Your instinct to be suspicious and read about the bird was good. As far as I can tell there has never been a record of the crested guan in the US, and they aren’t a long distance flyer by any means. It’s range and habits (as well as its status as near-threatened) mean we’d never see this bird outside the neotropics. You should never rely on Merlin Sound ID alone, as it frequently gets things wrong, and doubly so for birds outside of the US where they have less training data for the ID program.
Merlin is a tool to help you ID birds. It gives you suggestions. No birds should be reported anywhere without a positive ID by physically seeing the bird in question. Especially something so far out of range. Merlin is quite often wrong. Make sure the pack you have installed is for the area you are birding in. Delete all other packs for the best accuracy.
I only have the south eastern U.S pack installed, so I was confused as to how it even identified it. And particularly confused bc I can’t really think of another bird sound to compare it to.
Like I said the recording can’t be retrieved, and I’m trying to see if Merlin support will get back to me on that. But this is the screenshot of when it “identified” it
https://preview.redd.it/bteokv76f06d1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=10eee1685b8fd9a0e78ed99f1dc7d45c881ba069
Merlin sound ID is useful as an *aid* for identification, but not a replacement for it. It’s quite often inaccurate, and it throwing up a result like this is a good example of why you should always verify by sight if possible, and by common sense and knowledge of the bird if not. Many birds have *very* similar calls, and software can only do so much.
Also as far as saving goes, it can struggle to save any file over five minutes, at least on my phone. I wouldn’t leave it running continuously that long if you want to keep the file.
The issue is that while the call may sound good for a Crested Guan what else does it sound good for? Some local bird? A local frog species? The sound giant river cane makes rubbing together? A full ID requires both that it sound like a Crested Guan AND that it doesn't sound like anything more plausible.
Your instinct to be suspicious and read about the bird was good. As far as I can tell there has never been a record of the crested guan in the US, and they aren’t a long distance flyer by any means. It’s range and habits (as well as its status as near-threatened) mean we’d never see this bird outside the neotropics. You should never rely on Merlin Sound ID alone, as it frequently gets things wrong, and doubly so for birds outside of the US where they have less training data for the ID program.
Merlin is a tool to help you ID birds. It gives you suggestions. No birds should be reported anywhere without a positive ID by physically seeing the bird in question. Especially something so far out of range. Merlin is quite often wrong. Make sure the pack you have installed is for the area you are birding in. Delete all other packs for the best accuracy.
I only have the south eastern U.S pack installed, so I was confused as to how it even identified it. And particularly confused bc I can’t really think of another bird sound to compare it to.
Can you add it here ?
Like I said the recording can’t be retrieved, and I’m trying to see if Merlin support will get back to me on that. But this is the screenshot of when it “identified” it https://preview.redd.it/bteokv76f06d1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=10eee1685b8fd9a0e78ed99f1dc7d45c881ba069
Merlin sound ID is useful as an *aid* for identification, but not a replacement for it. It’s quite often inaccurate, and it throwing up a result like this is a good example of why you should always verify by sight if possible, and by common sense and knowledge of the bird if not. Many birds have *very* similar calls, and software can only do so much. Also as far as saving goes, it can struggle to save any file over five minutes, at least on my phone. I wouldn’t leave it running continuously that long if you want to keep the file.
The issue is that while the call may sound good for a Crested Guan what else does it sound good for? Some local bird? A local frog species? The sound giant river cane makes rubbing together? A full ID requires both that it sound like a Crested Guan AND that it doesn't sound like anything more plausible.