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Original poster

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

399 replies

HoofWankingSpangleCunt · 19/05/2023 12:35

I have just discovered an app which identifies birds by sound and appearance.
In two days I’ve become addicted to listening to various bird song at different times of day.

From my garden I’ve heard over a dozen different birds from robins to coots and collared doves, jackdaws and great tits.

It’s just so lovely to take a few minutes out of the day and just listen to the sounds around us.

My DD is currently travelling through Bulgaria on her way to Turkey and I’m hoping she will install the app too.

Sadly this app is nothing to do with me , I wish I could have invented it. I’ve no skin in the birdsong game. I just wanted to share it as it’s difficult to find little minutes of peace throughout the day and this app does that for me.

Im in suburban/edge of green belt Hertfordshire and I’d love to hear what other mnetters hear too. Particularly ones outside the Uk.

thread title edited by MNHQ at OP's request.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
21
CrepuscularCritter · 19/05/2023 15:03

I am so very much looking forward to identifying the dawn chorus tomorrow. I have an Eileen for sure, but want to know who the others are.

Original poster
HoofWankingSpangleCunt · 19/05/2023 15:05

@HurryShadow I've used Picture This for plants before successfully.

Just thinking of pre-internet age. We’d all be looking at Usborne Guide to Trees or we’d have to go to the library .

Instant gratification is à wonderful thing.

OP posts:
Original poster
HoofWankingSpangleCunt · 19/05/2023 15:08

JulieHoney · 19/05/2023 14:59

Shabbat shalom, OP ✡️

❤

OP posts:
MaybeWednesday · 19/05/2023 15:09

What the actual ....

Is Merlin taking the mick out of me now or what?

Dark-eyed Junco
Red-winged Blackbird!!!

To tell you about the Merlin app - Shazam for birds?
MaybeWednesday · 19/05/2023 15:10

Now a stripe-winged spine tail!!!

LadyEloise1 · 19/05/2023 15:12

Thank you for the info re the Merlin app @HoofWankingSpangleCunt. I installed it and heard a European goldfinch and a Eurasian blackbird in my garden above the din of a neighbour's lawn mower.

UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername · 19/05/2023 15:13

Where on earth are you, @MaybeWednesday?!

This might be my favorite MN thread ever.

UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername · 19/05/2023 15:13

It doesn't recognise chickens.

RandomCatGenerator · 19/05/2023 15:13

DH loved this over lockdown. A key feature of our daily walks. We heard some quite unusual birds!

May I ask though: has anyone found one for plants? Merlin is SO good for birds, I want the equivalent for plants and then I’ll be a flora and fauna god!

TabithaTitanium · 19/05/2023 15:14

Thanks for this OP, I've just downloaded it.
I'm good at identifying birds by sight but rubbish by sound (other than the annoying "My toe hurts, Betty" Wood Pigeon!).

RandomCatGenerator · 19/05/2023 15:15

MaybeWednesday · 19/05/2023 15:09

What the actual ....

Is Merlin taking the mick out of me now or what?

Dark-eyed Junco
Red-winged Blackbird!!!

You’re in the US?

Original poster
HoofWankingSpangleCunt · 19/05/2023 15:16

RandomCatGenerator · 19/05/2023 15:13

DH loved this over lockdown. A key feature of our daily walks. We heard some quite unusual birds!

May I ask though: has anyone found one for plants? Merlin is SO good for birds, I want the equivalent for plants and then I’ll be a flora and fauna god!

Picture This for plants is pretty good.

