spotted
2026-05-24
A brilliant app.
I love using this app, it’s teaching me to identify all the wild bird species in my local areas.
It’s so simple to use. It also allows me to put specific feed out in my garden, tailored to the species that I know visit my garden.
I highly recommend it.
2026-05-24
Unbelieveably good
Amazing app, love it. It has upped my game on bird I.D. In the garden in an instant. There is one bird with a distinctive song that I couldn’t pin down for two years. Merlin heard it and instantly told me what it was… though I have yet to see it, a Golden Oriole.
2026-05-24
Two languages at the same time
Great app, thanks. A helpful improvement would be the option of having two common name languages and Latin for when birding abroad. 👍
2026-05-24
Magic
The way this app can listen in real time to the background and quickly identify and distinguish multiple birds singing at once is close to magical. It’s been a wonderful tool for learning about birds around our area.
2026-05-10
Absolutely Amazing!
Had this app recommended by a friend and I have to say, it is utterly amazing! I have wanted to be able to identify birds by their song for years and this will help me learn no end! I love the way you can ‘see’ the sounds scrolling across to help pick out which is which and just how well it works! Even though I can only just hear one, it still picks it up. Its save features and explore features are also awesome! I would give it 10 stars if I could! Absolutely fantastic!
2026-05-09
Such a wonderful app
Every morning I look forward to opening it and finding out my bird of the day. It’s helped me recognise a least a few of the local birds by their calls (not being from this area originally) and whenever I add a bird to my “lifetime list” it’s a triumph. I am surprised by how many different birds live in what is an urban—almost industrial—area. Without this app, I’d never have realised it, as many of them remain hidden and only make themselves known by their voice. It’s a very easy app to use.
One thing I wish I could do is play my recordings on my Apple Home and Mini Pods, so that my cat could enjoy them and perhaps be tricked, but that option doesn’t appear for me from within the app.
2026-05-04
Absolutely fantastic! Any bird will be identified!
It’s incredible. It will pick up your bird sound in 1 second and accurately tells you what it is. If you continue recording multiple birds, it will light up which bird is currently making the noise! You can add birds to your life list and keep track of birds you see and hear at home or wherever you like. This app is really brilliant for bird watchers and bird lovers or anyone who wants to find out what that bird they keep seeing or hearing is! Give it a try! You might be surprised at the birds you’re hearing out of your window!
2026-04-25
Makes bird identification so much easier
I can often hear birds but not see them. This app means I can then correctly identify birds even if they are on the other side of a high hedge. Since I started to use it I have got better at recognising bird songs and calls, which pleases me no end. Being out in the wilds with my dog has always been interesting but this has made walks even better. Who knew that there are water rails on a body of water I can’t see. It’s on private land behind a dense thicket. This morning I was able to identify a Whitethroat, which was flitting through a hedge. This App brings me such joy!!
2026-04-08
Easy to use and interactive - just one thing missing!
I love this app. I used to use Birda, which was also great, but the sound identification feature is literally unbeatable. It makes birdspotting even more fun! The only nitpick I have is that it doesn’t have a map feature. I would love if there was a map that you could view all of your lifers on (seeing as we have the life list, it would be really helpful to visualise where you’ve seen everything) otherwise, no notes!
2025-11-01
It’s good on some updates
When I first got the app it was great. Then with later updates the bugs began. I found workarounds, but recently it’s reporting no bird found a lot, or just endlessly listens, even though it hears a bird, and I’m pretty sure I recognise what the bird is.
Also now, it’s got a larger library of birds now outside my area, and sometimes suggests one of those. Before they added all of the birds outside my area, I could easily search for a bird. Now when I search, I have to scroll through tons of birds that aren’t in my area. For instance I would type Robin and just get European Robin, now I get lots of worldwide robins I don’t want to see. I prefer to only see birds that are in bird packs I’ve downloaded - or in my area - rather than every bird in the world. I suppose I could disable mobile data for this app but that’s a silly solution.
2025-07-27
My HONEST Review
ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!! Easy to work with and fun to use, I love how I can even tuck off the birds I’ve seen. I only have 2 small issues. Number one, it can be quite difficult some times to save a bird if I don’t have a special bird pack downloaded, which can sometimes get annoying but really isn’t that much of a bother. The other thing is the mishearing of some birds. I could be in the middle of a woodland miles away from any water and it would say that it heard a kingfisher. I do also understand that some species do sound very similar. Overall INCREDIBLE app.
