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If you haven't tried it their Merlin app is pretty fantastic.

by snarfy 2mo ago

bobbiechen 2mo ago
I've used Merlin for a while and I'm still impressed by Merlin's sound identification, it continues to inspire me. I wrote about it last year: https://digitalseams.com/blog/what-birdsong-and-backends-can-teach-us-about-magic https://digitalseams.com/blog/what-birdsong-and-backends-can...
- ghaff 2mo ago
  The sound and visual recognition around a lot of things is pretty impressive and I imagine it will work its way into less obstrusive AR in a lot of ways over time.
- dd8601fn 2mo ago
  Wow. I just tried it and it worked like magic. Thanks for mentioning that.
drcongo 2mo ago
It's Pokemon for old people, I love it and use it at least once a day. Personal best for a dog walk - 23 different birds, personal best for sitting in the garden drinking my morning coffee - 17 birds. My family got a little tired of me using it on holiday in Portugal, but in my defence there were a lot of new birds I needed to add to my collection.
- mkatx 2mo ago
  Nice! I haven't tried Merlin, but I been meaning to set it up in the yard. I've been using Seek on my phone, which is part of inatural. Similar thing, but pictures and most life, not just birds. That is totally Pokemon for non-pokemon peeps.. gotta bust out my phone every time I find something I haven't 'caught' yet.
whall6 2mo ago
Highly highly recommend. I use it at least once a week and have done so for several years. My daughter loves scrolling through all the local birds and playing the sounds they make.
sib 2mo ago
And their eBird app! A masterpiece of design for a user base that they deeply understand. Something of a learning curve, but extremely efficient and useful for advanced / expert users.
- xnx 2mo ago
  Does it make sense that Merlin and eBird are separate apps? This confuses me.
  - sib 2mo ago
    Yeah - for sure I found it a bit strange... I guess the use cases (and maybe target users) are different: Merlin - Use lots of data, storage, and analysis to help me identify what bird this is eBird - I can personally identify lots and lots of birds: keep track of all the ones that I and other have seen with maximum speed and efficiency

If you haven't tried it their Merlin app is pretty fantastic.

by snarfy 2mo ago

If you haven't tried it their Merlin app is pretty fantastic.

I've used Merlin for a while and I'm still impressed by Merlin's sound identification, it continues to inspire me. I wrote about it last year: https://digitalseams.com/blog/what-birdsong-and-backends-can-teach-us-about-magic https://digitalseams.com/blog/what-birdsong-and-backends-can...

ghaff 2mo ago
The sound and visual recognition around a lot of things is pretty impressive and I imagine it will work its way into less obstrusive AR in a lot of ways over time.
dd8601fn 2mo ago
Wow. I just tried it and it worked like magic. Thanks for mentioning that.

drcongo 2mo ago

It's Pokemon for old people, I love it and use it at least once a day. Personal best for a dog walk - 23 different birds, personal best for sitting in the garden drinking my morning coffee - 17 birds. My family got a little tired of me using it on holiday in Portugal, but in my defence there were a lot of new birds I needed to add to my collection.

mkatx 2mo ago
Nice! I haven't tried Merlin, but I been meaning to set it up in the yard. I've been using Seek on my phone, which is part of inatural. Similar thing, but pictures and most life, not just birds. That is totally Pokemon for non-pokemon peeps.. gotta bust out my phone every time I find something I haven't 'caught' yet.

whall6 2mo ago

Highly highly recommend. I use it at least once a week and have done so for several years. My daughter loves scrolling through all the local birds and playing the sounds they make.

sib 2mo ago

And their eBird app! A masterpiece of design for a user base that they deeply understand. Something of a learning curve, but extremely efficient and useful for advanced / expert users.

xnx 2mo ago
Does it make sense that Merlin and eBird are separate apps? This confuses me.
- sib 2mo ago
  Yeah - for sure I found it a bit strange... I guess the use cases (and maybe target users) are different: Merlin - Use lots of data, storage, and analysis to help me identify what bird this is eBird - I can personally identify lots and lots of birds: keep track of all the ones that I and other have seen with maximum speed and efficiency