Harlequin Duck © Doug Hitchcox / Macaulay Library
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I am not getting good suggestions. What can I do?
How many species can Photo ID identify?
How does Photo ID work?
Recent computer vision and machine learning advances, which, coupled with the growing image resources of Macaulay Library uploaded by thousands of eBird users, have allowed us to create photo identification models that run on mobile devices. These models run through thousands of images for each species, and looks for patterns that are shared between all photos of a single species. With enough images, the Photo ID tool can correctly identify images of birds in different postures, and from different angles.
The Photo ID tool will continue to improve as more images are uploaded to Macaulay Library. If you are a photographer, you can find out more about contributing your images by reading the eBird Help Page.
I am not getting good suggestions. What can I do?
There are several things you can try if Photo ID isn’t giving you any suggestions that fit your photo. From the results screen, scroll down to where you see a thumbnail of your photo. Here you can check to make sure your location and date are correct, and edit them if necessary. You can also tap Edit beside your photo, which will let you crop it differently. Usually it works best if the entire bird fills the square, but sometimes it helps to pinch out a little, so the bird only takes up 1/2 of the square.
If neither of these tweaks work, you can try tapping on the “I Don’t Know” button on the Location and Date confirmation screen. This will suggest an identification without using your location and time of year to filter down the list of possibilities.
How many species can Photo ID identify?
Photo ID works on over 8,000 species. When you download the Photo ID model to your phone, it comes ready to identify all the species that Merlin content is available for. Photo ID can identify a bird whether or not you have a bird pack installed that includes that bird. You can actually use Photo ID without installing a bird pack!