2025-07-16
Cornell, Still The Best Bird ID App.
To me, this is the #1 app for Bird ID’s. Best of all, it is free, considering what the Devs have put into this.
Initially, I did criticise the Devs for not creating a World map.
Then I thought how big the app would be. However, if you have a favourite bird in mind and you know its region. Just download that region.
For me personally, I live quite close to a Falconry Centre and it’s great to visit there and see all the birds of prey. I am the only Gold Sponsor of their Tawny Eagle and she is beautiful and with this wonderful app, I can listen to her call and upload my sound.
This app is truly amazing and I wholeheartedly recommend it.
2025-06-22
A Must-Have for Learning Birdsong and Calls
For those wishing to learn bird calls and song, but without someone to guide them, this app is like having a knowledgeable friend in your pocket, pointing out who’s who and helping you commit them to memory.
The interface is intuitive and user-friendly, and the app provides good-quality images, range maps, and brief descriptions that help solidify what you’ve heard. You can even tap on the species it’s picked up to replay their call, helping reinforce learning through repetition.
A superb and highly-recommended resource.
2025-06-02
Education
I have found this app very Interesting and educational, though I don’t actually see many of the birds identified by sound I am learning a lot about them and am amazed how many differing birds there are in my rather wild tree and bush covered garden.
Some come to eat cat food from the patio and the crow is clearly Intelligent in moving containers to a more secure area. The black birds are the only birds who make a tic tic tic noise as the cross the patio to the containers rather than being silent. I have many house sparrows which feed from bird feeders. Also 2 squirrels.
I am in my early 80’s and get enormous pleasure from observing and listening to the birds. Thank you for giving me this opportunity.
Leighton Evans, south wales.
2025-05-21
Best app on my phone
Brilliant app!
Super easy and accessible way of engaging with the nature that’s all around us. My friends refer to it as my ‘real-life Pokedex’ where you can capture and log all the birds you hear or see around you. It’s pushed me to explore new places and walk more in an effort to engage with types of birds I haven’t seen yet.
Only thing to bare in mind is sometimes if you have poor signal, you might struggle to identify a bird at the time, so make sure to note its size, colour and whereabouts so you can use the ‘step by step’ feature 👍
2025-05-02
Merlin - Wizard of an App
I’ve used Merlin for a month now and have thoroughly enjoyed using the app in a variety of ways. Great for identifying photos, perfect for finding out the bird singing a particular song and great for browsing.
I have recommended to three friends who consider it fantastic as well.
Merlin makes a great countryside walk a more enjoyable experience. I now have had my ears opened to the differences between Sedge and Common Warblers.
Well done Merlin! Best app I have and more interesting than all the others!
2025-04-26
Wonderful
I’m absolutely loving this app. It’s a joy to be able to identify Birdsong and overall the user interface is clear and works well. Recognition seems accurate and I like the way other peoples recordings are integrated so that one can check the identification. slight annoyance that if location is off, one has to enter a location manually before starting a recording each time. Would be nice if the location defaulted to the last one used. Otherwise it’s just great.
2024-08-02
A revelation!
We have far more birds in our garden and vineyard than I knew! Now in my late 70’s I grew up in the country in Somerset UK and my mother taught me to recognise flowers, grasses, butterflies and birds by sight. But she wasn’t so good on birdsong, and consequently neither was I.
Now I’m learning a whole new skill from the wonderful, easy-to-use Merlin app and instead of a blanket musical background I can recognise and picture the birds around me in the hedges and trees even when I can’t see them.
I have passed the news about this app to my own children, who I was unable to teach to recognise birds by sound other than the few very distinctive ones, and now they are learning too.
2024-07-29
Pretty good
Easy to use, clear layout. Only occasionally offers a weird suggestion! Usually pretty accurate. Only two problems: one is that you can't record a bird you know you've seen - Merlin says grey wagtails are "rare", so none of the ID methods will accept that I've just seen one (I've been birding over 40 years and know the three British wagtails pretty well.) Second, I wish they would fix the bug that makes it ask for my email again every couple of weeks. That's really annoying because it pops up just when I'm trying to identify a bird which of course has gone by the time I get past it. Fix these issues and I'll give it five stars.
