Date: 4/21/26 2:35 pm From: Tim Brennan via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: [Tweeters] Merlin
Hey Tweets!
My poor flip phone doesn't have Merlin, and it's probably all for the best. I'm perfectly capable of hearing a Dark-eyed Junco sound exactly like a Chipping Sparrow all on my own! Just cutting out the middle man here. :D And I've been on a field trip with one of the Merlin developers... we saw a Cassin's Finch, singing Cassin's Finchy things. Then the same bird did that vireo thing that Cassin's Finches do... and the developer in question confidently called it a Cassin's Vireo. 🙂 It just comes down to knowing what the most common birds are, as well as what the most commonly confused birds are. That latter data point seems like a fine thing to code into that software, honestly. Imagine Merlin being able to say "Chipping Sparrow, unless I just got fooled again... in which case, yeah, Junco." Does it do that??
I think someone cast doubt on the assumption that Merlin has led to a worsening of the data. I wonder as well! It's certainly allowed us to be wrong in more high-tech ways, at any rate. Much more fun when it's an app yelling "I KNOW WHAT I HEARD!" instead of always just us. ;)
