**Merlin vs eBird — One Identifies, the Other Records** > Both are free from the Cornell Lab with no in-app purchases, and they do completely different jobs. Merlin works out what the bird is; eBird records that you saw it. Source: https://orvik.app/compare/merlin-vs-ebird/ · updated: 2026-09-04 1. [Orvik](https://orvik.app/) 2. [Compare](https://orvik.app/compare/) 3. Merlin Bird ID vs eBird Merlin Bird ID vs eBird # Merlin or eBird: which Cornell app do you actually need? These two get downloaded interchangeably and they are not interchangeable at all. They are halves of one system: Merlin is the field guide and eBird is the notebook, and installing the notebook expecting a field guide is the single most common mistake in beginner birding. Compared **Merlin Bird ID · eBird** Price data **US App Store** Store data **2026-09-03** Updated **2026-09-04** Short answer Both are free with **no in-app purchases** and both come from the Cornell Lab, so install both. **Merlin identifies** — by photo, by five questions, or by live sound. **eBird records** what you saw and shows you what others are reporting nearby. eBird does not identify anything, which is the confusion this page exists to fix. ## Which should you pick? - **Merlin Bird ID** You do not know what the bird is. This is the identification app and the one to open first. - **eBird** You know what it was and want to **log it**, or you want to find out **what is being seen near you right now** before you go out. ## Side by side *Side by side. Store figures are from the US App Store on 2026-09-03; scope and behaviour are from each app\'s own listing and from using it.* | | Merlin Bird ID | eBird | | --- | --- | --- | | Published by | Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a university research programme | Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a university research programme | | Cost | **Free outright** | **Free outright** | | Rating | 4.9 (111,609) | 3.9 (809) | | Works offline | Yes | Partly | | Human verification | No | Yes | | Download size | 311 MB | 81 MB | | Languages | 31 | 37 | | Last updated | 2026-08-24 | 2026-08-25 | | Plants | — | — | | Insects | — | — | | Animals | — | — | | Birds | Yes | Yes | | Rocks | — | — | | Collectibles | — | — | | Food | — | — | | Nature | — | — | ## What each one costs *What each app actually charges. Every figure is read from the US App Store listing on 2026-09-03; in-app purchase tiers are Apple\'s own list, not a summary.* | App | Download | In-app purchases | Cheapest | Dearest | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Merlin Bird ID | Free | **None** | — | — | | eBird | Free | **None** | — | — | ## What each one is for **Merlin** answers "what is that". Three routes: a photograph, five questions about size, colour and behaviour, or Sound ID listening live and naming every bird singing around you. Its identifications are weighted by what eBird says is actually plausible in your county this week, which is a large part of why it is accurate. **eBird** answers "what did I see" and "what is around". You submit checklists — species, counts, time, location — and those feed one of the largest biodiversity datasets in existence. In return you get hotspot maps, recent sightings, and your own life list. The relationship runs both ways: eBird checklists make Merlin accurate, and Merlin makes it possible for beginners to contribute checklists at all. ## eBird is a finding tool before it is a recording tool The underrated use of eBird for a beginner is not logging. It is **Explore**: pick a hotspot near you and see exactly which species have been reported there in the last week, by whom, and often with photographs and recordings. That does two things. It tells you where to go — a hotspot with fifty recent species beats a random park. And it gives you a short expectation list before you arrive, which is how experienced birders identify quickly: they are not searching all of North America, they are checking against twenty plausible candidates. Bar charts by month are the other feature worth knowing. They show what is present in a given county through the year, which turns "is it early for these" into a question with an answer. ## Both are free, and free means institutional here On 2026-09-03, both listed **no in-app purchases at all**. Not a free tier — nothing inside either of them to buy. They are published by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a membership-funded university research programme. The apps are outreach and infrastructure: Merlin gets people interested, eBird collects the data that ornithology runs on, and both are better funded by memberships and grants than a subscription would make them. That is worth stating because it explains the quality. Merlin's 4.9 rating from 112,000 reviews is not what a loss-leader looks like. ## Submitting a checklist that is actually useful eBird data is used in real research, so how you submit matters more than it does in a personal notebook. - **Count, do not just list.** Estimates are fine; "X" for present-but-uncounted is much less useful than a rough number. - **Record effort.** Duration and distance make your checklist comparable with everyone else's. A complete checklist with effort is worth far more than a species list. - **Say whether it was complete** — did you report everything you identified. This is the flag that lets analysts use your data at all. - **Do not report what you are not sure of.** A wrong record is worse than a missing one, and regional reviewers will query anything unusual. - **Attach the photo or recording**, especially for anything rare. Merlin can share directly into an eBird checklist. ## Setting Merlin up before you go out Four minutes at home prevents most complaints about it. 1. **Download the regional bird pack over wifi.** Merlin cannot identify offline without one and the packs are large. 2. **Download packs for where you are travelling**, not only where you live. 3. **Allow microphone access** and test Sound ID before you need it. 4. **Keep location on.