Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab

4.9
103K reviews
5M+
Downloads
Content rating
Everyone
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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.
• Discover a new bird species each day with your own personalized Bird of the Day
• Get customized lists of birds you can find where you live or travel - anywhere in the world!
• Keep track of your sightings—build your personal list of the birds you find

MACHINE LEARNING MAGIC
• Powered by Visipedia, Merlin Sound ID and Photo ID uses machine 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.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s mission is to interpret and conserve the Earth’s biological diversity through research, education, and citizen science focused on birds and nature. We are able to offer Merlin for free thanks to the generosity of Cornell Lab members, supporters, and citizen-science contributors.
Updated on
Nov 14, 2024

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
102K reviews
Rob Pento
November 23, 2024
Disclosure: I'm a member of the Cornell Orthology program, and participate in many of their programs (e g., Feeder Watch). This app is astounding due to the richness of data that supports it (audio recordings in the Cornell database). I find this highly accurate. There are times, with loud background noises (lawnmowers, etc) that you will get an erroneous suggestion... But that is fully understandable. I highly recommend this app.
5 people found this review helpful
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Glenn Faini
October 29, 2024
I like the new interface. A lot of improvements. However, I can no longer swipe a bird on my LifeList to see relevant checklists. Thankfully, I figured out how to do this in the eBird app, though not as convenient. Screen rotation would be a helpful feature so I can hold my phone upside down to point the microphone forward. P.S. the Cancel button no longer works reliably. I sometimes have to press it 5 or 6 times to cancel a recording.
85 people found this review helpful
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Cpnoboat
November 3, 2024
I love the Merlin app. When it was created it changed radically my way of birding. It's so easy to ID birds and it's even more useful when you travel and you're not familiar with those species I just wish the app would give the option of reading the names in more than one language at the same time, or even the scientific names plus the names in English and another language. When I travel to visit my family abroad and we go birding, I wish I could talk to them using the birds' names in Spanish.
12 people found this review helpful
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What's new

Share Your Birding Finds!
We’ve made sharing your birding discoveries easier and more fun. Here’s what’s new:
Share That Bird!: Send bird sightings straight to friends, social media, or birding groups.
Life Bird Alert: Share new sightings with a tap and celebrate new finds.
Bird of the Day: Show off your daily bird, and brag to your friends when you’ve found yours!
Improvements: Bug fixes and performance tweaks for smoother birding.
Happy birding!