Who's Singing? Behind the Scenes of Merlin Sound ID with Emily Engle

The Merlin Bird ID app, created by the Cornell lab of Ornithology, is a global field guide and a powerful tool to help identify the birds around you. Merlin can help you identify 1,000+ bird species by sound even when you can’t see them-but how does it work? We’ll take a behind the scenes look at Merlin to learn how Sound ID was developed, and how you can help us expand Merlin to cover more species worldwide.
Hailing from Santa Barbara, Emily Engle grew up hiking the mountains and exploring the tidepools of California’s central coast. Hands-on experiences in the outdoors gave her a love for the natural world and inspired her to pursue an education learning how to protect it. Fueled by a passion for connecting people to nature, science, and conservation, Emily earned her degree in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Cruz. From researching mountain lions in the West to guiding as a naturalist in Georgia’s Golden Isles, her work has allowed her to explore the critical interdependence between people and wildlife. After falling in love with the birds and landscapes of coastal Georgia, she moved to Ithaca and began her role as an Outreach Coordinator at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology aiding in the celebration of birds, community science, and conservation action through Merlin and eBird.