What is Merlin Bird ID?  From Cornell Lab of Ornithology, it’s a free app for your phone designed for beginning and intermediate birders that helps identify birds based on your observed details or a photo.  Answer five simple questions about a bird you are trying to identify and Merlin will come up with a list of possible matches. Or use a photo. Snap a photo of a bird, or pull one in from your camera, and Merlin Photo ID will offer a short list of possible matches offline so you can even identify birds in the photos you take when you are far from cell service.

Merlin draws upon more than 370 million observations from the eBird citizen-science project. It customizes your list to the species you are most likely to have seen at your location and time of year. Browse more than 2.000 stunning images taken by top photographers. Merlin also includes more than 1,000 audio recordings from the Macaulay Library, identification tips from experts, and range maps from the Birds of North America Online. Find out how to get Merlin at: http://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/.