To tell you about the Merlin app - Shazam for birds?

Very excited this morning when the app told me there was a Great Spotted Woodpecker. I waited and waited to see the bird. Eventually a starling flew out of the tree 🙄😱😂

In fairness, the Woodpecker was probably still in the tree and the Starling was incidental. We used to get them here until last summer's fires wiped out the woodland. Mind you, we also used to get Skylarks, Long Tailed Tits, Jays, Green Woodpeckers and Kestrels bowling through those same woods at head height after Wood Pigeons.

Did have a Heron being battered senseless by Crows this morning, though. They're more alarming when something that looks like a Pterodactyl comes charging across the road with a flock of angry Corvids screaming RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK just as you're waiting for a bus.

I love this app! Thanks op. Here are some birds it detected when I went for my evening walk yesterday it picked up willow warblers, goldcrest, song thrushes, blackcaps, bullfinches, wrens, coal tits, chiffchaffs, tree sparrows and common redstarts. I never knew what I was listening to before!

I was doing some research into what pp said about not feeding birds as this isn't something I've heard from any of the conservation charities. It seems it's not as black and white as was suggested on here:

https://www.bto.org/community/blog/garden-birds-feed-or-not-feed

I will be carrying on feeding my garden birds good quality food and being diligent about keeping my feeders clean. Our most common garden visitors are starlings and sparrows (both RSPB red list).

It's great for warblers, which all look tremendously similar and can be hard to spot anyway. I identified a sedge warbler and a reed warbler when I was in Norfolk by their lovely songs, even though I could barely see them. Also a Cetti's warbler and a bearded tit.

I do feed at this time of year as most are still feeding young birds, or fledglings are about looking for food and I think they need a bit of help, especially when it was still a bit cold and there were not as many insects around. Not so much in late summer/autumn when there start to be fruit and seeds.

Our local peregrine chicks appear to have fledged this afternoon.

Ours are looking close - proper plumage and very very noisy!

Same. My app often picks them up but we don't see them. The only wren I've ever seen was the dead one my cat caught 😔

Last night I'm sure the jackdaws were trying to mimic the cuckoo but not quite getting the hang of it

Finally captured my owl - it's a Tawny 🦉.

I had a long tailed tit today which it wasn't sure about but I don't understand why

I've been listening in to the birds in my garden thanks to this app.

Ive never paid much attention to the birds, it was nice listening out and hearing the different calls, even if it was just mainly magpies and sparrows. Just sitting and being without distractions, so I may do it daily, even if it’s just 5-10 mins.
I did get a few others fleetingly, so going to try at different times.

I wish it saved the ones you hear in a list, rather than just by the recordings, but I suppose I could just make a list myself!

I had no idea Starlings were on the red list. We have about 30/40 of them come down on our feeders several times a day (the noise when they do 😱). It’s hard to know what to do for the best but I think I’ll carry on feeding them but maybe cut down a little bit so they’re not too dependent on me. I have to cut down anyway at this time of year because they eat me out of house and home.

Omg im so middle aged, i really want this!!!

Thanks to this app I learnt to recognise a goldfinch. And now I have a nest full of babies in my garden 😍

Got this yellow boy spotted twice, so hoping it's legit. Heard it in two separate locations.

That's exciting @Freda999 have you managed to visually catch a glimpse?

I'm discarding any birds that are only picked up once very briefly but if you've had it twice in two different locations that sounds promising!

Thank you OP. I have had weeks of pleasure with this app since you posted about it! Love it 😊

I also want to add how grateful I am for discovering this app

I've been using it less than a week and am completely addicted already. I've always had an interest in birds but have been pretty rubbish at identifying their songs. Now I can tell a quite a few without having to open the app. The most easily recognisable one for me is the chiffchaff, their sound is so distinctive and I can't believe how many there are around here, I never noticed it before.

I'm usually dubious until I actually see the bird in question but every time I have gone on to see the bird it's been correct. My rarest one is a serin but I didn't see it so don't know if that's really what it was. There were a lot of chatty goldfinches around when it picked it up so I'm not sure.

Well I've still not seen or heard any of our buzzards so that's quite worrying. However it seems I do have a song thrush. I could have sworn it was a starling mimicking a blackbird with extras thrown in

I’ve recently discovered this app and have been having great fun with it 😊

I love it! It's made walks in the morning very educational (and longer). My phone is full of recordings

The baby magpies were out and about this evening. They looked so cute.

I never knew that sand martins are also called bank swallows, this is such a good app.