Applauding Some New Merlin Features
I’ve been a user of the Bird ID tool Merlin for a number of years now, and it has improved massively since it was first released. That said, there was one thing it didn’t do well, and that’s help a user of the tool understand how reliable it’s ID was — it more or less treated it’s findings as 100% correct, which is incorrect (and honestly, not possible). However, a couple of months ago Merlin made a significant update to the app, and now it does take into consideration the likelihood of a species being at a location as part of its ID process, and if flags unlikely birds in its results. This will improve the reliability of data submitted to eBird based on Merlin findings a lot, and also helps users understand which birds Merlin is reporting need more rigourous evaluation (and hopefully visual confirmation) before reporting them.
A great example of this around here is Chipping Sparrow, which is uncommon but is findable around here — but its call has strong similarities to the Dark-Eyed Junco. So, of course, false positives on this species are fairly common, but now, Merlin both flags this ID and explains it’s often confused with Junco (so, if it’s somewhere juncos also exists it’s not a chipping sparrow). I’ve been pretty critical about the lack of this feature over time, so seeing it added has really made me happy and I’m more willing to trust it if I know the species is to some degree expected where I’m birding (for true rarities, it’s still not nearly enough to confirm the species on its own).
Interesting instance of this: last weekend I assisted in my first outing for Kitsap Audubon, where they did a 2 hour walk around Point No Point. At thet end of that, someone came up to me and showed me the list of birds Merlin had caught along the walk. He specifically asked advice on two species, Brewer’s Blackbird, which is much less common but still around in some numbers, and Western Kingbird.
The Kingbird is uncommon enough here that it being found will generate some chasing, but as it turns out, a Kingbird WAS found there and had been reported on eBird by multiple people over the previous 3 days or so — so I was able to confirm to him that both were reasonable for that visit. This reinforced to me that Merlin is a common tool In use these days, and that since it had flagged the kingbird in its results, that it’s also now doing a good job of helping a user tell which birds need more thought before listing them. So, good on Merlin.
