Bird ID Trivia: Merlin vs. Birders

Рет қаралды 20,247

Жыл бұрын

Please note that polls were visible for the LIVE event and are not shown in the recording.
Join us for a bird ID trivia game and learn some new bird identification tricks! The Cornell Lab’s Merlin Bird ID app is powered by machine learning. Can an app outsmart experienced birders and a live audience? Using bird photos and sounds, we’ll see who can correctly identify the most species. The game involves audience participation, so come ready to play! During the game, we’ll learn how Merlin “decides” on an ID, and panelists will share their tips for sleuthing out tricky birds by sight and sound.

Пікірлер: 17

@judirandall Жыл бұрын

Fascinating! I've been using Merlin's sound ID for a few months now, and am absolutely stunned with its ability to recognize ONLY bird sounds (not my dogs barking, or traffic noise). AND, it seems to pick out Northern Mockingbirds amid the multiple bird species that visit our feeders (NW Georgia, USA)

@dougsaroma Жыл бұрын

This is really cool. There's a feature I wish the Cornell avian sites offered. When you explore birds you can view "similar birds" by how they appear. I wish they did the same with bird sounds. There are many bird sounds by different species that seem similar, and I wish I could compare when I'm a bit stumped on a bird that could be a couple of different things to my ear.

@jessekolar322 Жыл бұрын

Enjoyed this video to get a better idea of some of the strengths and weaknesses of Merlin. I've been very impressed how well it performs in multi-species settings like the last quiz question, but it still misses distant sounds more than humans, e.g. ring-necked pheasant crow at the end of the clip (@41:42 in the KZfaq video) and a Wilson's phalarope "song" that gets cut off at the end of the audio. Similar to the mockingbird example where merlin lacks context, I've had Merlin identify a single singing bird as two species (Lazuli bunting/indigo bunting, red-eyed/Philadelphia vireo, American redstart/yellow warbler, sharp-tailed grouse/great-horned owl). It's good to learn from your own mistakes, but it also helps to learn bird song features from Merlin's mistake. Merlin has become a very useful tool--thanks to all the developers for working on this!

@ArianaSarahaFlightBehavior Жыл бұрын

I’ve noticed a few of those Merlin mishaps also - the same bunting confusion, and the redpoll/yellow warbler confusion. I also had a pyrhulloxia/northern cardinal conflation, even though I could clearly see it was a pyrhulloxia 😅 Starlings have fooled it multiple times with their mimicry as well. They can do a fabulous Stellars jay imitation. But on the whole, it has been an exceptional tool! …when wisely blended with personal observation.

@an1mus_v0x 8 ай бұрын

That was a really cool and creative idea for an event! Thank you :)

@WilHershberger 6 ай бұрын

Terrific game. It would be really nice if credit was given to the sound recordists as it was to the photographers.

@ninaandroski8858 Жыл бұрын

This was fun! I enjoyed this virtual event.

@lindasisulak4544 Жыл бұрын

Very informative, and fun!

@williaml1274 8 ай бұрын

Your app is amazing the down part is that it does not show when the bird usually comes out like does it come out 5:00pm or 5:00am i hope you add this to your app ty