Merlin Bird ID FAQs : Help Center

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Does Merlin let me track birds I've already identified?

When you identify a bird in Merlin Bird ID, you can save it to your Life List - a list of all the birds you have confidently identified. If you use eBird, your Merlin Life List also includes species reported on your eBird checklists. Learn more.

Search in Explore Birds doesn’t find my bird. Why?

Your filter settings may be limiting which birds are displayed in results. If you search for a bird by name and don’t get any results, try changing the filter settings. Open Explore Birds, tap the filter button in the upper right corner of the screen, switch ‘Refine Bird List’ from Likely Birds to Bird Packs, and then select your bird pack of interest. You can also flip the toggle for All Installed Birds to see all species in your packs at once. Refining by Bird Packs functions like a field guide for all the birds in the pack’s region, and Likely Birds gives you a customized list of birds that are commonly found near you, with bar charts of when they can be seen throughout the year.

Why didn't Merlin list my bird as a possible match?

The first thing to check is whether you have the appropriate Bird Pack installed for your region. If a common bird is not appearing, you may not have it downloaded to your phone. Open the Bird Pack screen from the menu (top left button) and make sure the pack tagged as Nearby is installed.

If you’re identifying a bird by its description, try changing your size, color, or behavior selection:

Size: We suggest shifting your size response one to two notches from your original selection. It can be very hard to estimate the size of a bird you see.
Color: Try another combination of colors. Only enter colors that you are certain you saw. Take into account tricky lighting conditions or things that may have led you to see a color that Merlin didn’t expect.
Behavior: Choose the behavior that fits what the bird was doing for the majority of the time you spent watching it. For example, if you saw a bird make a short flight into a tree, you are more likely to find a match if you select “In trees or bushes” because that is where the bird spends more of its time.
- Merlin typically matches “flying or soaring” to birds that spend much of their time in flight, such as hawks searching for prey or swallows hunting insects on the wing. If you chose this behavior and got a confusing result, try a different behavior.
- Since a lot of birds spend time “on the ground,” try to give Merlin another clue—for example, if the bird also spends time in or near water, try “swimming or wading” to see if Merlin will find your bird.

Finally, the bird you sighted could be too rare in the area where you reported it, or there may be limited eBird observations from your area. Merlin depends on sightings reported to eBird in order to predict likely species at a given location. In some areas, particularly rural regions, there are too few observations in eBird of a species for Merlin to consider it a possibility.

We are working to improve Merlin’s functionality in these situations. You can help by visiting eBird to submit your sightings. Remember, birds reported to eBird will also show up on your Merlin Life List! eBird is the largest worldwide database of bird sightings and it is run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Reporting your sightings is free and easy. eBird also keeps track of your life lists while also making your observations available to scientists and other birders. Not only will you be helping Merlin, but you’ll be helping hundreds of other science and conservation projects. Here are instructions to help you get started with eBird.

Merlin is a free app. Why am I being asked for a credit card number?

The Merlin App is free to download and use. When the App/Play Store asks for credit card information that is a standard prompt from Apple/Google to store your payment information in their system, if you haven’t given it to them. No payment will be processed for downloading Merlin. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers Merlin Bird ID free because it’s our mission to advance the understanding and protection of birds.

How can I get help with a bird identification question or general question about birds?

For help identifying a bird, please use one of the three ID tools within the Merlin Bird ID app: you can use a photo, sound recording, or a description of a bird to identify your mystery bird. For general questions about birds, please email cornellbirds@cornell.edu.

What do the rare and uncommon circles mean?

These flags tell you if it’s rare (red dot) or unusual (orange semi-circle) for the bird to be seen at the location and on the date that you selected. The same species that is common in summer might be rare in winter. Merlin knows which species are common or rare based on observations submitted to eBird, a citizen-science project that gathers observations from birders around the world.

Why are some of the bird photos grayed out?

If Merlin seems to be missing photos, or it's asking you to install a Bird Pack, there may have been an error with the Bird Pack you installed. You can delete your installed Bird Pack, and download it again to get the latest photos, sounds, and ID help.

Can I use Merlin when I don't have Internet?

Do you frequently find yourself off the beaten path, far from reliable internet? Merlin works offline too!

