Birdsong data from Merlin ID app to help global biodiversity project
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- Merlin app by Cornell Lab of Ornithology will automatically upload users' bird sound identifications to eBird, a global database holding 2bn+ observation records, creating one of the world's largest citizen-science biodiversity pipelines.
- Merlin has been downloaded 40m+ times across 240 countries; Britain is the second-largest market with ~2 million users in May alone, trailing only the United States.
- Merlin can currently identify 2,066 bird species — covering most birds in the US, Canada, and Europe, plus common species in India and across Central and South America, with Cornell adding more in an ongoing effort.
- The UK bird population has dropped by 70m+ birds over the past 50 years, according to the British Trust for Ornithology, underscoring why better acoustic monitoring matters for conservation.
- European Bird Census Council recommends against using Merlin in official breeding bird surveys, citing misidentification risk, and has set up a dedicated group to coordinate acoustic bird monitoring across Europe.
- RSPB's Prof Richard Gregory welcomed Merlin's reach but warned misidentification is a real problem — his own dachshund was once logged as a mallard — and said incorrect species data flowing into conservation datasets could mislead population research.
- Cornell's Jessie Barry said upcoming app updates will create a 'better link' so recordings from Merlin can be used to monitor bird populations and inform ecological management strategies.
Why it matters: Cornell's eBird gains a massive new pipeline: 40m downloads' worth of user-collected acoustic data, with Britain's 2 million May users alone feeding into the platform. But the EBCC and RSPB's Richard Gregory warn that misidentifications — including a dachshund logged as a mallard — flowing directly into conservation datasets could distort population monitoring for at-risk species at unprecedented scale.