2024-07-18
Merlin has enriched our lives
We’re experienced birders in our retirement years and can identify a lot of birds by ear. We use Merlin to confirm a bird we think we’ve heard, to give us a tip to watch out for a bird we may not have heard ourselves but can verify with Merlin’s help, or to learn and differentiate the more difficult chip calls. It’s important for beginners to understand that Merlin is not always right, it’s only making suggestions, and you should always try to verify the species yourself by sight or ear.
I’ve talked to numerous people who are new to birding and excited by what Merlin can offer. I’ve talked to people who are not strictly birders but use Merlin to connect with the birds around them. I think it’s the best app ever, and I hope fervently that it will stay accessible to all by keeping it free of charge.
2024-06-12
Brilliant
My wonderful digital hearing aids allow me to hear birdsong/bird calls and I have longed to be able to identify birds by sound during the months when they are hidden from view in leaf clad trees. This app is a brilliant help. Whilst recording sounds it also highlights which bird it is picking up and - I have discovered in settings - will move that bird to the top of the list. This is immensely helpful during a dawn chorus of around 8 birds. Having pre recorded samples to listen to is also a great feature. I understand some people’s gripe that American names are used but this is a small price to pay for this wonderful facility. Google will always help out with that.
2024-06-08
incredible learning resource and natural antidepressant
Just wanted to say the hugest THANK YOU for the most beautiful Merlin Bird ID app. It has brought such joy and I know may seem an exaggeration but really changes the outlook of day when do a bird identification and the lift it brings feels like such a natural antidepressant; it’s effect is a domino for all around me too. Thank you for it such an incredible learning resource, accurate, easy to use and love that saves your recordings and gives you photos and the Latin names of birds and allows you to listen to various calls of birds it identifies.
2024-06-03
Best app ever!
I absolutely love how functional this app is. It’s easy to use, accurate, and teaches you so much about our feathered friends. This is my absolute favourite app. You can identify birds by describing them, or by their calls. You also have a “bird of the day” feature which improves your knowledge daily. You can log the birds you see / hear and plot them at locations. Also, the app gives you examples of the bird calls.
To summarise: an easy-to-use, functional, accurate and knowledgeable app. Well done, developers! 😊
2024-05-18
Excellent for bird song and calls- recommended.
I only use the sound recording and identification features of the app which are excellent. It’s particularly useful when there’s a mixture of song from several birds. It discriminates between them, something I find hard. It’s also an excellent resource for learning bird songs: listen and run the app, make a decision and then check- are you correct or not? If you are it reinforces your judgment if not you can learn where you went wrong.
2024-05-12
Fantastic for sound ID
I have learnt so much from using this app. It works well with voice-over allowing visually impaired people who rely on sound rather than looks to identify a bird. The sound ID picks up many surrounding birds even if you're not extremely close allowing you to stand in a park and get a soundscape of what's around. With so many packs of choose from you can learn about birds all around the world. Easy to operate and saving your own recordings is great. In one year I've learned how to identify over 30 birds in my area using sound alone. The latest update allows for you to listen and see how the app picks up the birds jumping to each one as it picks it up making it even easier to learn the calls & songs. Brilliant!
2024-05-11
Wonderful!
This is a revelation to the amateur or uninitiated. Perhaps professionals or avid ornithologists may have a different view (or maybe they love it too?) but I am totally hooked! It’s quite astonishing (depending on your personal setting and circumstance) how many different species of birds are out there seemingly unnoticed.
Perhaps I’m getting old but I find this a fascinating app and I avidly await “collecting” new birds. It’s like Pokémon of Moshi Monsters (I’m 57 btw)!
Coming from a prestigious Ivy League college such as Cornell you expect proper science to be getting done and that certainly seems to be the case. I’d love to see the signal analysis algorithms being used - amazing stuff!
