Did Merlin Bird ID really hear these in my garden? (5 Viewers)

[la_ravachol]

Merlin has got much better recently. Are your versions up to date? Have you signed up for beta testing?

I did update recently and it does seem to have improved a bit. I've also wondered if it might be noticeably better on a different device.

 

[LittleBitOfBreadNoCheese]

My experience with Grasshopper Warbler is that BirdNET treats every cricket like it's one. In this case, Merlin seems to score every time, no false hits (not that I know of).

Can you run this through bN? or both if you like. Former won't get this right for me. I do have the species within a few miles of me.

♫ Grasshopper-Warbler - song / call / voice / sound.

Listen to Grasshopper-Warbler on a high quality audio recording. At our website you will find recordings of all british bird species - completely free of cost.

www.british-birdsongs.uk

 

[01101001]

Works fine for me (it's 'almost certain' it has heard one).

 

[qwerty5]

But if I walk through a wood for two hours an AI can nail every audible call even if several are calling over each other, without bias. Up to the limits of its accuracy which are probably as good as anyone posting here. I can't throw away that kind of data.

In my experience this is simply not true, or else the posters you describe have very poor hearing indeed. Take for example this recording. To my relatively novice ear there are 14 species. Merlin only identified 12 (I believe the two it missed were BTNW and OVEN). Add to that the fact that a smartphone mic cannot pick up all the sounds that are audible. Even the faintest species in this recording were easily audible and identifiable in the field. So being generous, let's say Merlin identifies 90% of birds in a recording, and the recording picks up 90% of the audible bird sounds. That means that Merlin only has 80% of the effectiveness of the human ear.

That said, I don't care if people use Merlin as a tool to detect birds. The problem is, far too many beginners use it as their authority for identifying birds, and even report birds they never even heard themselves.