# The best bird song I.D. website/software?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-bird-song-i-d-website-software/813480>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 2, 2018, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-bird-song-i-d-website-software/813480 "2018-05-02T23:26:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-bird-song-i-d-website-software/813480/1 "2018-05-02T23:26:40Z")

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Ok, I give up. Maybe\*\* Colibri \*\*can be of help here. I hear tons of interesting bird songs but I can’t for the life of me find a source that would help me i.d. them. A couple websites seem to have potential, but the recordings don’t work. Many are just ads for i-phone apps. I guess I’d buy one if I knew it was worthwhile. But as of now, I can’t figure out what I’m hearing and I don’t have a good line on how to find out. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good source for solving this problem? It’s spring and warbler and sparrow heaven and for the life of me, I can’t figure out who’s making that sound. Any help, Dopers? thanks. xo,  
C.

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**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-bird-song-i-d-website-software/813480/2 "2018-05-03T02:24:32Z")

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Song Sleuth was recommended to me earlier this week.

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**Author:** ![Synister1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@Synister1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Synister1)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-bird-song-i-d-website-software/813480/3 "2018-05-03T02:33:14Z")

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I find Merlin by Cornell labs pretty good for bird ID. It’s for Android and it’s free.  
I don’t know if they have an i-phone version. Hope this helps.

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**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-bird-song-i-d-website-software/813480/4 "2018-05-03T16:33:30Z")

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One of my favourite subreddits: [http://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthisbird/](http://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthisbird/)

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**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-bird-song-i-d-website-software/813480/5 "2018-05-03T17:18:31Z")

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If you have an Echo, [this thing](http://www.audubon.org/alexa) is good.