Date: 3/25/26 9:41 am From: <johndebell...> via groups.io <johndebell...> Subject: Re: [pen-bird] Merlin Audio recordings - Rufous and Allen's Hummingbirds - please read.
Thanks Malia! Merlin is a wonderful tool, and I use it daily to enhance my bird-walking experience, and I have often learned somewhat obscure bird calls or songs from it. But it makes many mistakes, and not only likely "close-calls" as you've described. It thinks I am an oak titmouse, almost half of the time that I am imitating a chickadee, and while "pishing" at other times, occasionally thinks I'm a barn owl. I've observed it identifying Stellar's jays as red-tailed hawks when they do their frequent imitations, and I've catched it identifying a small barking dog as a Canada goose. I would never assume that it has reliably ID'd any call or song that cannot be independently verified, and believe it should never be depended upon to do so, but it is still an extremely useful tool that I find both enjoyable and helpful in the field.
