There’s An App for That

Ever see a bird and wonder what kind it is only to not remember specific details when you grab your book to look it up? That’s happened to me many times before. Now there’s an app to prevent that from ever happening again. If you can snap a picture of the bird then the Merlin Bird ID developed by the Cornell Lab of Orinthology can probably identify it.

Jessie Barry is the Merlin project leaded at the Cornell Lab. Barry said in a statement:

When you open the Merlin Bird Photo ID app, you’re asked if you want to take a picture with your smartphone or pull in an image from your digital camera.You zoom in on the bird, confirm the date and location, and Merlin will show you the top choices for a match from among the 650 North American species it knows.

If you can’t snap a photo but you can answer a few basic questions about the bird you saw then the Bird app can probably still help you.  It will give you a list of birds to choose from based upon where you are, the season it is and what birds would typically be present.  No more guessing about what bird is singing in the trees!

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