Bird call phone apps

[Rob Geraghty via Canberrabirds <>]

FWIW, I used Merlin in the USA and it's incredible, but as far as I know, it still doesn't support recognition of Australian birds. I don't think it supports birds anywhere outside North America; I don't think the call recognition worked in Japan, for example. 

I was able to confirm a lot of sightings in the US with Merlin. I really hope that they do expand it to Australia. 

If you have phone internet while birding, you could use Xenocanto to listen to samples of bird calls as a way of confirming them, but it's not an app (AFAIK) and won't match calls for you.

On Wed, 29 Jan 2025, 10:51 Kim Farley via Canberrabirds, <> wrote:

Hi Philip

My two cents worth! There are several different and useful things available. For people who already know their birds a bit, the smart phone version of the Pizzey Knight field guide offers calls as well as the full text and illustrations from the field guide. Ditto the smart phone version of the Morecambe field guide.  The illustrations in Morecambe are pretty poor so I tend to recommend Pizzey Knight. 

But since one needs to know what to look up in a field guide app, there are also bird identification apps some of which allow users to record a call which is then matched to a call on the app and an identification (hopefully) made. The PUC that Peter showed us last year is one of those. It is not a phone app but a separate device and is expensive. Peter also said that it isn't yet great for Aust species, though that will change over time.

Another option is the Merlin phone app. This is a Cornell University creation, meaning it comes from the same source as eBird. It is free. Again, maybe not yet fabulous for Aust species  - though my info might be out of date on that.  Here is a link to info about it about https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/

Kim

On Tue, 28 Jan 2025, 11:03 pm Philip Veerman via Canberrabirds, <> wrote:

My brother asked me about Bird call phone apps and I don’t know. Do others have recommendations. In particular, what was the one that Peter Fullagar talked about, to a COG / CB meeting, I think last year?

 

Philip

 

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