2024-05-11
Amazing app
I am so impressed with the ability of this app to identify the different bird songs. As something of a part-time, amateur birder, (but with a huge passion for our feathered friends), Merlin has become like my new best friend. I’ve always considered myself pretty good at visually recognising birds but their songs have always been a different matter. This app has made such a difference for me when out and about, in terms of locating a larger number of birds present, (and over a good area too), that I can then look out for. I’d highly recommend it to birders/twitchers of any level..
2024-04-22
So useful
Although in my 70s I am fortunate to still halve able to hear high pitched sounds. After a lifetime of not being able to recognise many birds by their song or call I wanted to learn more. Taking advice from a book I started in January when birds are either absent or quieter I listened carefully and usually identified bird song by hearing and seeing and with the help of a much simpler app. I’ve been learning for about 4 years now and am much improved and love listening as I walk and mostly knowing what I can hear. A whole new dimension to the world. I only started using Merlin this year and on a way I’m glad I learnt the hard way as I didn’t rely on an app and improved my listening skills. But find it so useful now to check what I know, to learn other calls birds I thought I knew make, and to learn a few new ones. I never knew how many nuthatches and wrens there are here in the UK!
2024-04-20
Fantastic and genuinely useful app
So far this has been very helpful in accurately identifying birds by their song. The app is very easy to use and the visuals while the microphone is active are intuitive and helpful.
One minor area for improvement is that it would be useful to add birds directly to ‘my list’ from the explore tab. If I‘ve spotted a bird that I know but haven’t recorded it, I should be able to just search for it and add it to the list, but instead I have to do a step-by-step ID. I feel this should be easy to implement so hopefully can see it added in the future.
Great app overall though and highly recommend for anyone with even a fleeting interest in birds.
2024-04-18
A great app
I’ve found this to be accurate. I only downloaded the data set for my locale so there’s no mix up with birds from other parts of the world. I generally use it to help confirm what I think that I’ve identified, but it’s also good for helping to pick out birds that I’d missed.
I also like being able to play back a specific species from within my recordings and to compare that to the recordings within the app. It’s interesting how the calls from the same species differ in different recordings/locations.
I agree with a previous review that it would be good if the screen rotated when in use, but that’s a minor issue
2024-03-31
Fantastic!
Having tried other birdsong apps in the past, and been consistently disappointed, I was sceptical that this one would be any better. Couldn't have been more wrong. It does a brilliant job.
There are a couple of minor frustrations: the microphone doesn't pick up everything I can hear, and I haven't found a way to localise the bird names (so e.g. the grey plover appears as "black-bellied plover", and lots of familiar birds are prefaced with "European" or "Eurasian", where a British bird book would just list them as robins, starlings, curlews etc.). And I've lost a couple of recordings by switching out of the app too quickly, before it had finished processing. But it's amazing at picking out and identifying voices from the chorus, and I'm loving being able to put a name to everything that's around me, instead of being restricted to what I can catch a glimpse of.
2024-03-11
Best bird app I’ve used
I really love this bird app. I use it everywhere; home, work (I work in woodlands) and on holidays. I’m just love how well and accurately it helps me access and learn about the birds around me. It struggled a bit at work where it either didn’t come up with many species although many species could be heard and it also offered lots of American species which I’ve not seen the app do anywhere else so not sure why… Overall I recommend it to everyone. Ad free, accurate, loads of fun and super easy to use! I’m like the idea of data being used by researchers to monitor state of our birds’ world too.
2024-02-18
Brilliant app for identifying birds 👌
I never write reviews but I just had to for this app. I decided to start to try and identify bird calls in my local area and this free app is just brilliant. It’s amazingly accurate in recognising bird calls even from a distance away. I love how it lists all the birds it’s identified in one recording, allowing you to skip to the part in the recording where it identified the bird and compare with pre recorded calls of the bird so you can even work out which specific call or song that bird was singing! It’s really surpassed my expectations as a free app and I’ll be using it all the time. I’ve not explored the other features yet but I’m sure I’ll be equally as impressed.
Thank you for developing such a comprehensive and usable app.
