Date: 3/25/26 12:19 pm From: David Suddjian via groups.io <dsuddjian...> Subject: Re: [pen-bird] Merlin Audio recordings - Rufous and Allen's Hummingbirds - please read.
A valuable perspective when using Merlin is not to consider that it is
identifying anything, but that it is just suggesting an ID which needs to
be verified. So, instead of "Merlin says . . ." it is "Merlin suggests . .
."
David Suddjian
On Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 10:41 AM <johndebell...> via groups.io
<johndebell...> wrote:
> 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.
>
>
>
