The "Merlin" bird identification app is being tested by expert birders and amateurs. What were the results, and why is it still less accurate in Israel?
From electronic plant identifiers to animal identification apps, today there are quite a few technological tools that are supposed to and may bring us closer to nature and, above all, make us recognize and become more familiar with what is there. At the 45th annual birding day, which was held recently, a group quiz was held called: "Man vs. Machine: Who Will Win, the Bird or Merlin?"The quiz was conducted by Dr. Yoav Perlman, director of the Ornithology Center at the Society for the Protection of Nature. During the quiz, participants were shown pictures of birds taken in Israel in different regions and at different times, and participants had to choose the correct name of the bird from three possible answers. The audience's answers were compared with the answers of an expert ornithologist who was present in the hall and also with the answers of the "Birds" app.Merlin". In recent years, the Merlin app has become one of the most popular tools in bird identification, and it identifies birds using image and sound processing technologies. At the end of the quiz, Merlin ranked third and last, with nearly half of the answers it provided being incorrect. What does this say about our ability to rely on an app?
there is room for improvement
It should be noted that no definitive conclusions can be drawn regarding the reliability of the app, since the questions were predetermined by Perlman – precisely to illustrate its limitations. Merlin is a fast app, without ads, Intuitive and free, and as a rule it provides relatively high levels of accuracy. It is currently able to identify over 6,000 species (there are about 10,000 bird species worldwide). The information it relies on is taken from the website eBird – A platform for reporting sightings all over the world, and it synchronizes the information fed into it with vast libraries of photographs uploaded by birders. “It’s a system that constantly learns and trains based on the information that enters it, so in areas where there are more photographs and recordings, such as in Western Europe, Northern Europe and North America, it is much more effective,” he explains.
Information about the desired bird can be obtained through several options. You can take a photo, upload a photo and receive the identification, you can describe the bird using identifying details such as size, color and location, and the third and surprising option is identification through soundvoiceWe can record the sound we hear in nature or in the city, and if it is in the database, we will get the result. This is a great option in case we are not close enough. to the bird Or you hear chirps, but you can't locate the bird. "The goals of the game, for me, were first and foremost for people to get to know Merlin's limitations," says Perlman, "but also to encourage birders in the audience to take more pictures and, especially, to record more bird chirps and upload them to the app. Birders in Israel really like to take pictures, but there are far fewer recordings," explains Perlman.
Furthermore, you can give feedback such as 'likes' to other users' photos, and there are monthly competitions and challenges that appear in the eBird app, which are supposed to encourage users to upload more and more information.
The quiz held at the 45th Annual Birdwatching Symposium – Man vs. Machine: Who Will Win, the Bird or the Merlin?
The Israeli Merlin
"There are other apps, but Merlin is undoubtedly the most advanced app in the field," says Perlman. "Its advantage, beyond the fact that it is fully translated into Hebrew, is that it is based on information from Israel, from birders and from Israeli users who have uploaded information. The more information it receives, the more it learns about the images and sounds of the birds that are here." Because of the app's ability to cross-reference data between databases, "it is possible to know, even in Israel, whether it makes sense to encounter this bird or not - in relation to any place and time of year," he explains. "After the bird has been identified, the app will also provide additional information such as its identification marks and the habitat in which it lives at that time, including a link to relevant knowledge databases."
Despite its impressive range of capabilities, Perlman emphasizes that Merlin, like other technological tools currently on the market, is an auxiliary tool and not a tool for bird identification – just as the results of the quiz he conducted showed. "It really doesn't replace the human identifier, especially in our areas where it is even less professional because there is not enough information in the system," he says.
Dr. Yoav Perlman. Photo: Thomas Krumenacker
Good for research
Beyond improving our identification capabilities, amateur travelers alongside professional birders, from Perlman's perspective these tools have a place in the world of research. "Once we move to identifying sounds, it opens up a lot of possibilities for us that didn't exist before because the autonomous devices, which work independently without the need for direct human operation, are much more available and smarter than traditional methods of collecting information. For example, we can leave receivers that will record for months, and then transfer the information to technologies designed to analyze and identify. Once the system works optimally, we will have much more accurate information about what's around us that will also help us learn about the risks that affect birds. Today, when I do a survey on a certain species, I am limited because I have to employ surveyors and birders, and pay them for their working hours. Once, instead of surveyors, I have the option of sending, for example, drones that can do the same job at the push of a button, I will receive much broader, more accurate and cheaper information."
"Birdwatching is becoming an increasingly popular hobby around the world, and quite a few volunteer birders are trying to find ways to bring as many people as possible into the field," says Perlman. "We often get discouraged in advance because we can't identify what we're seeing, and Merlin can boost our confidence when we go out into the field," he concludes.
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