3 Curious Benefits of the Merlin App

There’s a tendency for seasoned birders to turn their noses up at Merlin, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s extremely popular bird identification app.

“It’s not 100% accurate, you know.”

“Don’t trust it.”

“Always verify your results.”

Undoubtedly, this is very good advice and I’ve had Merlin offer some suggestions, that even as a novice, I knew were unlikely or even impossible. However, I would argue that the benefits of Merlin vastly outweigh the occasional missed identification. Here are three things I didn’t expect when I started using Merlin.

I spend way more time outside.

Merlin is like a giant scavenger hunt that changes every day. Who knows what birds might be waiting outside to be discovered? Consequently, this year I’ve explored every one of my local nature parks, searching for birds.

A white-breasted nuthatch walking down the trunk of a tree. — A white-breasted nuthatch on a fall day in my local nature park.

There really are birds in my backyard

I live in a neighbourhood that’s about twenty years old and that doesn’t have a lot of mature trees. I’d always believed that other than the ubiquitous robins and magpies, there weren’t very many birds in my backyard. Merlin has proved me wrong in a big way. So far this year, I’ve counted 56 different birds including everything from Great Horned Owls to tiny Ruby-Crowned Kinglets.

A close-up of a black-billed magpie at a feeder. — Black-billed magpies are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to backyard birds.

I can identify more birds

I am not someone who has good audio recall. I always fail at those games where you are expected to identify a song from a short clip. The same goes for birds. My ability to recognize and remember different bird songs is extremely limited. But using Merlin has increased my skills and there are now dozens of birds that I can recognize by their songs. Unfortunately, this ability will vanish over the winter and I’ll have to learn them all again next summer (with Merlin’s help).

Half a dozen long legged shore birds on a plastic dock. — I was very excited to find these Black-necked Stilts at a local park.

More than recognizing bird songs, Merlin has made me more aware of the birds that are around me. I think this is the true benefit of Merlin. Its value is not in the number or species of birds that are identified, it’s about providing opportunities to notice and appreciate nature. And I’m grateful for that.

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