Merlin Bird ID Surges Past 42 Million Downloads Amid Birding Boom

Birding season has arrived, bringing with it many birds we have yet to identify. Birding apps are the solution, whether you’re hearing an unfamiliar bird call or seeing a species you haven’t identified before. They streamline the process of bird identification and offer a quick, easy way to learn through birdwatching. Some apps go even further, offering a virtual compendium for all your birding discoveries. From extensive bird call libraries to rare species locations, the perfect app is out there. Birding has broken out of specialty field guides and binoculars, turning into a massive digital hobby driven by pocket-sized artificial intelligence. Whether people are heading outdoors to beat heatwaves or simply looking to reconnect with the natural world, millions are downloading species-recognition tools to parse the calls and feathers around them.

The Explosive Growth of Cornell’s Merlin Bird ID

Chief among the booming software tools is Merlin Bird ID, which was developed by Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology and eBird, putting expert opinions at your fingertips. According to director Jessie Barry, the platform has logged 12 million downloads in 2026 alone, pushing its overall total to 42 million downloads globally. Barry put the development down to AI, as well as "an amazing community of global bird watchers who are able to submit their recordings"—meaning more data to train the tech.

The application has evolved dramatically since its initial US launch in 2014, with machine learning systems which could identify 285 common bird species from photos. A real feather in its cap at the time, but a decade or so on, and it can now identify 11,000 species of birds—around as many as exist in the world. Merlin’s extensive bird library makes this app a great option regardless of where you live or travel, leaving little room for error with its AI-powered response system.

Megan Szostak, 26, was always a “bird kid”. The urge to watch and appreciate the world around her—and avians flitting in and out of it—has been ingrained in her since childhood, when she was given her grandfather’s binoculars after he died. Armed with this and a field guide in her home of San Francisco, she set about identifying birds from an early age. But in recent years, her birding toolbelt has expanded to include something far more modern—an app. "I had friends who probably wouldn’t describe themselves as birders, but more just curious about nature and the world around them, recommend it to me," Megan said. She is one of many millions of people who have downloaded Merlin Bird ID, which claims to be able to identify almost any bird by its look, song or call. "I think that it’s been a really great tool that I’ve integrated into my birding routine," she said.

Comparing the Top Avian Identification Tools

The market for nature-identification software features distinct options tailored to different styles of observation, ranging from free AI recognition engines to paid artistic compendiums and conservation-focused networks.

Among paid alternatives, the Sibley Birds app was overhauled in 2018 with all-new features for experienced and novice birders, and it’s available on iOS and Android. The library has more than 2,800 bird calls, and users can compare various species side by side. Experienced birders will also be pleased to know the app was updated to include more than 930 species. An in-app bird journal helps users keep track of all the birds they have seen, with the option to sort them taxonomically. The most notable feature, however, is the use of David Sibley’s artwork. These paintings depict each bird species with extraordinary detail, and it’s a favorite feature of most users.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a more hands-on approach to connecting with other birders, Birda is the app for you. It offers access to an expansive birding community, and it is an app you can feel good about using.

Big Data, Citizen Science, and the AI Training Debate

This massive influx of digital observation feeds into global scientific databases like the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, an online database run out of Copenhagen) where there are 682,447 records of human encounters with dandelions. Overall, the database holds more than 850 million observations of over a million different species of flora and fauna. Projects like eBird generate millions of bird observations, allowing researchers to visualize the precise migratory routes of over 100 different bird species.

At the same time, in an outcome largely unforeseen by its early collectors, info-engineers are using the data to train artificial intelligence, particularly computer vision apps to help us interpret the plants and animals we see around us. And these tools are raising some interesting, sometimes troubling questions about how data is collected and shared, who has the right to share it and how we use public data for machine learning.

Despite these debates, millions continue opening their phones outdoors. For many, tools like Merlin offer an unexpected mental health benefit alongside ecological data collection. As one user named Papaboy the Birder noted in a promising review: "I was shocked at the number of birds around me that I’d never taken the time to see or hear. Thanks to Merlin, I can now identify at least 20 birds by their songs and calls alone, and I never knew how happy that would make me. More importantly, and totally unexpectedly, it helped me develop a daily mindfulness routine that was missing in my life before."