NULL — The Cornell Lab for Ornithology plans to integrate its Merlin bird ID app with the eBird platform to facilitate automatic data collection for bird population monitoring. This development aims to link the two platforms, with future updates collecting bird species detections recorded by Merlin users onto the eBird database.

Jessie Barry, a leader of the Merlin project, stated, "The eBird mobile app will soon have the ability to upload recordings, which can be recorded in Merlin." She added, "Upcoming feature developments will make an even better link to the eBird systems so that we can use the data from what users 'hear' with Merlin to monitor bird populations." Barry noted, "This data helps create tools that can be used to further conservation, inspire support and inform ecological management strategies." She also said, "Our ability to understand changes in bird populations will be better served with more data to work with than if we don't collect it at all."

The Merlin app, created by the Cornell Lab for Ornithology, has utilized machine learning for sound-identification services for birdsong since 2021. It can identify 2,066 bird species, providing an image for each identification, and has been downloaded more than 40 million times across 240 countries. As of May of this year, almost 2 million people in the U.K. used the app, making Britain the country with the second-highest number of users.

Richard Gregory, a professor at the RSPB, expressed enthusiasm for the app's increasing popularity, stating, "It is super-positive that it is increasing in popularity and use, and especially to a new, wider and different group of people." He also remarked, "Everywhere I go, I see people are using Merlin, connecting with nature and learning their birds, becoming more curious to know more." However, Gregory also pointed to potential issues with the app's accuracy. He recounted an instance where Merlin identified his dachshund as a mallard, adding, "If you aren't an expert, you wouldn't necessarily know there was an error." Gregory commented on the planned integration, stating, "It is interesting to hear that Cornell is making changes which mean that recordings from Merlin will go to eBird more easily, so that's great if the species recognition is correct [but] a problem for conservation when it is not."

Why It Matters

The planned integration of the Merlin app and eBird platform represents an effort to expand bird population monitoring through citizen science data. The eBird platform, also created by the Cornell Lab for Ornithology in 2002, currently contains over 2 billion bird observation records. The goal is to leverage the Merlin app's widespread adoption, which saw 33 million downloads by December of last year and identifies common and widespread bird species in various regions, including the U.S., Canada, Europe, India, and across Central and South America, to gather more data for conservation efforts. This initiative comes as the total bird population in the U.K. has fallen by more than 70 million over the past 50 years.