I've been trying the Merlin sound app out on birds that I knew the identity of beforehand, just to see how well it works. It's usually pretty good, but I've seen it make some amazingly bad mistakes, so I wouldn't trust it to identify a rare bird unless I positively identified it myself. For example, I recorded some feral Rock Pigeons cooing softly within 10 feet of me, and it identified the sounds as Great Horned Owl. I also recorded a recently fledged American Robin calling and Merlin listed almost everything but a robin—Cedar Waxwing, House Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, and Chimney Swift. I do think it's a good learning tool, but people shouldn't base a bird identification on this app alone without verifying it.
Tim Gallagher ________________________________ From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Dave Nutter <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, July 9, 2021 3:28 PM To: CAYUGABIRDS-L <[email protected]> Subject: Re: More on Merlin Re: [cayugabirds-l] Merlin results/Turkey Vulture Hi all, I think the Library of Natural Sound used to ask, when archiving audio, whether the bird was seen to make the call. Now, when people include audio with eBird submissions, that question is not asked, and sometimes people are clearly guessing, even against the advice of apps intended to help them ID the calls. I recently checked Macaulay trying to learn more about Black-billed Cuckoo calls. Because at many places and times the species is not rare, I think the recordings go directly from eBird to Macaulay without any review. Before I found any audio recordings which were verified by sight, I found 2 examples of people labeling Chipmunk calls as cuckoos and 1 Yellow-billed labeled as Black-billed. My confidence in Macaulay as a source of information was shaken. Recently an enthusiastic young collector of rare bird reports claimed on the basis of hearing alone that there were 2 Worm-eating Warblers singing at a new location in Tompkins County, a county where the species is always rare yet is regularly found in one location where it’s a lot of trouble to climb a steep slope. Maybe that person is competent to make that judgement. Maybe there are plenty of birders who can. I know I can’t, and clearly Merlin can’t. I sure would appreciate people noting in their eBird reports whether their audio contributions are of birds they also identified by sight while the bird was recorded making the noise, or whether the bird was not seen. - - Dave Nutter On Jul 9, 2021, at 2:11 PM, Linda Orkin <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Thanks Jay and Alicia. I didn’t see first reply though I was looking for it. Appreciate it. I am going to try the uploading to eBird. I didn’t know you could do that It’s interesting looking at the spectrogram and comparing between the trillers too. Although obviously not foolproof it can help you hear the notes in a slightly different way. Linda On Jul 9, 2021, at 1:42 PM, Alicia <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Hi Linda, Jay replied a couple days ago - forwarded below. Best - Alicia -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Possible Worm-eating Warblers in Lansing NY Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2021 12:02:10 -0400 From: Jay McGowan <[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]> Reply-To: Jay McGowan <[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]> To: Linda Orkin <[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]> CC: Barbara Bauer Sadovnic <[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]>, KitKat PonyBird <[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]>, Cayugabirds-L <[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]> Hi Linda, Yes, clicking that will give us a record of it, but it won't be a lot to go on otherwise. One thing that will help long-term would be to make a recording of the bird, then upload it to an eBird checklist (doing some light editing following our best practices<https://support.ebird.org/en/support/solutions/articles/48001064341-audio-preparation-and-upload-guidelines> whenever possible). This won't have any immediate effect on the model of course, but longer term it will provide us with more diverse examples to train on. Jay On Wed, Jul 7, 2021 at 11:34 AM Linda Orkin <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Jay I wonder if you can say what we should do if we know song ID is incorrect. I got worm eating warbler for chipping sparrow down by vas’s park rink today and I clicked no match. Is that the best way to tri and alert Merlin to an incorrect choice? Linda Orkin On Jul 6, 2021, at 10:32 AM, Jay McGowan <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: This is a good reminder that the new Sound ID function in Merlin is a great way to cue into new sounds and learn to ID birds, but should never be taken as the final word on an identification. In this case, trilling species like Worm-eating Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, and even Pine Warbler can be challenging for even experienced birders to identify with confidence, and the sound ID model has trouble being sure as well. Juncos in particular pose a challenge, with their extreme variation between individuals. So certainly, if you're in the right habitat, look a little harder for a bird flagged as a possible Worm-eating, but in the cases you describe, these were almost certainly Chipping Sparrows. P.S. I'd be happy to take a listen to a recording if you want to send it privately. Jay On Sun, Jul 4, 2021 at 6:38 PM Barbara Bauer Sadovnic <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: The same thing happened to me today, also while eating breakfast on my porch, in Enfield! I also tried BirdNET, and got the same result, although that might have been a “wild guess.” When I went looking for it I thought I saw a chipping sparrow, but couldn’t get a good look. Later in the day the bird (I think the same bird) was closer, and was identified as a chipping sparrow. But I couldn’t find it. Just now I heard it again, and again Merlin thought “worm-eating warbler.” When I got closer Merlin changed his mind to chipping sparrow, and when I finally got a good look, I did see chipping sparrow, singing. I am really enjoying the new Merlin. On Jul 4, 2021, at 1:15 PM, KitKat PonyBird <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: While enjoying breakfast on my back porch today, I heard an unfamiliar bird. The new Sound ID on the Merlin app came up with Worm-eating Warbler. Merlin says this bird is rare for this area. I heard at least three of the same song from different locations at nearly the same time. Still hearing them around. I did a couple of recordings, but don't know (yet) how to share them. It's definitely different from the chipping sparrows I usually hear. Wish I'd been able to get a visual. 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