Date: 7/9/25 8:36 am From: CK Franklin <meshoppen...> Subject: Re: Merlin
I was skeptical of Merlin when it first came out, and I was slow to install it on my phone. Not out of any sense of old school purity. I wasn't sure the technology was up to the task of sonic identification. Eventually I decided to experiment with it as it kept coming up in bird conversations.
I was pleasantly surprised by the results. It did a pretty good job of identifying bird songs about 75% of the time. I started looking at the sonograms my phone recorded and compared them to prerecorded species' sonograms available in the app to see if they matched. I listened to the songs and chips my phone recorded and compared them to prerecorded songs available in the app as well as prerecorded songs in other apps. I began to appreciate the subtle and sometimes not so subtle differences in the calls of individual birds of one species as well as how songs vary across related species. Merlin has improved my sonic birding ability.
But there are caveats when using Merlin.
1.
Merlin is accurate about 75% of the time when set to the appropriate bird list in the area being birded. In our case that is the Arkansas bird recordings.
2.
That other 25% of the time, Merlin offers its best guess about the sound it is receiving. The results can be quite whimsical. Distant barking dogs = Wild Turkey. Me phishing = wrens and Tufted Titmice scolding, Osprey, Northern Mockingbird, among others. Or no suggestions at all.
3.
Beware of mocking birds & jays. Their calls often register as other species.
4.
A high noise environment overpowers Merlin's ability to record & process the natural sonic landscape.
5.
Merlin often fails to register calls that are distant or lower in tone or volume.
6.
Merlin's results may be accurate but must be evaluated based on prior birding knowledge & experience. Last week I was birding along an oxbow lake in Galloway that I had somehow overlooked. Merlin kept alerting on Black-bellied Whistling Duck. The oxbow as thick with Cypress tress and & other vegetation. I did not hear or see any ducks. I told Merlin I thought it was having one of its moments. Merlin hit on the duck again, and that very duck blasted out of a cypress right in front of me like a Ruffed Grouse out of a snow covered spruce in a Pennsylvania winter of yore. It disappeared into the murky depths of the oxbow. Score one for Merlin.
My hearing remains excellent despite getting older. I hear and process familiar as well as distant calls faster & better than Merlin most of the time. In a human high noise environment, I am on my own as artificial sound overpowers Merlin's ability to detect bird calls. It's a toss up with near sounds. Merlin does call my attention to sounds I miss as I move through an environment recording birds. It has become another tool in my birding kit to help me see/hear, identify, and record the birds around us.
Cindy F
Pulaski County
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From: The Birds of Arkansas Discussion List <ARBIRD-L...> on behalf of Joseph Neal <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...>
Sent: Tuesday, July 8, 2025 10:12:40 AM
To: <ARBIRD-L...> <ARBIRD-L...>
Subject: Merlin
I’m always interested to hear how people use Cornell’s Merlin app. I compare these comments with my own experience. The current issue of Cornell’s Living Bird (summer 2025) has a really interesting essay by Andrew J. Lewis, “Listening, Belonging, and the Patterns we live by.” It is a very good read about his experience in using Merlin. I don’t have a link to the article, but if anyone knows how to get a link, please post it for others who don’t subscribe to the magazine.
