You’ve probably heard of birdwatching, but what about bird listening? Cornell University researchers updated their free mobile app Merlin Bird ID to identify birds from their calls.
To use this feature, users first record bird songs. Merlin turns the sound wave vibrations into a picture called a spectrogram. The app compares the image with spectrograms for 560 bird species in North America. It finds which one looks the most like the user’s recording. The app creators programmed Merlin to filter out car honks and dog barks.
“I hope Merlin makes it easier for kids to learn more about birds they hear,” says Drew Weber, a scientist who worked on the app. “Birds are great connections to the natural world.”