Good app to identify birds : Picture Bird

[Drbobcameraguy]

It looks like its similar to Merlin Photo ID. Do you have any idea of what geographic areas are covered or not covered? The comments with confusion over the cost look disturbing.

Merlin identifies by either sound or a photo. It works quite well for both - even with out of focus images of uncommon birds or birds in transition to breeding plumage. Merlin is from Cornell University - the people who developed eBird. Like eBird, Merlin is free.

I and my wife have used the Cornell University merlin app for several years. It is a great free app with a lot of information on their website also.

 

[Hutch]

Not sure is this topic has already been discussed.

I’ve been using this app for a while : Picture Bird

View attachment 85205

And I’m pretty bluffed. The principle is simple: just photograph an image of a bird (on the screen of a computer for example) and Picture Bird identifies it.

I take advantage of the wide variety of species presented on Backcountry Gallery to put this software to the test.

After more than 150 tests, I don’t remember a failed attempt.
In some cases, where the bird is not well positioned on the image, Picture Bird still finds the right answer.

If you have comments about this product or if you have other solutions that work well (on iPhone and Mac), feel free to share them.

Works as well on:

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Merlin and e-Bird are free and work excellent. Those are also the most popular apps with the birding clubs.

 

[Capmike]

I’m a bird photographer. Traveling the world. Merlin is terrific, if it has a library for where you are going. Sometimes they don’t have a bird or two somewhere, and for those I use Goggle Images. Not always spot on, but gives a direction to further explore.

 

[Nerja Rob]

I use Merlin for birds, Seek for plants/bugs etc and if totally stumped, just popping a photo on Bird Forum (under Bird Identification Q&A) always gets an answer, usually very quickly.

 

[Calson]

I cannot see enough use of the Bird app to spend $40 a year to have it available. In most cases Merlin identifies the birds by their songs and not camera and super telephoto lens is required.

 

[mdingel]

I also use Merlin also, especially for the Sound ID. Google Lens (image search) does a good job too.

 

[pochito]

Can anybody recommend an app for idenifying bugs?

 

[gKhan]

Users' comments in 'Ratings and Reviews' (App Store):

• I'm not sure if I'm going to be charged.
• I deleted the app straight away though not feeling confident they won't still charge me.
• The app is advertised as free but this is not correct.
• As soon as you have downloaded it, it is an automatic subscription requiring you to cancel in order not to pay.
• This really is scamming people out of their money.
• I was charged within a few days of downloading and before the trial period was over.
• Cancel option is hidden deep in settings somewhere.
• It says for a one week free trial before you are charged and they didn't even say how much it costs!
• This app is a scam.
• Can't delete or remove from subscriptions.
• I am not using this app and wish to cancel but have been unsuccessful.
• Very hard to unsubscribe.
• Does not declare pricing or in-app purchases.
• Find I subscribed to an annual fee after feeling safe it was a free app.
• I too cannot stop the recurring cost of subscription!
• How do you cancel this?
• It looks like it's free but apparently not.
• Looks free. It's not.
• Annoying to unsubscribe.
• How do I cancel the app?

And so on…

Thank you for posting this.

 

[Utsav]

Can anybody recommend an app for idenifying bugs? nulls brawl

Yes please, if anyone can suggest a good app for bugs & insects. I'm a little into macrophotography and most of time, i don't know whose photos i'm taking. Google image search does a good job, but not always to identify the bugs. Thanks.

 

[Annika]

I’ve recently been using Merlin but I initially learned by getting Sibley’s book and just doing it the hard way for a number of years. I use Seek for plants and insects as well though it can be frustrating to use when it just can’t figure out what it’s looking at.

I started birdwatching with Sibley's book, then transitioned to Merlin. Seek helps with plants and insects, although it can be challenging when it struggles to identify species accurately. Gb Whatsapp

 

[MikeInMI]

Merlin has some gaps outside of North America. I talked with someone recently who had been to Costa Rica and they had less than 50% successfully identified by Merlin Photo ID. In my area it's near 100% with a reasonably good photo - even for uncommon birds.

I spent 10 days in Costa Rica on a photo tour and never had Merlin fail to identify every bird picture I took. But Merlin has Bird Packs, and I installed the Bird Pack for Costa Rica. I wonder if the person you talked to had not installed the Costa Rica Bird Pack?

 

[PhotoLover]

Yes please, if anyone can suggest a good app for bugs & insects. I'm a little into macrophotography and most of time, i don't know whose photos i'm taking. Google image search does a good job, but not always to identify the bugs. Thanks.

The Seek app by iNaturalist is pretty good. I use it all the time on pictures I have taken (more often than with bugs in the field). I hold the phone up to the picture on the monitor and it usually either gets the bug or gets me close.

Correctly identifying bug species is hard. For example, there seem to be about 10 billion different types of black wasps with white markings ... and let's not get into the number of beetle species. Seek is usually pretty good on butterflies, moths, etc. As a first cut id, it is solid and relatively fast.

And as a bonus, it will do plants and birds. Again, I often use it on pictures of birds once back home.

 

[JAJohnson]

Yes please, if anyone can suggest a good app for bugs & insects. I'm a little into macrophotography and most of time, i don't know whose photos i'm taking. Google image search does a good job, but not always to identify the bugs. Thanks.

The photos app on iPhone/iPad does a reasonably good job of identifying insects. Not perfect but good enough in my case.

 

[tclune]

I mostly want to ID a bird after I have processed the photo at home on my Windows computer. Merlin seems to be iPhone-centric, which I understand, but that's not my use model. Picture Bird does suit what I do and has been reliable in my experience. If $40/year were an issue for me, I would never have been able to get into photography in the first place. I have no complaints with the product.

 

[Patty15]

I use Merlin for both pictures and sound. Only time sound is off is if you have a chatty Mockingbird and Merlin will tell you there's birds you know are not around your yard. Funny story with Merlin, I once played a bird song that Merlin picked up for my husband so he could hear what the bird sounded like. All of a sudden, in comes this bird on a branch in front of us dancing away looking for the female he "heard". While I kind of felt bad, he did give some interesting photos.

 

[ButlerKid]

If I can't find a bird ID via the internet, posting a question here usually comes up with the answer. Since Merlin and eBird ARE free and easy to use and from a reputable source, I wouldn't bother with Picture Bird.

Really? WHAT did I know back in March? I hereby rescind my response!!!!

When I returned from Panama birding trip with hundreds of images of birds I could not identify.......Google failed miserably and so did Merlin. Honesty, Merlin either couldn't identify a bird or simply gave me false IDs. My Apple friends highly recommended something like Bird ID Master......but I use an Android phone. In searching Google Play I found Picture Bird.

DANG! It nailed everything and didn't give a single false ID!!!!! I love it. It was free for something like 7 days.....but I paid the $30-40 annual fee because it did such a great job! I could specific Panama and the responses were very quick.

Most of the negatives in Post #2 are simply not true - at least at this time.

I can definitely recommend it!