More of an appreciation than a review, here’s a NY Times article on Merlin’s
sound ID
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/26/opinion/cornell-birdsong-id-app.html?campaign_id=39&emc=edit_ty_20210726&instance_id=36257&nl=opinion-today®i_id=65710485&segment_id=64435&te=1&user_id=6433975664ac1cf405a273864fa41d9c
Actual birding note: Merlin on 7/25, for a short recording, IDed two birds in
my SW Portland backyard - Lesser Goldfinch (for sure) and Purple Martin
(hmmmmm….)
On Jul 14, 2021, at 1:39 PM, Jason A. Crotty <jasonacrotty@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Following up on the discussion of the new Sound ID function on the Merlin
app, I used it for the first time on a trip to William L. Finley NWR last
weekend and I found it to be a revelation. As someone who generally has to
see many birds to ID them, the ability to associate a song with a bird in
real time in the field is perhaps the best birdsong learning experience I
have ever had. I am confident that more use will quickly improve my ability
to ID by sound.
Moreover, the app will listen for quite some time and will provide a
real-time ID for each song/call it hears (sample attached, IDing 5 species in
45 seconds). Thus, you can have it listen to a symphony of songs and it will
tick off most of the species, highlighting the one singing at any given time.
Of course, one suspects you have to take some of Merln's suggested IDs with a
grain of salt, but my impression is that the accuracy was high, at least for
this trip. I certainly wouldn't rely on it for a rarity, for example, but it
is great for distinguishing among the usual suspects.
Five out of five stars from me. Kudos to the folks at Cornell for improving
Merlin even more.
Jason Crotty
Portland
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