What's that bird? Ask Merlināthe worldās 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 appāit's powered by eBird, the worldās 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 youāre curious about a bird youāve seen once or youāre 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 YOUāLL 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 sightingsābuild 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 Ornithologyās mission is to interpret and conserve the Earthās 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
25 Apr 2025
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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.
Love this app! I just wish it would show all the birds after 40 minutes as it always crashes after stopping the recording. Luckily the recording is saved and I can download it, cut the recording into smaller segments, and import it again into the app to see all the birds. Hope they can fix it one day
1 person found this review helpful
Liam Wood
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31 March 2025
Perfect for casual birdwatchers and bird enthusiasts. I don't know what it took me so long to download this appāI've had Cornell's ornithology website bookmarked for a long timeābut I don't regret it one bit. It was great for identifying birds on vacation and for adding birds in my local area to my life list. I find myself stopping on my morning walks to work to record and ID the birds I hear, I can't recommend this enough. Takes up a lot of data for packs, but it's a reasonable trade off.
61 people found this review helpful
Tim Humphries
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14 April 2025
Installed about 3 weeks ago and seemed to work OK mostly though it did hear lots of birds that were out of my range of hearing. About a week ago it stopped working a few seconds after pressing 'Sound ID' - just black screen. Have uninstalled/reinstalled a number of times but still same problem. Galaxy A10.
8 people found this review helpful
What's new
Get ready for bird migration with better ID tools and flexible downloads!
Sound ID update: Merlin is now more responsive, so you'll see more IDs as Merlin listens to the birds around you.
Photo ID update: Trained in bird ID with over 6 million practice photos, Merlin can identify your photos better now than ever before.
Smaller and more flexible downloads: Download bird info as you go, or download information for a whole region at once for offline use!