Always thought bird ID apps were for amateurs...

I was totally skeptical about using the Merlin app for identifying birds by sound. For years I just went by sight and gut feeling, thought an app would be cheating or something. Last Tuesday morning around 5:30 I kept hearing this weird two-note call I couldn't place fishing through the fog over the creek. Pulled out my phone, hit record, and it instantly said it was a Swainson's Thrush - I'd been hearing them for weeks thinking they were something else. Has anyone else had a moment where technology proved you dead wrong about a bird you thought you knew?

3 comments

3 Comments

nora_park1mo ago

Six times last week some app changed how I saw something I'd assumed was simple.

annaw731mo ago

Did you ever try that app on a bird call you've been hearing for years and end up feeling like you've been walking around with your ears half-closed?

black.jake1mo ago

Wait, is it weird that this kind of thing happens to me ALL the time now? I swear, the older I get the more I realize my brain just fills in the blanks with whatever it expects to see or hear. Last month I kept telling my wife this one plant in the yard was definitely a wild rose because the leaves looked close enough. Turns out it was a invasive knotweed the whole time. The app didn't change what I saw, it just showed me I had been ignoring the actual details for years. It's like our brains want shortcuts so bad they'll just make stuff up. Getting caught by a little piece of technology is humbling but it's also the ONLY way I actually learn anything new anymore.

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