Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab

182K reviews
Content rating
PEGI 3
10M+
Downloads
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About this app

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
• Choose bird packs that contain 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.
What’s that bird? Just answer 5 questions, snap a photo, or record its song!
Updated on
Sep 24, 2026
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Data safety

Safety starts with understanding how developers collect and share your data. Data privacy and security practices may vary based on your use, region, and age. The developer provided this information and may update it over time.
  • No data shared with third parties
    Learn more about how developers declare sharing
  • This app may collect these data types
    Personal info, App activity and 2 others
  • Data is encrypted in transit
  • You can request that data be deleted

Ratings and reviews

180K reviews
Tony Whitehouse
September 4, 2026
An amazing app. Makes a trip to a new continent so much more enjoyable. We've been offline a lot and it would be great if it were possible to store photos for when the location services aren't working. Also we saw an owl but didn't get a photo. For some reason, it didn't appear in the list for step by step sift for size and colour. No criticism - a wishlist! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
5 people found this review helpful
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A T
August 22, 2026
Requires location to be on to add to life list, despite telling the app where I am. I like to conserve battery power so I simply don't have this on. Keeps asking me to sign in, and by the time I've done that (whole account set up with Cornell) and it's worked it out I've got an account I've missed the bird. Clearly, I'm one of the few people who just can't get this app to function as I would expect.
6 people found this review helpful
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Chris
September 5, 2026
Excellent app but a few suggestions to improve. It would be great if we could share our list as I know a few people who have the app and we love to compare what birds are in our area. I definitely think you need to start thinking along the lines of Pokémon go. This app could be huge if it was a bit more intuitive and a few more features. also a bit of an update on the visuals and themes would be nice but not imperative.
1 person found this review helpful
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What’s new

What's new in 4.0:
Enhanced account authentication - Added a more secure method for logging in
Improved flow for saving birds - Streamlined the process for saving birds to your life list
Bug fixes

Important Update Notice
You'll be automatically logged out when this version launches due to the new authentication system. Simply log back in using any login screen. Forgot your password? Use the reset option to get back in quickly.