2023-12-22
D
In the UK I can recognise most of the regular birds by song/call. This app is remarkable at picking up 90-95% of vocalisations but does occasionally produce some weird results e. g Fish Crow and others. This may be partially due to inability to define location. Many years of learning bird vocalisations have been made accessible to novices or anyone suffering from hearing loss to alert them to nearby birds. When travelling to areas where one is unfamiliar with the local avifauna it is a valuable resource steering you to help find and identify birds. As AI continues to improve the ap, in the meantime a sense check on some of the results is advised but overall a go-to app for less experienced birders, those who are more sight-biased, or into new environments/ geographic locations. Highly recommended.
2023-11-29
Changed my life!
This app changed my life, and I’m not exaggerating. I’m 25 and never learned anything about birds growing up. A friend of my mum’s posted about Merlin on Facebook and I downloaded it on a whim and became OBSESSED. I use this app every time I’m outside. It has improved my health by encouraging me to get out and walk around looking at birds. It has encouraged me to get up at the crack of dawn to hear the dawn chorus. It has me leaping out of bed at 4am because I thought I heard an owl (I did!! I saw it after running around the neighbourhood with my phone held up recording on Merlin!!). It has vastly improved my mental health.
It has opened my eyes to just how many birds are around me at all times. Every time I see even the most common bird I am filled with joy. I even planned my holidays this past year around birding - over 160 species on my life list now!
It has also encouraged me to become a member of my local wildlife trust, visit bird sanctuary’s and donate to the RSPB. Through Merlin/ Cornell my world suddenly became FULL OF BIRDS and I can never go back!
I proselytise Merlin and birding to everyone now.
The app is incredibly functional: my favourite feature is the sound ID. It is so helpful identifying birds that I can’t get a clear visual ID on, or who are singing from dense foliage. It has helped me learn the specific songs of different species.
The photo ID is almost always accurate. It needs a fairly good photo to be 100%.
I like browsing the Explore tab at random and learning more about different birds, or wondering which I should try to see next. I like the different sort/ filter options, and often play around with them.
The main downside of the app is that it struggles to filter out background noise like wind and footsteps. I think it’s a hardware limitation on the phone end, though.
If anyone reading this has been convinced - I recommend getting the eBird app too! It becomes addictive to track your walks and note all the birds you see. The data is very useful and fun to collect.
2023-09-10
Great for the slightly hard of hearing!
I have been using this app for a few months now and it has expanded my knowledge of birdsong. I’m not that great at hearing now, so this has been a wonderful aid.
Some people say it’s not accurate, but I accept that it may not always be perfect, however it’s a good indicator and platform to further research, into birds present in your local area, and I guess if Merlin picks up something more than once or twice, it has to be fairly accurate.
I’ve noticed that it doesn’t pick up some bird song, ie. The Red Kites which are common around many part of the UK now. My location is always set.
Well done Merlin though, for developing such a life enhancing tool!
2023-09-06
Brilliant!
I use Merlin pretty much everyday to validate what birds in hearing around me and log the birds I’ve seen. I love how quickly you can start a recording to pick something up - really useful for the fleeting owl calls at night. Love being able to leave a sound recording on and seeing the beautiful array of birds that it picks up and also love that you can jump to a specific bird on the recording - really useful for learning! The only feature I would add is the ability to search for a bird and then immediately add it to my life list without having to do a step by step, photo or sound ID. Finally I can confidently tell the difference between the calls of different corvids!
2023-07-08
Extraordinarily Good
I’m a keen birdwatcher and downloaded this app on the recommendation of friends. I’m delighted I did ! I particularly wanted something to help with recognising songs and calls. I have been learning these for some time and wanted to improve. Merlin is extraordinarily good at this. Just set it running and watch the birds appear in the display. On rare occasions I hear somit misses but that’s probably down to the Mike on my phone. I’ve never felt it has misidentified anything. It is particularly good at coping with background noise. The thingy I find really helpful is that it displays a list of all the birds it can hear and at the instant they’re singing or calling it highlights them so you can tune your ear to a bird you’re trying to learn. I bet birders who are really skilled at birdsong hate this app - it completely de-skills this ability ! Absolutely outstanding.
