Identify the birds you see or hear with Merlin Bird ID

Free global bird guide with photos,
sounds, maps, and more.

Bird ID Wizard—Step-by-step

Answer three simple questions about a bird you are trying to identify and Merlin will give you a list of possible matches. Merlin offers quick identification help for all levels of bird watchers and outdoor enthusiasts to help you learn about the birds in any country in the world.

Enter size, color and behavior to identify your bird.

Identify Bird Songs and Calls

Sound ID listens to the birds around you and shows real-time suggestions for who’s singing. Compare your recording to the songs and calls in Merlin to confirm what you heard. Sound ID works completely offline, so you can identify birds you hear no matter where you are.

Available for birds in the US, Canada, Europe, with some common birds of Central and South America, and India. More species and regions coming soon. 

Merlin will listen to the birds you are hearing and identify them.

Select a bird in your photo and Merlin will identify it for you

Identify Birds in a Photo

Snap a photo of a bird, or pull one in from your camera roll, and Photo ID will offer a short list of possible matches. Photo ID works completely offline, so you can identify birds in the photos you take no matter where you are.


Save Birds to Your Life List

Build a digital scrapbook of your birding memories with Save My Bird. Tap “This is my bird!” each time you identify a bird, and Merlin will add it to your growing life list.

Save birds to your life list right through the Merlin app

Explore Lists of Birds Near You

Merlin is powered by eBird, allowing you to build custom lists of the birds you’re likely to spot wherever you are. Use the filter options to explore birds for different locations or time of year, or switch to show all the species in the Bird Packs you’ve downloaded. Get more from the app with these Merlin Tips and Tricks.

View a list of likely birds near you, listen to their sounds, view photos and read more about them.

See How Merlin Can Help You ID Birds


The Best Birding App, Powered By You

Merlin features the best of community contributed photos, songs, and calls, tips from experts around the world to help you ID the birds you see, and range maps from Birds of the World—all powered by billions of bird observations submitted to eBird.

The Merlin app featuring photography, range maps, songs and calls.