What's This? There's an App for That!

 Have you ever walked through the park and heard an unfamiliar bird call? Or noticed a plant that you didn't quite recognize? There's an app for that!

Two of my favorite apps to have on-hand when exploring out in nature are Merlin Bird ID and Seek by iNaturalist. 

Merlin Bird ID

This handy app was developed by the Cornel Lab of Ornithology. 

It has step-by-step identification assistance, and even cooler than that - you can let it record your surroundings and it will identify birds by their call!

Just the other day, I had Merlin out on my walk and it identified a Great Horned Owl. After a few minutes of hearing it and looking in the trees, I saw it! Merlin not only makes exploring the outdoors fun, but it's also a tool that helps to educate those who may be new to ornithology. 

Home Screen of Merlin Bird ID - options for Step-by-Step, Photo ID, and Sound ID

Picture of Sound ID and list of identified birds.
Recording of a Sound ID 




Seek by iNaturalist

Seek is another great application to help identify different species. Developed by iNaturalist, this app allows you to identify plants, animals, insects, and fungi by using the in-app camera. Although it doesn't always drill down to the exact species, it is a good reference point when exploring. This app also allows you to contribute to community information by logging the location of the species you find. 

Home Screen of Seek - allows you to select the Camera to identify. 

An identified plant. Classifies as Native, Invasive, or Introduced and provides information about the species. 

Both of these applications are free to use and fairly intuitive. So, the next time you're exploring outdoors, give them a try and see what you can find!









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ecology: Why Does it Matter?

 Ecology is the study of organisms and their environment. It's imperative to understand the ecology and biodiversity of an area to be able to know what to expect from an area, what is helping or hurting the biodiversity of an area, and how we can help.  The below video gives an overview of ecology:
Read more

Friends of the James River Park - Helping Pony Pasture

Image
While the James River Park System (which encompasses Pony Pasture & the Wetlands) is owned and operated by the City of Richmond, the City has not employed an adequate amount of personnel to steward the parks. The friends group, Friends of the James River Park (FRJOP), was established to have a community of citizen stewards that help advise the City on the needs of park system, organize volunteer days, and work on maintaining the park system's 20 + miles of trails.  At Pony Pasture & the Wetlands specifically, FOJRP coordinates multiple volunteer days to work on trail maintenance, invasive species cleanup, and litter clean up. They also coordinate signups to have ambassadors at the park to tell visitors about the park or educate visitors on the importance of river safety.  FROJP also coordinates fundraisers for the park system, including their annual " camera to canvas " fundraiser - which is an auction to purchase paintings based off of images of the City captur...
Read more