2023-07-03
Probably good if you’re in North America
This app is produced by Cornell Labs. I presume that’s connected with Cornell University, in the USA. In some ways it’s mighty impressive, but its great weakness is its tendency to identify European birds as American birds. A secondary weakness is making no allowance for what we call our own birds. “Grey” is invariably spelt “gray” (a nuisance when looking for a bird), goosander are called common merganser, our regular swallows (which gave all the other swallow species their name) are called “barn swallow,” and so on, ad nauseam. It wouldn’t be beyond the wit of mortal man to acknowledge English spellings and bird names, even as an equivalent to subtitles. A third weakness is its rather sketchy descriptions of the species. Whether its creators assume you can look at the pictures and work things out from there, or listen to the recordings, I know not, but the details are rather poor. This could be a great app. As it is, it’s merely useful, mostly for its pictures.
[later edit]
The app is growing on me as I get used to it. I’ve found it very useful on sound ID, where I’ve yet to spot it making a” false note.”
2023-07-01
At last, an app that is clever, useful and works
Thanks for this. It works and I can see there’s some room for improvement, but not much. It’s actually fun to see what birds you can “collect”. Great for keeping kids quiet, not because they walk around it but they actually have to keep quiet whilst birds are being identified. Thank you for not bombarding me with adverts, or annoying me when I use it, it’s a breath of fresh air. This is like apps back from 2008 that you still have on your phone to this day - not many mind you, but it’s one of those apps. I think I’ll fire over a donation once I get paid this month. Thanks!
2023-06-21
Utterly obsessed with this wonderful app
I’m so happy I discovered this wonderful app, I use it first thing in the morning to see which birds are visiting the garden. On my daily walk in the woods and even when visiting the cemetery to see who is keeping my dear departed loved ones company!
Next a visit to our local reservoir and nature reserve.
It’s solved so many questions I had, including which shouty owls keep up up at night…barn owls if you’re wondering.
I can now identify several new birds by their call and by sight.
Thank you… it’s so much fun and educational
2023-06-21
This has opened up a whole new world!
I love this app! For so long I’ve heard birdsong on my daily walks but, beyond the obvious ones, have had no idea which birds were around me. Now I know, and have realised just what a wealth of wildlife there is in my local area and, for that matter, just in our garden.
I’ve mainly used the ‘Sound ID’ function, and have been hugely impressed with its quality; it can pick up even relatively quiet bird calls and can deal with a reasonable level of other background noise (eg traffic). The bird packs contain a huge amount of information too and I’m sure that, over time, I’ll use them - so far, though, I’ve only really dipped into them.
Overall, a great app that has helped me to appreciate more fully the diversity of bird life around me. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about what’s around them.
2023-06-19
Astoundingly brilliant Sound ID
Sound ID is amazing - even if there are multiple birds singing it will after a minute have identified them all. Popping up a picture as it does, then highlights the bird again if it sings once more.
Wonderful for improving your bird sound ID skills even if you can’t at the time see the bird.
The speed and accuracy with which it identifies birds that you know and recognise gives great confidence in the app's ability when identifying something new.
Carry on and next listen to the audio examples of the birds it’s identified and you can confirm your sighting with a location and date thereby building up your records of birds in your area.
I used to use a dedicated “bird mic” in the past (since 5yrs back) which was brilliant at the time but this app outstrips it.
Using it with our junior school Forest School pupils and it has them engaged.
2023-06-12
Brilliant
This is clever (sound IDs based on c. 500 sonograms per species, amazing) and it is very easy to download and use! I am using Merlin to learn bird songs and calls and am almost addicted to it. I think and hope that I am making progress to a fairly advanced level when I haven’t managed this before. Merlin has also improved my listening skills greatly. The app uses a lot of battery power but no wonder given the size of its data base. On a long walk, I would carry a power pack with me. I guess that the red half-circle (for sound recognition) indicates ID uncertainty; my phone doesn’t go back a page to the main menu, wish it did so that I could find out what the details mean. I love the way that the dominant call highlights in yellow, very helpful. Well done Cornell, this app is exactly what I needed to learn and hopefully remember (that not is up to me). Brilliant app.
2023-06-08
Warning, this App is very addictive!
I’m captivated by the ‘Merlin’ App. Identifying bird song on my walks has been my greatest pleasure. It’s very addictive. Everywhere I go I’m aware of birds singing. I used the App in my local Wood and it identified 24 different birds. It was amazing. And today, I used it walking along the canal. I have been showing the App to my friends and family and they are using it and find it delightful. Hopefully, this App will raise awareness about birds and the effects of intensive farming and climate change. I can’t imagine a world without birds.
