Citizen Scientists, Unite! The Merlin App, Machine Learning, and Bird Calls

Every Spring and Summer, I become obsessed with the Merlin App. This app allows you to record bird songs using your phone and then uses machine learning to identify the bird call. The app can also do visual IDs if your phone has a much better camera than mine.

It is like PokemonGo. I have to catch them all. But no augmented reality, just reality reality.

Here is my "life list" of all the birds I've identified in about a year of using the App:

This app brings joy. It is also a quick example of how citizens can become scientists, how Apps can generate data from citizen scientists, and how machine learning makes it work. So, this isn't a lengthy example for class, but it is an accessible example that shows how apps and phones can be harnessed for the better good. And science is super fun.

How this App gathers data from users:

But how? Via machine learning:

Here is even more info on how their machine learning works:

AND THEN, the data can be used for scientific research. Here is a list of publications powered by Merlin (and other associated data collections). Note: Bird research may not be a passion topic for many of our students, but note how many of these papers are about climate change. This data is useful for noting when migration begins and how climate change is affecting bird migration.

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