What's that bird? Ask Merlin—the world’s leading app for birds. Just like magic, Merlin Bird ID will help you solve the mystery.
Merlin Bird ID helps you identify birds you see and hear. Merlin is unlike any other bird app—it's powered by eBird, the world’s largest database of bird sightings, sounds, and photos.
Merlin offers four fun ways to identify birds. Answer a few simple questions, upload a photo, record a singing bird, or explore birds in a region.
Whether you’re curious about a bird you’ve seen once or you’re hoping to identify every bird you can find, the answers are waiting for you with this free app from the renowned Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
WHY YOU’LL LOVE MERLIN • Expert ID tips, range maps, photos, and sounds help you learn about the birds you spot and build birding skills. • Discover a new bird species each day with your own personalized Bird of the Day • Get customized lists of birds you can find where you live or travel - anywhere in the world! • Keep track of your sightings—build your personal list of the birds you find
MACHINE LEARNING MAGIC • Powered by Visipedia, Merlin Sound ID and Photo ID uses machine learning to identify birds in photos and sounds. Merlin learns to recognize bird species based on training sets of millions of photos and sounds collected by birders at eBird.org, archived in the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. • Merlin delivers the most accurate results thanks to experienced birders, who curate and annotate sightings, photos, and sounds, who are the true magic behind Merlin.
AMAZING CONTENT • Choose bird packs that contain photos, songs, and calls, and identification help for anywhere in the world, including Mexico, Costa Rica, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India, Australia, Korea, Japan, China, and more.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s mission is to interpret and conserve the Earth’s biological diversity through research, education, and citizen science focused on birds and nature. We are able to offer Merlin for free thanks to the generosity of Cornell Lab members, supporters, and citizen-science contributors.
Updated on
25 Apr 2025
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The app is OK for bird ID but there is a facility to add birds to your life list. Unfortunately the only way this works is if you have Id'd a bird by sound, photo or description. If you already know the bird, you can't add it to the list which is ridiculous. Having tried to contact support, your get nowhere. A bot replies with a suggestion which is not relevant and then says my query will be passed on, and that's the last you hear from them. I've tried 3 times over a year and got nowhere.
30 people found this review helpful
Lee Gerrard
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29 April 2025
This would be 5 stars, but there is one thing that annoys me about this app. It tells you if the birds are common, uncommon, or rare which is great, but for some reason that feature disappears once the bird is on your life list. Seeing this feature on the profiles as well as when you are scrolling your life list would be excellent. Other than that, this is a great app that I definitely recommend to anyone interested in birding.
2 people found this review helpful
Gina D
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1 May 2025
I use it daily because it tells me what birds are in my yard. I love to learn about each bird and being able to listen to every bird's different calls and song's is great fun. My phone camera doesn't take good enough pictures, so can't get accurate I'd, but sound I'd works great. By listening, I've found birds I never knew where in my yard. My only complaint is once I joined e-bird, Merlin will no longer add birds to my life list. E-bird is way too complicated for me and I've tried every thing.
8 people found this review helpful
What's new
Get ready for bird migration with better ID tools and flexible downloads!
Sound ID update: Merlin is now more responsive, so you'll see more IDs as Merlin listens to the birds around you.
Photo ID update: Trained in bird ID with over 6 million practice photos, Merlin can identify your photos better now than ever before.
Smaller and more flexible downloads: Download bird info as you go, or download information for a whole region at once for offline use!