Merlin

One of the most used apps on my phone is Merlin. This app helps me identify all birds I came across on my adventures. I have discovered birds like the yellow-headed blackbird and the green heron.

When looking for a bird on Merlin, you will first want to download the bird pack that makes the most sense to you. Living in Minnesota, I have the US: Midwest and US and Canada: Continental packs. After you get the correct pack, it is on to identifying. The first question to answer is where, on a map, did you see the bird. You can enter a city name, zip code or use the GPS on your phone. The following questions will be what day you saw the bird and the size of the bird; the sizes range from a sparrow or smaller to goose or larger. After that, you will answer what color it was, picking up to three main colors. The last question to answer is what the bird was doing, was it swimming in a lake, soaring in the sky, or at a feeder?

Once all these are answered, you will get a list of what is most likely to be the bird you saw, and you can scroll through several images to compare. This app has helped me name countless birds.