Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab

4.8
143K reviews
5M+
Downloads
Content rating
USK: All ages
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About this app

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
Oct 23, 2025

Data safety

Safety starts with understanding how developers collect and share your data. Data privacy and security practices may vary based on your use, region, and age. The developer provided this information and may update it over time.
No data shared with third parties
Learn more about how developers declare sharing
This app may collect these data types
Personal info, App activity and 2 others
Data is encrypted in transit
You can request that data be deleted

Ratings and reviews

4.8
141K reviews
David Cassim B
July 8, 2025
Amazingly accurate! The sound id function also works offline. I've had very good results so far, even when there's background noise such as traffic, people talking etc. highly recommended if you like spending time in nature and have always wondered what all those birds are! An option to pre-download all the birds of an area would be cool so that I have more pictures and perhaps the wiki articles offline but otherwise... 5 stars for sure!
52 people found this review helpful
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Erin King
July 7, 2025
Amazing app that I have used for years on 3 different continents, the sound ID is extremely useful. Step by Step ID is not very helpful in my opinion if you are looking at species with only slight variations between them like some sparrows, but for a general audience it does narrow it down quite well. We use the sound ID to help with field surveys where there is less visibility of individuals calling, and it is great!
1 person found this review helpful
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Jared Carroll
August 2, 2025
Wants me to create an account to keep track of the birds I spot. Okay, whatever. Try to create an account; "no internet connection" wait a few, close the app and try again. Works. Try to add a bird, "no internet connection." This happens constantly. Why bother making an account if it won't let me register birds at all? Why can't it just locally cache everything? Absurd.
41 people found this review helpful
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What’s new

Sound ID Revamp: Check out Sound ID's new look! In addition to a visual refresh, this also includes an update for saving recordings. After finishing your next Sound ID session, take note of the new "Save" button for recordings. Merlin will no longer automatically save recordings - now you can choose which recordings that you'd like to save right when you finish listening.

Thanks so much for testing Merlin and your feedback!