What bird is that singing? Like magic, Merlin knows

As much as music is an important part of human culture and art, birds don't generally sing for the fun of it. For them, it is an investment of resources. It takes effort, uses energy and may dangerously draw attention to itself. To sing, there must be a purpose — an important purpose — such as to define and defend a territory or attract a mate. A good location, with lots of food and nesting habitats is one worth defending. And research suggests that the quality of a bird's song is indicative of its health, and the healthiest birds are more attractive to prospective mates. They also call to warn of predators and for communication purposes — and not just for other birds as other animals learn their calls. In "When Birds Squawk, Other Species Seem to Listen" by Christopher Solomona, he notes, "Studies in recent years by many researchers have shown that animals such as birds, mammals and even fish recognize the alarm signals of other species. Some can even eavesdrop on one another across classes. Red-breasted nuthatches listen to chickadees. Dozens of birds listen to tufted titmice, who act like the forest's crossing guards. Squirrels and chipmunks eavesdrop on birds, sometimes adding their own thoughts. In Africa, vervet monkeys recognize predator alarm calls by superb starlings." Those songs, those that greet the early morning sun with life and vitality and make our morning walks so enjoyable and peaceful, are generally unique to each species. It is natural to want to identify them. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, who brought us "eBird" and photo recognition applications, has also added sound identification to its remarkable application. According to Cornell Chronicle, "As Merlin listens, it uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology to identify each species, displaying in real time a list and photos of the birds that are singing or calling." Merlin is subject to hundreds of recordings per species in which it learns the bird songs and calls. The sounds are recorded on a spectrogram, which is a visual representation of the bird's song. Time is recorded on the x axis, while frequency is recorded on the y axis. It is like sheet music. It is easy to use, and the application can be downloaded to a phone or tablet for iPhone or android. Just search for Merlin by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Next download a bird pack for your area, such as North America. It will work without the bird pack, but without all the photos and additional information. Once it is downloaded and installed, just open the application and select "Sound ID" and then press the large microphone photo. The application does the rest. As it hears and identifies birds, it will list them. If a bird from that list is currently singing, it will highlight it in yellow. The final step is, of course, to confirm what you hear — try to find the bird visually and compare it to recordings in Merlin. For some, the best way to remember a bird song is to watch it sing. At the end of the bird walk or your time in nature, simply stop the recording. From there, the recording can be saved or shared. For visual people like me, it is helpful to see a visual representation of the bird songs. I might be more inclined to remember the pattern of the songs, thus I like that the application shows applicable spectrographs. It can also help you find birds by letting you know they are in the area. Sometimes we can't hear a bird's pitch, or it may be too faint. But Merlin might pick it up and send you off looking for it. Based on the bird identified, Merlin will also let you know if the bird is rare or uncommon based on time and place. Like other technology, the Merlin Sound App should be a tool to help find and recognize birds. It is amazing but not infallible, and thus it should be used as one of many identification techniques. Some closely related birds and songs might be difficult for Merlin to sort out. One example is the Cassin's vireo and blue-headed vireo in which the spectrograms are very similar. In this case, Merlin might struggle to differentiate. However, location makes a difference and Merlin knows that if you are in New York, the bird is almost certainly a blue-headed vireo and if you are in San Francisco, it is going to be the Cassin's vireo. Many want to know about the mimics, like the northern mockingbird and brown thrasher. Are they good enough at singing other bird songs to fool Merlin? At present, Merlin identifies the mimic about half the time and the imitated bird half the time. It is a testament as to how good the mimics really are at imitating other songs. Trying to learn bird songs can be overwhelming — a skill best acquired in our youth, as there are over 700 birds in United States and each has a variety of calls and songs. The red-winged blackbird has an easily identified song, in fact, one of my favorites of the spring. But they have a variety of other calls that I would not recognize that Merlin might be able to identify Merlin is looking to improve and add more species. It currently can help identify 1,054 species, including 540 in the United States and Canada and 284 in Europe. It is citizen science and birders can contribute their recordings. They can use their phone to get the recording, or improve the quality with an external microphone and other advanced equipment. Merlin needs about 100 recordings to start identifying a bird species. Currently, Merlin is home to 1.7 million recordings, thanks to birders. If you haven't already, give it a try — see what you think. Merlin photo identification is correct about 92 percent of the time (including bad cell phone photos). It will be exciting to see how Merlin sound identification improves over time. Black River Audubon monthly field trip: Saturday, 9 a.m. Wyandot Meadows Preserve, 5401 Cleveland Road, West Huron "Birds and Brew" with Tim Fairweather: French Creek Reservation and Bascule Brewery Public House, May 27, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Join popular naturalist Tim Fairweather for an exciting day of "Birds and Brew." Start at the French Creek Visitor's Center where Tim will lead a 2 1/2-hour hike. Afterwards, head over to the Bascule Brewery and Public House for a pint and flatbread pizza of your choice. Price is $40 per person, which includes the pint and flatbread. $20 will be donated to Black River Audubon Park in Elyria. A great morning looking for birds, delicious lunch supporting a local business and improvements to a local park. French Creek Visitor's Center is located at 4530 Colorado Ave., Sheffield. The Bascule Brewery and Public House is at 1397 Colorado Ave., Lorain.