2023-06-04
I love this app. But it seems to be bugging?
I love this app, I’ve spent hours listening and identifying local birds. And being excited by new ones popping up, etc!
However; You have to verify with an a email address, which Is fine. But I’ve never received the email. I’ve attempted multiple times, checked all folders. Deleted the app and reinstalled, even tried an entirely different email address. This started the five days again, just to face the same issue again ☹️.
Until you verify, you can’t use the app. Which is really disappointing. Please can you look into this? I miss identifying birds. 😢
2023-05-29
Brilliant app!
I never realised how into birds I am until getting this app. What a great piece of technology, and for the free version too, I have no pop ups, no adverts etc.
I must have shared the app with 30-40 people now, all who give the same feedback… that it’s amazing!
Be sure to click your location to able to see the photos and calls of the birds too. I’ve had some friends travel to Canada, USA, Portugal etc. and they were able to use it there and see the info too which was very interesting.
2023-05-10
App in daily use
Absolutely love the app and use it everyday. I’ve learnt to identify many more birds than I previously knew and now I know to look for them, so see them too! Fantastic. I love that the names flash up real time and the accompanying sonogram is really helpful in picking out one bird from another when you’ve got 3 or 4 singing at once. My only nighle is that I’d like to be able to download the sonogram so that I can see a larger chunk of it. I can’t see how to do this. Even turning the phone sideways and having the screen flip would help a bit. Otherwise, thank-you! This has literally changed my life.
2023-04-12
Incredible app
This is an incredible app that 99% of the time identifies the correct bird by the sound it makes. I have found many more birds than I usually do using this app. However, some improvements are needed for the app and the documentation that goes with it. For example there is a “Report no matches” button but I have absolutely no idea what this means or what it does. There’s also no way to retract that report. Another example: “That’s my bird” - I’ve no idea what that’s for.
Feature request: add a way to flag up suspicious matches. I don’t think there are that many Yellow Legged Gulls in the UK yet.
2023-04-09
An absolutely wonderful app!
My husband was a bird watcher and I used to go on trips with him where he would refer to LBJ’s - little brown jobs - being the multitude of small brown birds that flit too quickly by for normal eyesight to identify. He would have loved this app. I now work in my garden, using the sound app to listen to and identify the visitors to my domain. It’s teaching me their birdsong and their apparent conversations, highlighting each call by colour in some animated version of a musical score. What an achievement is this app. It is stupendously easy to use and opens one’s eyes and ears to nature. I can’t overstate the joy it brings. Thank you to the developers- and for keeping it free so that all can enjoy and learn from it.
2023-02-28
Fantastic Field Guide
I wish this app had been around sooner. As a relatively experienced birdwatcher, I find very helpful in identifying bird photos even to the extent of taking pictures off my laptop and identifying them in Merlin. I am wading through my photos from Costa Rica taken last month and it’s invaluable. I also very much like the ability to load the photos for the region you are visiting as opposed to everywhere. Cannot recommend it highly enough. I have been using it now for a couple of months.
2022-03-30
Great!
This is a great app and I’m so glad someone took the time to make it, especially for free! It’s exciting and interesting learning about all the different type of birds that live in the places I travel to. The only improvements I’d recommend are
1. Ability to add birds from “Explore Birds” into my “Life List”. I found it easier to ID some birds by browsing
2. When I share a bird with a friend (for example on WhatsApp) consider including the full description not just the image. This will make the recipient more interested and probably get the app for themselves.
I’d these two things could be implemented to app would be a straight 5 stars
2021-03-01
Excellent app for birdwatchers!!!
Hi guys I am a young birdwatcher and my biology teacher is teaching me how to be a great birdwatcher. So she told me to install this app and I got to learn how to use in 2 minutes!!! I wouldn’t be able to be a birdwatcher without this app!!! It is a marvellous app and I hope you enjoy it as well. I just wanted to say that could you make an update in which we can save the birds we saw before??? Also could you please update that if I don’t use this app for 5 days it will still be on??? Because one time I didn’t use the app for 5 days and I had to submit my gmail address.