Now that I’ve been spending more time outside this spring, I’ve been thinking about the same thing all the time. “What bird is that singing?” To me, birdsong is the sound of the season, and a free iPhone app adds to the mystery.
Merlin Bird ID is a great free app to identify birds by sound
There are many iPhone apps that can visually or acoustically identify birds. However, many of these apps require a paid subscription.
My curiosity about the source of bird calls hasn’t reached that level yet, but give it time.
Luckily, there’s a great free iPhone app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that can help you solve spring’s big mystery: What birds are singing?
Merlin Bird ID is available for free on both iPhone and Android, and there’s a reason it has a 4.9-star rating from 109,000 reviews on the App Store.
How to identify backyard birds using your iPhone
It combines your approximate location with the sound of bird calls and chirps to help pinpoint what you’re hearing. You can also take photos of birds and tag them, but what I appreciate most is the Sound ID feature.
The part where this turns from a curiosity to a hobby is Merlin Bird ID’s life list feature. You can “collect” bird identification information by date, location, and of course bird species.
In my case, when I hear a bird chirping, I pull out the app and try to memorize the song and the type of bird. The next step is to invest in a smart bird feeder that has a camera that can take pictures of the birds.
In the meantime, we’re happy to get to know more about the American robin, northern cardinal, pied crested squirrel, Carolina wren, chimney swift, house sparrow, and fish crow, to name a few of our local birds.
Learn more about Merlin Bird ID. Or download it for free from the App Store.
