Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab

4.9
68K reviews
1M+
Downloads
Content rating
Everyone
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image

About this app

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.
• Customized lists of birds to find where you live or travel
• Merlin was created by bird experts for everyone.
• Merlin is global—look up any bird at any location.
• Keep track of your sightings—linked to eBird, a global database of more than 1 billion bird observations!


MACHINE LEARNING MAGIC
• Powered by Visipedia, Merlin Sound ID and Photo ID uses deep 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
• Choose bird packs that contain 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.
• It’s available in your language. Merlin is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Hebrew, German, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s goal is to help you and millions of others to learn about birds. Our nonprofit mission to improve the understanding and protection of birds and nature is made possible by the generosity of Cornell Lab members, supporters, and citizen-science contributors.
Updated on
Dec 27, 2023

Data safety

Safety starts with understanding how developers collect and share your data. Data privacy and security practices may vary based on your use, region, and age. The developer provided this information and may update it over time.
No data shared with third parties
Learn more about how developers declare sharing
This app may collect these data types
Personal info, App activity and 2 others
Data is encrypted in transit
You can request that data be deleted

Ratings and reviews

4.9
66.6K reviews
robert fuller
March 17, 2024
The identification is better than I thought. Now I can have a list of all the birds I've ever seen! Hopefully, more great updates are coming in the future! Update: As I've been getting deeper into birding using this app, I discovered a problem. I can't import audio files, and since there isn't a share button, I can't send the audio file to myself! I really hope that this bug will be fixed. Great birding app, though. Update: The bug has been fixed.
92 people found this review helpful
Did you find this helpful?
Doctor Destructo
March 15, 2024
Had my professor reccommend this to me. I've been looking for an app that can identify bird calls, and this is exactly what I wanted! It even picks up sounds somewhat farther away, so I don't scare the birds off. It gives very useful information, images, and sample calls of birds. Amazing app, I highly reccommend it for those who want to see what kind of birds are in their area!
17 people found this review helpful
Did you find this helpful?
LES AYM
March 7, 2024
Really like "Sound ID", I live in Manhattan and thought the noise would drown out the bird sounds preventing identification. Yet so far its been able to discern the bird chirps from the noise and identify! My quirk why I didn't give 5 stars is that I'm having trouble deleting sound samples I don't want anymore. I've followed the help section and it doesn't work. I'm forced to go to internal memory and locate the "Merlin Folder" and delete it there 🤨
27 people found this review helpful
Did you find this helpful?

What's new

Updated Sound ID Model (v34): Merlin can now identify over 1200 species by sound! We added over 150 new species to sound ID in this update, including fan-favorites like Wilson’s Plover, Flame-colored Tanager, and New Zealand Fantail.
New Languages: Merlin is now available in Thai and Danish!
Bug Fixes: We’re working to make the Merlin experience smoother, and added fixes for a few pesky bugs related to location services and the Life List page.