OP posts:
funnelfan · 19/05/2023 15:17

Fantastic, I’m going to download immediately. I have a DH who is a dedicated Twitcher (of the type that will take a day off and travel hundreds of miles to go and see a rare visitor) and he’s got a very keen ear. Walks will usually be stop-start and involve him scanning the trees and saying something like “there’s a willow tit about” while I squint then wander up the path waiting for him to catch up.

having said that, I had a couple of wins recently. Last year we had some yellow birds visit the pond which I deduced from google were siskins. I got a lot of mocking as apparently our garden is not prime siskin terrain. Until he spotted them a couple of days later and he sheepishly admitted I was right. Similarly this time last year I heard a cuckoo and was again mocked but I stood my ground on that one as if there’s any bloody bird I could identify by sound I think cuckoo would be it. I was right. Grin

MaybeWednesday · 19/05/2023 15:17

UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername · 19/05/2023 15:13

Where on earth are you, @MaybeWednesday?!

This might be my favorite MN thread ever.

I'm in south west England!!!

I was slurping some honey nut cornflakes down at the time and dropped my spoon??

BeverlyBrook · 19/05/2023 15:17

I've got an app called BirdNET. It records the sounds and matches it up with what bird it could be. I'll compare it to this merlin one.

Original poster
HoofWankingSpangleCunt · 19/05/2023 15:17

@MaybeWednesday
ive never heard of a junco. Where are you? Continent wise I mean, I’m not after your address 😀

OP posts:
Original poster
HoofWankingSpangleCunt · 19/05/2023 15:17

Oops, I’m so slow. You already said . How strange.

OP posts:
mathanxiety · 19/05/2023 15:18

Wow! What a fantastic app.

Many thanks!!

Original poster
HoofWankingSpangleCunt · 19/05/2023 15:20

It’s so lovely to have a 100% happy thread.

I was quite sad this morning, lots of threads with terrible things happening so I just wanted to adjust the balance so to speak.

it’s making me so happy to make you all as happy as this app made me. Iykwim.

OP posts:
funnelfan · 19/05/2023 15:21

MaybeWednesday · 19/05/2023 15:17

I'm in south west England!!!

I was slurping some honey nut cornflakes down at the time and dropped my spoon??

Show quote history

Apparently there was a dark eyed junco reported in the U.K. recently but I thought it was somewhere in a Scotland. (DH always tells me about them because I lived in the USA for a while and they were one of my favourite visitors to my deck because they look like the black Angry Bird)

Original poster
HoofWankingSpangleCunt · 19/05/2023 15:25

@MaybeWednesday is the winner so far of the rarest bird.
https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/dark-eyed-junco

Dark-eyed Junco

https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/dark-eyed-junco

OP posts:
MaybeWednesday · 19/05/2023 15:26

@funnelfan ooooo how exciting, maybe it was me me eating honey nut cornflakes then!

Now getting a black-bellied plover which again is a North American bird.!!

Does have weird sign beside it though?

I don't want to give my exact location away but I am very close to a water bird place. I live near a river.

To tell you about the Merlin app - Shazam for birds?
Original poster
HoofWankingSpangleCunt · 19/05/2023 15:27

funnelfan · 19/05/2023 15:17

Fantastic, I’m going to download immediately. I have a DH who is a dedicated Twitcher (of the type that will take a day off and travel hundreds of miles to go and see a rare visitor) and he’s got a very keen ear. Walks will usually be stop-start and involve him scanning the trees and saying something like “there’s a willow tit about” while I squint then wander up the path waiting for him to catch up.

having said that, I had a couple of wins recently. Last year we had some yellow birds visit the pond which I deduced from google were siskins. I got a lot of mocking as apparently our garden is not prime siskin terrain. Until he spotted them a couple of days later and he sheepishly admitted I was right. Similarly this time last year I heard a cuckoo and was again mocked but I stood my ground on that one as if there’s any bloody bird I could identify by sound I think cuckoo would be it. I was right. Grin

I’ve never heard of a Siskin . I’ve learnt a lot from this thread already. Nods to @JulieHoney

OP posts:
funnelfan · 19/05/2023 15:27

Dark eyed junco aka Angry Bird

To tell you about the Merlin app - Shazam for birds?
Original poster
HoofWankingSpangleCunt · 19/05/2023 15:29

lol at Angry Bird. I hear that whistling sound the game used to make when I see this picture.

OP posts:
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