To piggyback on Chip's comment, I agree that Merlin cannot be exclusively relied on for ID "confirmation", and in my opinion, at all. That's not to say Merlin isn't a fascinating and useful tool to assist with learning bird sounds. But I would always emphasize that turning Merlin on should not equate to turning your brain off. Merlin at most can only make suggestions, good suggestions sometimes, bad suggestions others. It never will tell you or confirm what you are hearing (or not hearing), because that job is up to you, the human birder.
I cringe at the thought of new birders simply eBird listing whatever Merlin tells them that they are hearing. I suspect that this is happening in a number of cases, and to me this is not a good thing. I know that Merlin can be correct a lot of the time, but how can its correctness be determined? Only by us! Actively, in real time.
One pertinent recent anecdote I can provide is from a visit I made to East Teller Farms near Boulder about a month ago. A Baltimore Oriole was singing when I arrived, that I identified initially by sound and then got visual confirmation. I then turned on Merlin to record it, and got a minute or two of its song from not terribly far away. Not once did Merlin have any idea what I was recording. It didn't even suggest any oriole whatsoever. Thankfully I didn't have to rely on Merlin to tell me what was present.
This is why I always encourage people to keep trying at birding by ear. Your phone does have a sensitive microphone, but that microphone is not connected to anything as potentially powerful as a human cerebrum.
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Eric DeFonso
On Sat, Jun 24, 2023 at 4:27 PM Chip Clouse <chip.clouse@gmail.com> wrote:
--Ajit,Thanks for this. I would also say the opposite is true. As a 30 year birder with good aural ID skills, I hear and ID a lot of things Merlin does not. I agree that Merlin can be very helpful and I often see common birds, like Mourning Dove, show up on the screen that triggers me to listen and "hear" them when they were there and calling the entire time. I would however, caution those against trusting Merlin every time. I been standing beneath a single singing vireo only to have 3 different vireo species pop up on screen while also hearing 5 other species that Merlin fails to detect at all. It is a tool, not the end all be all, and it will get better and better with time but nothing competes with hearing something, Merlin or no Merlin, and tracking it down to find out what is making that call with a visual confirmation.In the case of the "Steller's Jay," the screen lit up yellow on Steller's Jay every time the Hawk called. In this case, it was flat out wrong. I wonder why the algorithm failed to even suggest Red-tailed Hawk like it has done with the aformentioned vireos etc. on numerous occasions this spring while birding in TX and OH. As I said, it will get better. I was just bringing up a scenario as a cautionary tale for those submitting an eBird checklist followed by comments like "confirmed by Merlin." This is an eBird reviewer's nightmare.Cheers and good Birding,Chip ClouseLakewoodOn Sat, Jun 24, 2023, 1:55 PM Ajit Antony <aiantony521@gmail.com> wrote:Hi Chip and everyone else.
I would caution you and everyone else not to assume that Merlin is necessarily wrong. In your instance it is theoretically possible that Merlin and your smartphone together "heard" a Steller's Jay that you couldn't hear perhaps because it was a distant bird.
I notice this all the time and I'm sure most of you who use the Sound ID feature of Merlin have noticed that Merlin picks up a few more species that we can actually hear, and then when we listen carefully we can actually hear and sometimes see them.
Just because Merlin mentions a species, it's not necessarily what you are hearing. All smartphones have better sound gathering capabilities than our ears, like an astrophotograph that can show detailed features and even colors of nebulae for example that we can't ever see looking through even a large-objective astronomical telescope.
So one feature Merlin has which I find excellent and useful is that when a bird is calling, the name of the species lights up every time it calls. If for example you heard the RTHA but the yellow light did not light up the name of the species name in Merlin every time it called, then Merlin was likely hearing something that's relatively subliminal to your hearing.
Try it next time.
Ajit Antony
Central Park, Colorado
On Fri, Jun 23, 2023, 8:12 PM Chip Clouse <chip.clouse@gmail.com> wrote:And I was recently birding in the foothills where I watched a Red-tailed hawk flyover calling repeatedly. Merlin ID'd it as a Steller's Jay! Is that the opposite of mimicry?Cheers,Chip ClouseLakewoodOn Fri, Jun 23, 2023, 7:46 PM Ajit Antony <aiantony521@gmail.com> wrote:Hi Elena and everyone else.Last year when I lived in New York and was involved in the 3rd (every 20 year) NY State Breeding Bird Atlas, I was in an area where I had already heard 2 Least Flycatcher calling and had seen each of them. Further along the trail I heard a 3rd and in trying to see it realized and saw that it was a earby Gray Catbird perfectly imitating 'che-beck' call of a Least Flycatcher !Out of curiosity I put on the Sound ID section of Merlin, and not unexpectedly it identified it as the call of a Least Flycatcher.I did not then think of it as a deficiency of Merlin, but marveled at the perfect ability of a mimid.Ajit AntonyCentral Park, Colorado--On Fri, Jun 23, 2023, 5:41 PM elena <elena@indra.com> wrote:Merlin is a wonderful tool, but it's certainly not as good as experienced ears. I watched Merlin (and, I confess, myself at first) be fooled by a blue jay doing a dang good imitation of a Coopers Hawk. I thought the jays were doing a very good job but wanted to test Merlin, and, no surprise, the blue jay won.
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I acknowledge that I live in the territory of Hinóno'éí (Arapaho), Cheyenne and Ute Nations, according to the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, and that Colorado's Front Range is home to many Native peoples. Reconozco que vivo en el territorio de las naciones Hinóno'éí (Arapaho), Cheyenne y Ute, según el Tratado de Fort Laramie en 1851, y que el estado de Colorado al esté de las Montañas Rocosas es territorio de muchos pueblos indígenas.
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