My brother told me about this Merlin Bird ID App from Cornell University. I like watching birds and I’ve always been curious about the types of birds in my neighborhood so I downloaded the app to try.

It is a very good app and it’s easy to use and provides a consistent and clean user experience. I only wish there was a way to create a list of birds I saw so I wrote to them about that in the contact form. On my walk with the baby, I was able to identify the regular birds I see all the time: the American robin, the European starling, the mourning dove, the cardinal and the bluejay (and what a screechy call it has!). I was also able to identify the black and white bird I saw in battery park city weeks ago (a black and white warbler) and the oddity I saw back in January: the Northern Harrier (I mistakenly thought it was an owl at the time but felt it was odd that an owl would kill a pigeon and fly away in the day time).

I highly recommend this app if you are into birds or just want to know what is flying and chirping around you.