{"id":16056,"date":"2014-01-15T08:23:47","date_gmt":"2014-01-15T13:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/?p=16056"},"modified":"2022-02-08T20:08:09","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T01:08:09","slug":"introducing-merlin-photo-id-app-qa-with-jessie-barry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/introducing-merlin-photo-id-app-qa-with-jessie-barry\/","title":{"rendered":"Merlin Bird ID App: Q&A With Jessie Barry"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Jesse.jpg\" srcset=\"\" sizes=\"\" alt=\"Jesse Barry by Tim Gallagher\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><figcaption>Jessie Barry. <em>Photo by Tim Gallagher.<\/em><\/figcaption>\n              <\/figure><\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-group sidebar-alignright sidebar-space order-bottom\"><div class=\"article-list list-style alignright\"><h2 class=\"article-list-header\">More From Living Bird<\/h2><ul><li class=\"article-item\"><div class=\"article-item-container\"><div class=\"article-item-media  content-living-bird-toc\"><figure class=\"article-item-media-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/LB-TOC-Winter14-c.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/LB-TOC-Winter14-c-720x329.jpg 720w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/LB-TOC-Winter14-c-768x351.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/LB-TOC-Winter14-c-480x219.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/LB-TOC-Winter14-c.jpg 918w\" sizes=\"\" alt=\"Bee Hummingbird by Rich Wagner\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/figure><\/div><div class=\"article-item-body\"><span class=\"article-item-header\">Living Bird Winter 2014\u2014Table of Contents<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/li><li class=\"article-item\"><div class=\"article-item-container\"><div class=\"article-item-media  content-living-bird-toc\"><figure class=\"article-item-media-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-latest.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-latest.png 720w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-latest-240x180.png 240w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-latest-480x360.png 480w\" sizes=\"\" alt=\"Living Bird-latest issue\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/figure><\/div><div class=\"article-item-body\"><span class=\"article-item-header\">Living Bird Magazine\u2014Latest Issue<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/li><li class=\"article-item\"><div class=\"article-item-container\"><div class=\"article-item-media  content-article\"><figure class=\"article-item-media-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-acrhive.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-acrhive.png 720w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-acrhive-240x180.png 240w, https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/living-bird-acrhive-480x360.png 480w\" sizes=\"\" alt=\"Living Bird archives\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/figure><\/div><div class=\"article-item-body\"><span class=\"article-item-header\">Living Bird Magazine Archives<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-group sidebar-alignright sidebar-space order-bottom\"><!--HubSpot Call-to-Action Code -->\r\n<span class=\"hs-cta-wrapper\" id=\"hs-cta-wrapper-096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da\">\r\n    <span class=\"hs-cta-node hs-cta-096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da\" id=\"hs-cta-096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da\">\r\n        <!--[if lte IE 8]><div id=\"hs-cta-ie-element\"><\/div><![endif]-->\r\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/cta-redirect.hubspot.com\/cta\/redirect\/95627\/096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da\" ><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"hs-cta-img\" id=\"hs-cta-img-096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da\" style=\"border-width:0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/95627\/096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da.png\"  alt=\"subscribe to Living Bird magazine\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\r\n    <\/span>\r\n    <script charset=\"utf-8\" src=\"https:\/\/js.hscta.net\/cta\/current.js\"><\/script>\r\n    <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n        hbspt.cta.load(95627, '096b8ce3-0e2d-46c5-bbf7-12de3323c8da', {});\r\n    <\/script>\r\n<\/span>\r\n<!-- end HubSpot Call-to-Action Code -->\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n\n<p><em>\u201cWhat\u2019s that bird?\u201d It\u2019s long been one of the most daunting questions for would-be birders, often requiring a search through a 500-page field guide. But what if you could identify a bird with just a few taps on your smartphone? This year, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is launching a revolutionary new app that makes birding as easy as playing a game of 20 questions. Called Merlin, it\u2019s the product of a three-year National Science Foundation\u2013funded computer-science project aimed at creating a handheld, customized bird-identification application. Jessie Barry, Merlin project leader and member of the Cornell Lab\u2019s famed Sapsuckers birding team, talked to us about this big step forward in making birding easier and more accessible. \u2014 Gustave Axelson <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>What is Merlin?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a bird identification tool designed primarily for beginning birders and people watching birds for the first time. Merlin asks you a series of questions about what your bird looks like, what size it is, where you saw it, and then delivers a short list of possible species. A lot of people glance at a bird feeder and ask, \u201cWhat\u2019s that bird?\u201d We wanted to develop an app that would make it as easy as possible for a beginner to identify a bird. A lot of birders know family members or friends who seem like they\u2019d be a good fit for getting into birding, but they get easily frustrated at trying to tell, say, a sparrow from a finch. Merlin is a great app for birders to pass along as a tool for helping novices experience more success early on with identifying the birds they see.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So Merlin is only an app for beginners?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Not necessarily. It\u2019s a good tool for any birder who\u2019s been frustrated by flipping through field guides, or Googling \u201clittle brown bird.