Photo:
Deidra Bryant
My significant other and I recently explored this large recreational area in Ashburn named “Beaverdam Reservoir” last month. The area of the park near us used to be closed off due to renovations and wasn’t open to the public for a long time so we never had the opportunity to go in the past. However, in late April this year, it opened for hiking, biking, kayaking, fishing, and canoeing. It was very warm out when we went, and fortunately there were no mosquitoes (yet), so I felt comfortable wearing short sleeves in a relatively wooded area near water.
Merlin App screenshot
Like any hardcore naturalist, I got to the start of the trail and spent at least 10 minutes just taking notice of everything before proceeding. This included the blooming flowers, the budding leaves, the crawling insects, the smell of honeysuckle in the air, and the numerous bird songs. There was a symphony of different sounds that day and it got a bit overwhelming trying to guess who was singing. In the past I had the opportunity to take a Birding by Ear course right about the same time last year, so I was able to match some sounds to a bird, but most birds have more than one call or song which made identifying trickier. Luckily the Cornell Lab Merlin Bird ID application had just the tool to help me out.
Now, I’ve used the Merlin Bird ID app plenty of times, but I mostly used it for ID-ing birds that I can see. If you haven’t used the app in a while, there was an update not too long ago that made birding much more fun. Did you know that there is now a Sound ID feature on the app that analyzes bird songs in real time and matches the species that produces that sound while they’re singing? For example, when an unknown bird sings, open the app, select “Sound ID”, and it will listen and give a best match for all the species it hears using Merlin’s incredibly robust dataset and the powerful AI tools in the app’s programing. A spectrogram will also appear showing pitch and frequency, and the app will save your recordings with a date and time along with its best matches regarding species at that time. Also, if there are multiple birds singing simultaneously, the app will highlight the one currently singing, while continuing to list the other species in the area. The more people who use this feature, the better the AI becomes at matching the bird with the song. It’s currently free on both iOS and Android devices, but it only works for birds in the United States and Canada right now.
Birding by ear takes a lot of practice. The best way for me to learn is to just get out there and test myself every day. Not only does it help keep my skills sharp, but it allows me to hear calls under different circumstances like near a busy street or trying to isolate one bird call among many others singing. It’s even better when you get to actually see the bird you identified by ear, confirming your guess. This update helps tremendously for when you hear an unfamiliar song or call. It shows whether your guess was wrong or right (although it’s not perfect yet), maps the sound for those interested in bird acoustics, and keeps records of it so you can refer to it later or share it on social media or with your friends and family. The feature definitely opens doors for research and conservation efforts. Download it if you haven’t already. I’ll be using it all summer!