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Depends if you want an app to identify a bird by listening to a call (or a recording of a call), or an app so you can listen to calls to help you I'd a bird yourself.
The device demonstrated at the COG meeting taps into an AI that is also used by an app called BirdNET. It will record from your phone and you can then select a portion of that recording to submit for analysis by the AI. I've used it a few times successfully
and a friend also uses it. Apparently it is only reliable on a subset of (more common) Australian birds at this point. Hopefully this will expand.
To listen to calls, I use Merlin as it is free and it works well to tap into examples of calls in the Cornell University database compiled through eBird. I also appreciate seeing the spectrogram of the call as it plays - that helps me to visualise the sound
as I think I am more visual than aural.
Tony
On Wed, 29 Jan 2025, 3:30 pm Rob Geraghty via Canberrabirds, <> wrote:
Thanks Shorty. To clarify, the app worked for making lists but not recognising calls like it did in the USA. The sparrow may be covered as a feral in the USA? I'll have to look at it again. I've stuck to ebird.
On Wed, 29 Jan 2025, 12:04 shorty, <> wrote:
Merlin does work in Australia but not very well yet. I only use it to record calls for my ebird lists but it states it knows 10% of the birds in my area but so far it has only picked up on House Sparrow.
Merlin requires users to record bird calls and let it know what they are for it to learn.
Shorty
On Wed, Jan 29, 2025 at 11:47 AM Rob Geraghty via Canberrabirds <> wrote:
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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