\u201d What makes Merlin really awesome, in my opinion, is that it provides a targeted list of the birds you\u2019re most likely to see in your area on that day. It\u2019s a tailored experience.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How does Merlin do that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Merlin pulls customized bird ID suggestions from eBird, by cross-referencing your answers with a massive database of bird observations reported to eBird over the past three years from roughly a 50-mile radius of your location. And then, along with the species names, you can read text about the bird\u2019s appearance, behaviors, and habitat preferences and see stunning photos to help you identify the bird.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Can you get sounds, too? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes, you can listen to the bird\u2019s songs and calls with audio files pulled from the Cornell Lab\u2019s Macaulay Library, and you can also see the species\u2019 range maps pulled from the Birds of North America Online. [<strong>update 2\/8\/22:<\/strong> Birds of North America Online is now part of <a href=\"https:\/\/birdsoftheworld.org\/bow\/home\">Birds of the World<\/a>.] That\u2019s one of the really cool things about Merlin, being able to pull together many strengths of the Cornell Lab into one tool to help people learn more about birds.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How do people get Merlin? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You can download Merlin from the App Store. If you visit the Merlin website at merlin.allaboutbirds.org you will find specific directions on how to download the app. It\u2019s designed for smartphones, but it works on tablets, too. Currently, it works on iOS devices with iOS 7, but soon we\u2019ll be releasing an Android version.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How much does it cost? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s free! Part of the mission of the Cornell Lab is to make birds more accessible to people. Once people can identify birds, a whole new world opens up to them. Suddenly they want to identify another and another. And they\u2019re learning more about the birds they identify, such as where they live and what they need to survive. People are more motivated to protect the things that they know and care about.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Will there be future updates to Merlin? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes. Right now Merlin makes recommendations for more than 3,000 species (as of May 2019), <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which covers the birds found throughout the United States and Canada, Central America, the Caribbean, parts of South America, Europe, and India. We\u2019re working hard to add more species, and there will be more developments coming. <\/span>Plus, Merlin will be constantly improving itself. Every time someone logs a bird ID by clicking \u201cThis Is My Bird,\u201d Merlin saves those results to compute into future recommendations. So Merlin will continue to get smarter as more people use it.<br \/>\n<!--http:\/\/digital.livingbird.org\/livingbird\/winter_2014\/?pg=6--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s that bird?\u201d It\u2019s long been one of the most daunting questions for would-be birders, often requiring a search through a 500-page field guide. But what if you could identify<a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/introducing-merlin-photo-id-app-qa-with-jessie-barry\/\" title=\"ReadMerlin Bird ID App: Q&#038;A With Jessie Barry\">&#8230; Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":24594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_birdpress_living_bird_toc":0,"_birdpress_living_bird_toc_title":"","_birdpress_featured_image":false,"_birdpress_hero_toggle":false,"_birdpress_hero_type":"image","_birdpress_hero_image_type":"image","_birdpress_hero_style":"default","_birdpress_hero_ratio":"","_birdpress_hero_h1":"","_birdpress_hero_media_id":0,"_birdpress_hero_media_array_id":[],"_birdpress_hero_media_array":[],"_birdpress_hero_media":0,"_birdpress_hero_video_id":0,"_birdpress_hero_video":0,"_birdpress_hero_youtube":"","_birdpress_hero_content":true,"_birdpress_hero_byline":"","_birdpress_hero_byline_bottom":"","_birdpress_hero_button_link":"","_birdpress_hero_button_text":"","_birdpress_hero_button_color":"","_birdpress_hero_date":false,"original_guid":"","_birdpress_hide_search":false,"_birdpress_page_width":"","_birdpress_global_cta":false,"_birdpress_widget_sidebar":"","_birdpress_next_article":0,"_birdpress_next_article_title":"","_birdpress_prev_article":0,"_birdpress_prev_article_title":"","_birdpress_sub_navigation_id":0,"_birdpress_sub_navigation":"","_birdpress_sub_navigation_title":false,"_birdpress_anchor_navigation_id":0,"_birdpress_anchor_navigation":"","_birdpress_postType":"both","_birdpress_categoryID":0,"_birdpress_tagID":0,"_birdpress_parentPostID":0,"_birdpress_parentPostTitle":"","_birdpress_menuID":0,"_birdpress_menuName":"","_birdpress_listHeader":"","_birdpress_listLayout":"card-display","_birdpress_listColumns":"","_birdpress_maxItems":12,"_birdpress_listPaginate":true,"_birdpress_displaySort":true,"_birdpress_sortOrder":"DESC","_birdpress_sortBy":"date","_birdpress_listID":"","_birdpress_listClass":"","_birdpress_displayImages":true,"_birdpress_displayCaptions":false,"_birdpress_displayExcerpts":false,"_birdpress_attTop":"","_birdpress_attBottom":"","_birdpress_showLogos":false,"_birdpress_post_logo":0,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_topic":0,"wds_primary_content-format":0,"wds_primary_cornell-lab-project":0,"wds_primary_host-project":0,"wds_primary_read-more-tag":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[999,992,1042,998],"content-format":[1055],"cornell-lab-project":[1069],"host-project":[1137],"read-more-tag":[],"class_list":["post-16056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","topic-basics","topic-bird-id-skills","topic-bird-watching-news-and-features","topic-news-and-features","content-format-article","cornell-lab-project-living-bird-magazine","host-project-living-bird"],"metadata":{"associated-posts":[""],"wpa_off":[""],"_edit_lock":["1644368788:4"],"_edit_last":["4"],"_thumbnail_id":["24594"],"wdsi_message_id":[""],"wdsi_do_not_show":[""],"custom-byline":["<h5>By 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