** The eBird prior is most of the accuracy. Then leave Sound ID running while you walk. Most birds are heard before they are seen, and it will find species you would not have noticed. ## What neither one does Neither identifies a **feather**, an **egg** or an empty **nest**, and all three are common finds. Those are identified from characters you list — length and pattern, ground colour and markings, nest structure and placement — rather than photographed, which is why we built free browser keys for - [feathers](https://orvik.app/tools/feather-identifier/) and - [eggs](https://orvik.app/tools/bird-egg-identifier/). One legal note: in the United States it is illegal to possess the feathers, eggs or nests of almost any native bird under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, including items found on the ground. Photograph them and leave them where they are. ## What happens to a checklist after you submit it eBird is worth using even if you never look at your own data, because of where it goes. Submitted checklists are screened by volunteer regional reviewers — people who know what is plausible in that county in that week — and anything unusual is queried rather than silently accepted. That review is why the dataset is usable at all, and it is also the fastest feedback loop in birding: a reviewer asking politely how you separated two similar species teaches more than a field guide chapter. The data underpins a great deal of published ornithology: migration timing, range shifts, population trends, and the abundance maps that show a species moving north decade by decade. It also feeds straight back into Merlin, which weights identifications by what checklists say is actually present near you. That loop is why the pair works. Your checklist makes the next person's identification better, and their checklists made yours better this morning. ## Questions people ask Does eBird identify birds? No, and this is the most common misunderstanding about it. eBird is a checklist and data platform for recording what you saw and seeing what others are reporting. Merlin is the identification app from the same Cornell Lab, and the two are designed as a pair. Install Merlin if you want to know what a bird is. Are Merlin and eBird both free? Yes, completely. Both US App Store listings carried **no in-app purchases at all** on 2026-09-03. Both are published by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a membership-funded university research programme, and the apps are outreach and research infrastructure rather than products. Do I need an account? For eBird, yes — a free Cornell Lab account, which is the same one Merlin uses. Merlin works without signing in, though signing in lets you save your identifications and share them straight into an eBird checklist. How does eBird make Merlin more accurate? Merlin weights its predictions by what eBird checklists say is actually present in your location at that time of year. It is not only asking what this bird looks or sounds like, but what is plausible here this week — and that prior removes an enormous number of wrong answers before they are offered. Can I use Merlin to submit to eBird? Yes. Identifications made in Merlin can be shared directly into an eBird checklist, which is the intended workflow: identify with Merlin, record with eBird. Attaching the photo or recording is particularly valuable for anything unusual, because regional reviewers check rare reports. Which should a beginner install first? Merlin, because the first problem is not knowing what anything is. Add eBird within a week or two — its Explore view showing recent sightings at nearby hotspots is the fastest way to learn what you should expect to see, which is how experienced birders identify quickly. ## Or skip the choice and carry one app Orvik covers plants, insects, animals, birds, rocks, collectibles, food and natural phenomena in a single camera. Free to download, and the near-misses stay visible so you can check the call. - [Get Orvik free](https://orvik.app/app/) ## Keep reading on Orvik - [What to put alongside Merlin](https://orvik.app/alternatives/merlin/) - [The Merlin bird app, reviewed](https://orvik.app/birds/merlin-bird-app/) - [Bird call identification](https://orvik.app/birds/bird-call-identification/) - [Identify a bird by sound](https://orvik.app/birds/identify-bird-by-sound/) - [Whose egg is this?](https://orvik.app/tools/bird-egg-identifier/) - [Which bird did this feather come from?](https://orvik.app/tools/feather-identifier/) - [What bird is this?](https://orvik.app/birds/what-bird-is-this/) - [Apps to identify birds](https://orvik.app/birds/app-to-identify-birds/) ## Other comparisons - [Merlin or the Audubon Bird Guide: scanner against field guide](https://orvik.app/compare/merlin-vs-audubon/) - [Merlin Bird ID or Picture Bird: is the paid one worth it?](https://orvik.app/compare/merlin-vs-picture-bird/) - [Seek by iNaturalist alternatives — for when Seek says nothing](https://orvik.app/alternatives/seek/) - [iNaturalist alternatives — for when you cannot wait, or cannot post](https://orvik.app/alternatives/inaturalist/) - [Merlin Bird ID alternatives — what to put next to it, not instead of it](https://orvik.app/alternatives/merlin/) - [Google Lens alternatives for identifying nature](https://orvik.app/alternatives/google/) - [PictureThis or iNaturalist: a confident guess against a confirmed answer](https://orvik.app/compare/picturethis-vs-inaturalist/) - [PictureThis or Google Lens for plants: is the subscription worth it?](https://orvik.app/compare/picturethis-vs-google/) ## Where these figures come from - Prices, in-app purchase tiers, ratings, versions, download sizes and update dates are read from each app’s **US App Store listing on 2026-09-03** using Apple’s own Lookup API and product pages. Nothing on this page is a figure somebody typed from memory, and the build fails if one appears. - Apple does not publish billing periods next to in-app purchase names, so where two tiers share a name they are usually the same subscription billed over different terms. Check the current price in the App Store before you buy anything. - Scope and behaviour — what each app identifies, whether it works offline, whether a human confirms the result — come from the apps’ own listings and from using them. - Orvik is our app. We have tried to be specific about where these competitors are better, because a comparison that never concedes anything is not worth reading. --- HTML version: https://orvik.app/compare/merlin-vs-ebird/ Structured data for this site: https://orvik.app/api/v1/openapi.json · https://orvik.app/llms.txt Free to quote and reuse with a link back to the source URL above (CC BY 4.0).