Last fall, the Highlands Community Science team added a new project, enabled by Merlin, the bird identification app developed by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. As part of monitoring natural history happenings at the Highlands Center, we wanted to focus the new project on bird sound since the forest environment is often filled with calls, songs, and drumming, even when we cannot see the birds! We decided to try “listening” with the app each Friday morning for 45 minutes. There are usually 3-6 of us, and we scatter over various positions along the Discovery Trail and Trail 442 between the James Center and Lynx Creek. After each “Sound Census”, we convene to share notes and compile a list of all bird species detected, then one of us enters our data into a shared Google spreadsheet that has been growing each week!
What a learning adventure this has been! As of May 5, 2025, we have recorded 132 species, although we do have questions about the authenticity of a few of them, since we have learned the app is not perfect, any more than each of us is! Still, Merlin is able to identify birds in the environment that we would not have seen, and with multiple people “listening” during each census, most species are corroborated by other team members who recorded the same birds. One of our team members who had a cochlear implant last fall discovered that Merlin is the perfect way to learn bird voices if you are new to the challenge, either because you’re just becoming a birdwatcher, or because you’ve never been able to hear the sounds before!
The app indicates when it is hearing a bird, and then, after a few seconds, it identifies the most likely species as you view the sonogram (gray portion at top of each image above). Being able to see what the bird sounds like at the same time you’re listening is a real treat for those of us who are hard-of-hearing! Above, the app detected a Bushtit (left image), and then simultaneously recorded the Bushtit with a Mountain Chickadee (wavy peaks under the Bushtit calls) and a Hairy Woodpecker (tall, sharp peaks also apparent at far left of first image).
Merlin builds a list of accumulated species detected, highlighting each current “singer” in dark yellow. The sonogram is helpful but not perfect, as you can see by comparing the Merlin smartphone output for Spotted Towhee in the left image with the higher resolution
sonogram of a Spotted Towhee from the Xeno Canto website (above right). Your sound recordings can be saved on your phone with the date, time and location.
During a typical 45 minute “sound census”, one of us might detect 10-20 birds, but when we pool our results, we collectively have “heard” around 15-30 species. On May 9, apparently as a result of spring migrants coming through the Central Highlands, we recorded our greatest sound count to date — 56 bird species!
Early on in the project, we realized that we should indicate which birds detected by Merlin we’re not certain of. This led to more research, using e-bird and other resources to track down which of our “outliers” may have actually been seen by birders in the vicinity of Prescott during the same time-frame. We have learned that Merlin, being an algorithm that is constantly improving from additional user input, can have trouble distinguishing closely-related species, such as Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay vs. California Scrub Jay, or Dark-eyed Juncos vs. Yellow-eyed Juncos. Given that the precise taxonomic relationships of close bird relatives is sometimes in flux, we’re not surprised that Merlin is working on it too!
Of the 132 species detected by Merlin, we plotted the presence/absence of 34 species that illustrate some interesting seasonal patterns at the Highlands Center.
Patterns for 34 Selected Species Detected by Sound at Highlands Center
Common year-round species include Acorn Woodpecker, Dark-eyed Junco, House Finch, Northern Flicker, Pygmy Nuthatch, Red Crossbill, White-breasted Nuthatch, Yellow-rumped Warbler
Examples of Occasional, Year-round visitors include Bald Eagle and Cooper’s Hawk
Some species were detected primarily in the Fall & Spring, such as American Robin, Chipping Sparrow, Gray Flycatcher, Hermit Thrush, Lesser Goldfinch, and Violet-green Swallow.
We detected Indigo Bunting, MacGillvary’s Warbler, and Green-tailed Towhee only in the Fall and early winter; Juniper Titmouse, Red-naped Sapsucker, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, and Fox Sparrow were detected only in the Winter; while Grace’s Warbler, Hutton’s Vireo, and Lazuli Bunting are examples of species detected only this Spring.
We also have some Rarely recorded “standouts” such as a Peregrine Falcon detected once.
Speaking of seasonal patterns, one member of our team “discovered” a feature on Merlin that enables the user to view location-specific seasonality of any observed species. With your location setting “on”, go to Explore (birds) and enter the species (or toggle here from the Sound ID where your bird was detected).
On the right is a sample Screenshot of Merlin’s Explore option for Red-naped Sapsucker, using location set to Prescott, AZ.
In this sample, based on local e-bird data, you can see that Red-naped Sapsuckers are much more likely to be in the Prescott area during the late fall and winter; in fact, we detected them only during those months in our own sound censuses! In other cases, we may be detecting birds by sound that are infrequent visitors, and we suspect that many of the waterfowl that are detected are flying over on their way to/from Lynx Lake recreation area, rather than hanging out at the Highlands Center. We expect to learn lots more as we continue this project!
One of the most rewarding outcomes for participants has been the camaraderie resulting from creating, from scratch, a new way to experience nature and record seasonal events for the Highlands Center. None of us had ever embarked on such a venture before, and so we’ve been learning together, sharing insights, and revising our census protocol and goals as new questions come up. But we’ve kept it simple, and by doing so, we can each focus on our own little patch of habitat for 45 minutes, at least once a week, with no distractions…just listening along with the Merlin app. Once in a while, we are treated to unexpected, peaceful encounters with other critters while we listen to the sounds of the environment in our one special listening spot. Two of us have seen a coyote walk right by us while we’re sitting quietly! We have each seen our “spot” in the snow and in the sun; we’ve heard our place when it’s quiet, when the wind is rustling the pines, and when there is non-stop bird chatter. We enjoy going back to our own “place”, over and over again, with great anticipation for what birds will be heard “this time”! We all know how hard it can be to “make time for being in nature”; having a regular schedule that includes other volunteers gives us an incentive. It also provides a much-appreciated social outlet when we convene after each census to share our observations, our questions, and maybe even some nature highlights from our past week at home or elsewhere.
You are welcome to come join us!
Gaye Oberlin, Cheryl Alfonse, Donna Waldorf, Sue Halvorsen, James Vaughan, Kim Ryder, Christina Brooks, Joan Gustafson, Jenn Sherman, Sally Davidson, Steve Reynolds.