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

Oh guys!!! I can't tell you how happy this thread has made me! Isn't it wonderful? Get out there listening to the birds!!

I love it!

Paired with my binoculars, a walk with the Merlin app is my favourite way to spend an afternoon. I’ve spotted so many more by knowing what I’m hearing and therefore what to look for.

It’s a lovely app.

How wonderful to find fellow Merlin app fans here!

I installed it a few weeks ago and have been telling all who'll listen to me about it. At work they've started calling me the 'Bird Nerd'

The other evening I set it going while I was pottering around in the garden. In 25 minutes of recording it picked up 18 different species of birds. It also picked up a couple of birds I'm fairly sure I don't have locally - a ring ouzel and a linnet - but I reckon that's the fault of the local blackbird, who's a brilliant mimic.

To whoever asked about cuckoos, we have a regular cuckoo each year and I first heard it about 1-2 weeks ago this year.

We’ve been monitoring this tracker, fascinating!

https://www.bto.org/cuckoos

@askan 'twas me who asked if anyone had heard a cuckoo yet. It's very late for me not to have heard one.

@HoofWankingSpangleCunt the sound of the cuckoo, when I hear the first one of the year I get so excited! "Oh did I hear right was that just a cuckoo I heard!"

Jump up in down with excitement ... roll on 2 hours "Shut up with your freakin' cuckooing!"

Read above for woodpeckers too!

I am a total non-birder, but I just downloaded it and finally figured out what those "geese" were that I saw in Tunisia last week. Ruddy Shelducks. I think this will be fun!

I find it utterly fascinating that cuckoos tackle from deepest Africa to breed here then clear off back again. And that there are different cuckoos that lay eggs to match different U.K. host species. A couple of years ago we spotted a juvenile cuckoo on the ground conning its foster parents (reed warblers) for food. They were smaller than the cuckoo, but still rushing about trying to shove food in its gob.

I love the Merlin app! So clever how it can identify birds in real time even if several are singing at the same time.

Ooooo @Funnelfan "We’ve been monitoring this tracker, fascinating!

www.bto.org/cuckoos"

Great link thanks. I think Joey must be on his way here soon.

But didn't know "The Cuckoo is currently Red Listed as a Bird of Conservation Concern in the UK, due to its population decline."

Hopefully I do hear one this year.

Thank you. I’ve just downloaded. Can the recordings only do one bird at a time?

Merlin is pretty good and v fun to use, though prone to occasional wild misidentifications (as this thread has demonstrated!)

I love it and I especially love using it when I'm abroad on work

I have a loud robin in our garden. I see the blue tits but the loud robin defeats me :).

Black-bellied Plover is known as Grey Plover in the UK (it occurs quite widely both sides of the Atlantic, though does not breed in the UK, occurring as a winter visitor and passage migrant only).

I think BirdNET is the precursor to Merlin as they are both from Cornell. I've been using it for a couple of years and it is like magic!

My people! I love this app. I think starlings sometimes imitate other bird calls 🤔

@GerundTheBehemoth interesting! Or could it have have been a Golden Plover then I wonder? Google reliably informs me that thousands have been seen in previous years at my local wetlands.

Thank you for making me aware of this app @HoofWankingSpangleCunt I usually use the birdnet app but it's not been that great. Hopefully this will be a bit more accurate.

"Were you born with an in-built ability to know which birds were which?"

😕 Some I learnt from my parents as a child, others I looked up in bird books, and more recently on websites like RSPB, Woodland trust etc.

My parents used to live in a house near ancient woodland, we used to see jays and greater spotted and green woodpeckers in our garden. 😍

Where I live now, we also see the usual crows and jackdaws about, but they rarely come into the garden. The park up the road gets pied wagtails, but again, I've never seen them in our garden.

13 old year old DD has been watching some floofy starling chicks, who are chilling high up in the elderflower tree in our back garden, while mum or dad drop off lunch.

Thanks @HoofWankingSpangleCunt I'm pretty good at identifying birds thanks to my dad RIP but it will be fun to see if there's any unusual ones around.

I've just downloaded this and lost an hour of my life!!

It's really good and I think my other half might be hooked too.

I've had Merlin on my phone for a couple of years but only started using it regularly this Spring. It's magic! I am trying to learn a few common songs and calls and it really helps to have a tool to tell me if I'm right or not. But what's even more clever is how it identifies and sorts birds in the background. Walking the dog at the weekend it helped me discover a nightingale...