Before you go, work through one test identification using your destination location. Then, when you are offline, you can just select that stored location and Merlin will still do its magic. Merlin will save your six most recent locations, so make sure your offline destination is among those.

Why did you name the app Merlin?

We named the app “Merlin” because of its uncanny, almost magical way of guessing which bird you saw (or at least that’s the goal we’re working toward). Of course, the real magic comes from science: Merlin knows which birds are near you, based on sightings submitted by bird watchers to the eBird citizen-science project. A Merlin is also a pint-sized falcon found across the northern hemisphere. It’s a speedy, powerful, and exciting bird to watch!

Why do I have to provide an email address and what do you do with my email?

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers Merlin Bird ID free because it’s our mission to advance the understanding and protection of birds. However, there are costs to improving the app and keeping it updated on ever-changing mobile platforms. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on donor support to sustain efforts like these. Providing your email address helps us achieve more mission by enabling us to share updates about birds, birding, and opportunities to support conservation. You can unsubscribe from these communications at any time.

We will never sell or give your email address to others. You are welcome to enjoy the app for a five-day trial period before confirming your email address.

Why should I enable Location Services and allow Merlin Bird ID to access my current location?

Assuming that you saw the bird at your current location, granting access to your current location is the fastest way for Merlin to find out which birds are near you.

What devices does Merlin Bird ID work on?

Merlin Bird ID works on Apple and Android mobile devices. This includes Apple devices with iOS 12 or newer and Android devices that run OS 5 or higher.

How can I get more photos and sounds for birds in the app?

The Merlin team will periodically add photos and sounds. Please make sure you have the latest version by enabling automatic app updates on your device or manually updating the app, and by checking the Bird Packs page for any updates to your installed Bird Packs. For a complete collection of bird sounds, we recommend purchasing the Cornell Guide to Bird Sounds: Master Set for North America.

Does Merlin Bird ID work in my location?

Merlin has content for 7,500+ species and allows you to enter locations around the world. To see if your area is covered, you can go to the Bird Packs page (in the left menu sidebar) and look for the appropriate pack. If there isn't one, some functionalities of Merlin will still work--see using Merlin without a pack. In remote regions of Canada and other parts of the world there may be limited data (eBird observations) to inform Merlin’s results list, so Merlin may not be as precise or accurate in remote areas.

Is Merlin available if you don't have a smartphone?

We are developing a web-based version of Merlin that will not require a smartphone. It’s not quite ready for prime time yet. For now, you can use the 5-step identification tool on North American species using the widget in All About Birds. If you'd like to give it a try, visit the All About Birds website, and then click the "Merlin Bird ID" button in the upper right portion of your screen.

What is the best way to set up Merlin for use in a class or group, like in a school or nature center?

Merlin can be a fun tool to use as part of a class or group field trip. If you are using the app on many devices as part of a class - for example, on students’ personal phones in school, or on tablets at a nature center - it can be impractical to have each student enter their email address when prompted upon starting Merlin. In this case, our recommendation is to have a shared email that the students can use. The teacher or trip leader will want to enter this shared email into Merlin themselves ahead of time at least once, and then confirm that email address via the email we send. This will allow students to have immediate and uninterrupted access to both the Merlin web widget, and Merlin Bird ID app.

There are two ways to access Merlin:

Via Web browser

This step-by-step tool allows users to identify a bird by answering a few questions including the location they saw it, the date, and color, size, and behavior. This web tool does not include Photo ID or Sound ID.

To use:

Visit All About Birds website

Click on the Bird ID menu item to open the Merlin web widget

In the Merlin Bird ID app

This app is free and is available for iOS and Android devices. The app includes the step-by-step tool described above, and also includes the ability to identify birds by sound or by using a photo. The app also includes the ability to save bird sightings to the user’s life list, if the user has created an account and is signed in. When a user saves a bird sighting to their list, the location and date of their sighting is saved and associated with their account, but is not publicly visible online. If you are saving bird sightings as a class, we recommend the teacher create an account for the group to use and have students log in to that account.

To get the app search the App Store or Play Store for “Merlin Bird ID”, or visit

merlin.allaboutbirds.org

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