Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab

Cornell University · 4.7 ★ · FREE

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Description

What's that bird? Ask Merlin—the world’s leading app for birds. Just like magic, Merlin Bird ID will help you solve the mystery.

Merlin Bird ID helps you identify birds you see and hear. Merlin is unlike any other bird app—it's powered by eBird, the world’s largest database of bird sightings, sounds, and photos.

Merlin offers four fun ways to identify birds. Answer a few simple questions, upload a photo, record a singing bird, or explore birds in a region.

Whether you’re curious about a bird you’ve seen once or you’re hoping to identify every bird you can find, the answers are waiting for you with this free app from the renowned Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

WHY YOU’LL LOVE MERLIN
• Expert ID tips, range maps, photos, and sounds help you learn about the birds you spot and build birding skills.
• Discover a new bird species each day with your own personalized Bird of the Day
• Get customized lists of birds you can find where you live or travel - anywhere in the world!
• Keep track of your sightings—build your personal list of the birds you find

MACHINE LEARNING MAGIC
• Powered by Visipedia, Merlin Sound ID and Photo ID uses machine learning to identify birds in photos and sounds. Merlin learns to recognize bird species based on training sets of millions of photos and sounds collected by birders at eBird.org, archived in the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
• Merlin delivers the most accurate results thanks to experienced birders, who curate and annotate sightings, photos, and sounds, who are the true magic behind Merlin.

AMAZING CONTENT
• Merlin has bird photos, songs, and calls, and identification help for anywhere in the world, including Mexico, Costa Rica, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India, Australia, Korea, Japan, China, and more.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s mission is to interpret and conserve the Earth’s biological diversity through research, education, and citizen science focused on birds and nature. We are able to offer Merlin for free thanks to the generosity of Cornell Lab members, supporters, and citizen-science contributors.

Developer

Cornell University

Developer ID: 382072985

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What's New

Version 3.9 · 23 May 2026

What’s new in 3.9: Observation Deck: Your Merlin home screen now features a swipeable daily feed showcasing Bird of the Day, stunning featured photos, and bite-sized bird tips! Each contains a full-screen view for photos and videos, plus a "Learn more" button to dive deeper into species accounts or related content. Habitat Photos: Discover where birds live with our new carousel of habitat photos curated for a subset of species, making it easier than ever to find the birds near you or further afield! New language support for Kyrgyz and Welsh. Improvements and new species added to Photo ID. Bug fixes and improvements.

Ratings & Reviews

App Store

4.7

1,186 ratings

N/A downloads

Google Play

4.8

164,324 ratings

10,000,000+ downloads

5★

92%

4★

3★

2★

1★

Recent Reviews

Salt

Google Play

I love the set up of the merlin bird app, I love the interface and how it constantly records and gives me live updates ....however not only does it constantly sign me out, it is difficult to sign back in. Multiple times a day I've having to jump through hoops to login in...I finally just uninstalled it

27 May 2026

Richard Teague

Google Play

problems with sign in to Cornell using checked and saved username and password in order to access and enter life list. keeps saying there's a problem. frustrating

27 May 2026

Michelle Mann

Google Play

brilliant app, absolutely love it and it's given me a great insight on the birds we have.

27 May 2026

HoneyBunch

Google Play

Just superb

27 May 2026

steve K

Google Play

Great at identifying bird species and building a list while walking But and this has happened a number of times. Once you finish your walk and want to look at all the birds encountered - it just resets when you do manage to see the list and save it - there is no way to look at the saved list. so you need a second app to record everything- but you get hit by the first problem shame - as otherwise a lovely app.

27 May 2026

coeurnii

App Store

big fan

i’m a beginner birder and am having a lot of fun on this app. it makes me feel more present and in the moment when i go for walks. my only critique (or rather suggestion) is i wish there was somewhere to submit your own photos for the birds you spot - that way you can maybe add friends and see their bird pics or just keep your own personal collection! either way i would highly recommend the app to others

30 Apr 2026

alias14411

App Store

Great app

Great app. I’ll give it 4 stars only because I with it’d keep the photos i upload somewhere to have my own photo library. Apart from that, excellent

18 Apr 2026

Ginge1348

App Store

We love this app!

This is the first app I pull out when travelling somewhere new. Being a bit of a nature nerd I love knowing all the birds surrounding me and learning what they are without the app having to tell me first. The step by step method is equally useful if you can remember what you saw. A slight social aspect to the app would improve it ten fold in my opinion so that my friends back home could see what zany birds I have been seeing on my travels. Cornell labs please add!

17 Apr 2026

Killa beaz

App Store

Introduce friends

I love this app, I would love it even more if I could keep up to date with other friends captures. Especially considering we live in different countries.

6 Mar 2026

4ndrw

App Store

Good fun. Not very good with Australian bird calls (yet)

I’m enjoying it, think the app is brilliant. But there’s not the same experience as I saw with someone using it overseas on YouTube. It warns with can only identify 33% of birds here, but my experience suggests it’s way lower. My mum thought it was hilarious it couldn’t recognise their neighbours rooster call… 😅 (let alone more obscure local birds) I’ve downloaded the app to submit bird calls… but I feel I’m a bit too much of a novice to dive into that too much yet! I’ve found that it works far better with photos of birds than sound recordings! So I’m enjoying that more. Gotta catch em all!

23 Feb 2026