As a newcomer, should you first learn by looking for birds or listening for them? "You can choose which aspects of observing birds brings you the most joy," says Ken Elkins, community conservation ...

Learning to recognize every bird song is a daunting task. I still don’t recognize every song or call note I hear. As a beginning birdwatcher I was slow to learn the songs. It was easier to let more ...

Merlin was on the job at Westwood Hills Nature Center in St. Louis Park one recent day, helping birders identify bird songs. Not Merlin the storied magician, although what was happening could be ...

Back in the day, we did not have an app that could tell us what birds we were hearing. Now we have Merlin from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. Press “record” on this free app, and it listens to ...

Now you can use your cellphone to identify birds by the sounds they make. Capture the song or call with your phone, and let Merlin do the ID work. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology bird identification ...

Birding enthusiasts will be “crowing” about the Bird Song ID USA app, which includes a reference library of close to 250 songs and calls. (A given bird species may be accompanied by both a call and a ...

Although many people enjoy tracking which types of birds come through their backyards, they can't be watching their yards all the time. Terra is designed to help, by continuously identifying birds via ...

I was recently creeping through a clearing of downed trees in a wooded Brooklyn park with my iPhone in hand. Birds were singing everywhere, but through the din, I was recording a peculiar song: It was ...

It’s been hot for a week, made worse by thick humid conditions. Smart money says stay in the house. But playing it smart means no hope to see good things in nature. Indoors offers nothing. Outdoors, ...

Waking up to the dawn chorus of birds – one of the natural world’s greatest symphonies – is a joy like no other. It is not surprising that bird-watching has become an increasingly popular hobby. A ...