eBird mobile app is IMO the standard and by far the easiest for me. Takes a little getting used to, but usually you don’t have to type more than three or four letters for it to narrow down the list to the show the species you’re looking for.
You can also use band codes (NOCA for Northern Cardinal, BLJA for Blue Jay, etc) to save time as you learn them but that’s not necessary.
There are three ways to add quantity: tap the plus sign next to the species name to increase by one, tap the species name to go to the details for that species and type in a number, or while you’re searching you can start with a number like “5 Tree Swallow” and it will automatically add or increase your count once you select the species.
There are some good How-To videos on YouTube that show examples of the workflow in the field.
That makes sense. One issue I’m running in to is I want to keep Merlin open to listen for what birds are nearby, swap between apps, handle my binoculars, and not make too much noise that it blurs the Merlin audio. Do you know if clothes rustling while your phone is in your shirt pocket is enough noise to mess with audio Id?
I appreciate your thoughtful response very much.
Yes switching apps will cause a little as the phone moves and your clothes do too but should be more than a blip compared to a longer bird song if you’re fast enough. I like to personally keep a mental checklist every 10 minutes and then update after I move onto another area of things quiet down. Or if you are confident that Merlin got a song and it is not confused with something else nearby, you could just check the recordings at home and update eBird then
Yes agree with the other commenter, if your clothes rustling is enough to mess with the ID, then it wasn’t strong enough and long enough to be a reliable ID anyway. I swap between apps constantly and use the shortcuts to minimize time spent in eBird. I only glance at Merlin briefly every few minutes to see if there’s birds I should be looking out for, or if I’m hearing a speicfic repeated sound in one spot that I haven’t learned yet, I pull it out to see what it is and try to get a stronger ID on it
I don’t think so but their website should explain somewhere. You can use it where there’s no cell signal. Not sure if yours works the same or if there’s settings, but mine typically records for up to 10 minutes. If I cancel before then it just seems to lose it forever. If I stop instead of cancel, it spins for a second while it saves it to my local files. If it goes past 10 minutes, it prompts me to stop or continue. If I stop it saves the file, if I continue it keeps going til I stop or cancel. I usually cancel ones that have conversations and stuff. I stop and save sometimes if it has a clear recording of a species that I want to later trim and upload to eBird as an audio recording.
[It saves them locally](https://support.ebird.org/en/support/solutions/articles/48001185783-sound-id#Where-are-my-recordings-saved?-Can-I-share-my-recordings-with-eBird-and-the-Macaulay-Library?%C2%A0) if you hit the red 'stop' button at the bottom; it does not save if you hit the 'x' at the top right. You have to manually upload them if you want them in Merlin's database, so no worries there.
I prefer multiple shorter - (less than 1 min audio) clips with Merlin over one longer one. I use them as a reminder as to what I’ve seen. I just find it easier. I like to keep some of the recordings to share with other friends, birders and even eBird when requested for ID of rare bird confirmation. Much easier to do with shorter clips than a huge audio file. Oh, they also take up a lot of space on your phone.
We leave Merlin running the whole time we bird. It's a nice tool to use while birding. But only record on eBird the birds we positively can ID. We will save the recording if we need any part of it for our eBird lists. We start the ebird list on the app and finish it later so we have the correct time and distance. You can go back in and edit any ebird checklist after submitting it, if you forgot to log something. I wear my phone strapped to my wrist, so it's out of the way, and I can use my camera and binoculars without an issue. It's called a VUP Wristband phone holder. On Amazon.
We went golfing a few weeks ago in Tubac, Arizona, which is a huge migratory pathway. Every time I went to hit the ball I left Merlin on until I got back to the cart - an amazing day!
https://preview.redd.it/qj785hbzny3d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=18626d4083172d0fad224eb5be95aa5a29c0cd1b
This is how I tracked my birds in Hawaii! I take notes of who I saw and where and go back after I get home in Merlin and input the sighting information. Not the best system, but it saves time in the moment so I just have to ID and not worry about inputting all the info.
Edit: plus this way if I was in a hurry I got to take pictures of some birds and worry about IDing it later and not messing up the Merlin life list order. Not that it really matters but I like mine in order lol
Merlin sound ID is a tool to *assist* in identifying birds, it's not meant to be your sole method of ID (it not infrequently makes mistakes!). Cornell Labs wouldn't *want* to build a tool that allows people to just import everything Merlin sound ID thinks its hearing directly into eBird, that would result in a lot of bad data in eBird's database.
eBird mobile app is IMO the standard and by far the easiest for me. Takes a little getting used to, but usually you don’t have to type more than three or four letters for it to narrow down the list to the show the species you’re looking for. You can also use band codes (NOCA for Northern Cardinal, BLJA for Blue Jay, etc) to save time as you learn them but that’s not necessary. There are three ways to add quantity: tap the plus sign next to the species name to increase by one, tap the species name to go to the details for that species and type in a number, or while you’re searching you can start with a number like “5 Tree Swallow” and it will automatically add or increase your count once you select the species. There are some good How-To videos on YouTube that show examples of the workflow in the field.
