You’re walking along on a cool, spring day when you hear the most delightful bird call. You turn your head to catch a glimpse of this pretty bird, but it flutters away before you can identify it. You look around at the other birds hopping about the trees, and suddenly wish you knew more about the creatures that inhabit your backyard.
You’re in luck. Did you know you can identify the birds you see simply by using an app on your smart phone? We're highlighting two birding apps we recommend for learning about your backyard bird friends.
When you’re learning to identify birds, the best place to start is the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Merlin Bird ID app. This app asks you five simple questions about a bird you are trying to identify and then comes up with a list of possible matches. Merlin offers quick help for bird watchers of all levels.
Twigle Birds is a new app that lets you search for birds by color, habitat, size and other appearance clues. It's also the first app to use both photos and audio recording recognition to help identify birds. Using your phone’s microphone, you can record a bird call, upload it and the software in the app will identify the bird associated with the sound.
Get in touch with your backyard when you know more about its inhabitants. Use these helpful resources to learn more about the lovely songbirds in your area.