Here's a plug for using the free Merlin app in the field for help with bird song.
I know most Rolling Stones songs by the first few notes but my knowledge of bird song is much sketchier.
Today in SE CO's fantastic Cottonwood Canyon (Bent County) I was trying to learn the song of the many Bewick's wrens in the area. As I started recording via the phone app's Shazam-like function, Merlin ID'd a nearby wren, but then picked up some other chatter in the background. The app claimed it was a summer tanager.
As a Colorado birder, I don't have enough experience with this species to know its call, so I dismissed the Merlin ID as a software glitch.
Then this landed above me.
Later in the day, the same app picked out another unfamiliar call in the background and ID'd it as a rufous-crowned sparrow. At the time three separate species were calling, but Merlin highlighted the sparrow each time it called, helping me to locate it via binoculars.
I know there have been plenty of reports of faulty bird ID via the Merlin birdsong app, but here's a shoutout for a pretty good day in the field with one.
Also -- there are bighorn sheep on the Eastern Plains? Who kn-ewe? Cottonwood and Carrizo Canyons -- what great places.
Good birding,
Mark Obmascik
Denver CO
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