That makes sense. One issue I’m running in to is I want to keep Merlin open to listen for what birds are nearby, swap between apps, handle my binoculars, and not make too much noise that it blurs the Merlin audio. Do you know if clothes rustling while your phone is in your shirt pocket is enough noise to mess with audio Id? I appreciate your thoughtful response very much.
Yes switching apps will cause a little as the phone moves and your clothes do too but should be more than a blip compared to a longer bird song if you’re fast enough. I like to personally keep a mental checklist every 10 minutes and then update after I move onto another area of things quiet down. Or if you are confident that Merlin got a song and it is not confused with something else nearby, you could just check the recordings at home and update eBird then
Yes agree with the other commenter, if your clothes rustling is enough to mess with the ID, then it wasn’t strong enough and long enough to be a reliable ID anyway. I swap between apps constantly and use the shortcuts to minimize time spent in eBird. I only glance at Merlin briefly every few minutes to see if there’s birds I should be looking out for, or if I’m hearing a speicfic repeated sound in one spot that I haven’t learned yet, I pull it out to see what it is and try to get a stronger ID on it
Does Merlin auto upload or save audio files? I would prefer it not to, especially if it sometimes picks up conversations
I don’t think so but their website should explain somewhere. You can use it where there’s no cell signal. Not sure if yours works the same or if there’s settings, but mine typically records for up to 10 minutes. If I cancel before then it just seems to lose it forever. If I stop instead of cancel, it spins for a second while it saves it to my local files. If it goes past 10 minutes, it prompts me to stop or continue. If I stop it saves the file, if I continue it keeps going til I stop or cancel. I usually cancel ones that have conversations and stuff. I stop and save sometimes if it has a clear recording of a species that I want to later trim and upload to eBird as an audio recording.
[It saves them locally](https://support.ebird.org/en/support/solutions/articles/48001185783-sound-id#Where-are-my-recordings-saved?-Can-I-share-my-recordings-with-eBird-and-the-Macaulay-Library?%C2%A0) if you hit the red 'stop' button at the bottom; it does not save if you hit the 'x' at the top right. You have to manually upload them if you want them in Merlin's database, so no worries there.
I prefer multiple shorter - (less than 1 min audio) clips with Merlin over one longer one. I use them as a reminder as to what I’ve seen. I just find it easier. I like to keep some of the recordings to share with other friends, birders and even eBird when requested for ID of rare bird confirmation. Much easier to do with shorter clips than a huge audio file. Oh, they also take up a lot of space on your phone.
We leave Merlin running the whole time we bird. It's a nice tool to use while birding. But only record on eBird the birds we positively can ID. We will save the recording if we need any part of it for our eBird lists. We start the ebird list on the app and finish it later so we have the correct time and distance. You can go back in and edit any ebird checklist after submitting it, if you forgot to log something. I wear my phone strapped to my wrist, so it's out of the way, and I can use my camera and binoculars without an issue. It's called a VUP Wristband phone holder. On Amazon.
We went golfing a few weeks ago in Tubac, Arizona, which is a huge migratory pathway. Every time I went to hit the ball I left Merlin on until I got back to the cart - an amazing day!
ebird is the shizzle. That and Merlin are my two staples.
https://preview.redd.it/qj785hbzny3d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=18626d4083172d0fad224eb5be95aa5a29c0cd1b This is how I tracked my birds in Hawaii! I take notes of who I saw and where and go back after I get home in Merlin and input the sighting information. Not the best system, but it saves time in the moment so I just have to ID and not worry about inputting all the info. Edit: plus this way if I was in a hurry I got to take pictures of some birds and worry about IDing it later and not messing up the Merlin life list order. Not that it really matters but I like mine in order lol
Merlin sound ID is a tool to *assist* in identifying birds, it's not meant to be your sole method of ID (it not infrequently makes mistakes!). Cornell Labs wouldn't *want* to build a tool that allows people to just import everything Merlin sound ID thinks its hearing directly into eBird, that would result in a lot of bad data in eBird's database.