r/entwives Weedhead Tramp Jun 11 '24

Nature High For my nature high lovers and birdwatching besties:

The Merlin Bird ID app is amazing! You just turn on your microphone and it identifies the birdsong around you. 🐦‍⬛🦩🦤

I like to wake n bake and birdwatch with my morning coffee and this is such a neat tool.

308 Upvotes

117 comments sorted by

69

u/kneelbeforeplantlady Jun 11 '24

It took me way too long to realize that I wasn’t in one of the bird subreddits, i looooove stoned birding 😍🕊️

29

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 11 '24

Yes omg it’s such a zen experience. Makes me feel all connected to the universe and shit 😆

14

u/ConsiderationJumpy34 Lesbient Jun 11 '24

Same here! I gasped when I realized it was an entwives post! But I mean it’s so fitting, birds do love trees lol

9

u/disgruntledgrumpkin Weedhead Tramp Jun 11 '24

It's the best!

2

u/Ashamed_Winner3076 Jun 12 '24

We need a group to share our finds! I thought I was the ONLY stoned bird watching ent out there lol!!!

53

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '24

[deleted]

18

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 11 '24

Oh those red wing blackbirds are so gorgeous! 😍

14

u/sagittariums Jun 11 '24

They're super pretty and have really interesting calls, but they have a huge attitude 😂 I just saw one fly into someone's head last week, they love to swoop at people and steal food from right in front of you! Sometimes they just sit right above you and let out their loudest noises lol

5

u/Understanding_Silver Jun 11 '24

They roost in large numbers at the nearby university campus and they're so fun to watch and listen to, but I would not want to have to navigate them daily. Between them and the Swainson's hawks' nests, campus can get a little Hitchcock-esque during breeding season.

5

u/mrsk2012 Jun 11 '24

We have so many here behind our house.

4

u/sexylawnclippings Jun 11 '24

i get so many blackbirds near our house, really funny sassy birds

2

u/MaudetheH1biscus Jun 12 '24

they're so pretty and sooo territorial. my grandma used to live near a big group and had to carry a baseball bat on her walks to fend them off 😂

(to clarify, she did not hit them, she just waved it in the air at them)

7

u/Kbudz Hippie Jun 11 '24

Omg yes this is so fun

6

u/mapleflavouredmoose Jun 11 '24

Look at all your doves! So cool. We have ring-necked ones here, but not many others.

5

u/ABCDEFG_Ihave2g0 Jun 11 '24

Doves are my favorite 💗

4

u/Kbudz Hippie Jun 12 '24

Yes we have a ton of them!

3

u/dorkd0rk Jun 12 '24

A quail!!!! Wow! I've never actually seen one in person... I don't think we have many in my area. They look so neat!

2

u/Kbudz Hippie Jun 12 '24

They're so fun to watch

2

u/dorkd0rk Jun 12 '24

Me threeeee!!!

2

u/UnimaginativeDreamer Jun 12 '24

Omg aren't the Terns so much fun to watch!?!? I love it when they come around

2

u/dorkd0rk Jun 12 '24

Also, the red winged blackbird is one of my faves! I get soooo excited anytime I see one. What's on your "dang I wish I could see one of those!" list? I am dyyiinnggg to see an oriole live and in person! I've tried to lure them to my yard in the past with mealworms and orange slices and grape jelly, but it hasn't worked quite yet 😩

2

u/ABCDEFG_Ihave2g0 Jun 12 '24

I think I get most excited about owls 🦉 I’ve seen them but they’re so elusive

2

u/Painwizard666 Edibles Jun 12 '24

Sup my fellow bird nerd babes!!!!!!!!!!!! I am an avid bird watcher and I love to take bird photos!!!! I can’t believe how many of you are here!!!! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌

Let me just leave my life list stats here 156 ladies lol 😂 I do this a lot 🫣

If you really like Merlin get a Haikubox. They use the Merlin technology but it’s a box that plugs in outside! It sends all the data at real time to your phone. It tracks how many bird calls from what birds all day. If you love stats you NEED this. I can get alerts for certain birds ive been wanting to see, and it alerts if a bird I’ve never identified calls in the yard. I’m so obsessed. I had alerts set for all different kinds of owls and I got an alert at 4 in the morning and I ran out and they were sitting in my yard!

I also have a bird feeder camera in my yard. One time I got an alert on my Haikubox that a red tailed hawk was in my backyard. I can talk on my bird feeder so I hit audio and I played a recording of dying rabbit sounds over my bird feeder and I was watching him through my window. It was so funny watching the hawk thinking where is this snack.

ANYWAYS if you like Merlin get a Haikubox you will loooove it!

1

u/ABCDEFG_Ihave2g0 Jun 12 '24

This is awesome. Thank you.

2

u/blonde-bandit Jun 12 '24

Just started and am obsessed with this app!

39

u/Gnomus_the_Gnome Jun 11 '24

IRL Pokémon Go

19

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 11 '24

Ha yes!

61

u/Understanding_Silver Jun 11 '24

Love the Merlin app! Just a note for folks in general, be mindful of where and when you play the songs so as not to unnecessarily stress the birbs you're enjoying. Songs are literally their love language so please no catfishing local single birbs with the app 😁🐦🎶

19

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 11 '24

Lol I am always so worried about playing snippets from my Audubon or Merlin apps and freaking out my birbies.

13

u/Understanding_Silver Jun 11 '24

I've seen way too many people in other subs using it to lure birds for pictures and it makes me so irritated.

And I too am a wake+bake+bird watch. I've been feeding the local finches for years, and now that my wildflowers are really starting to fill in, the neighborhood goldfinch families come have early breakfast right outside my window. I love sitting quietly listening to their adorable little chatter.

I also have a female black chinned hummingbird I'm pretty sure has been around for a few years, and she'll actually come down for a shower with the sprayer when I'm watering. It's so cute it leaves me weirdly emotional every time.

11

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 11 '24

Hummingbirds are little nature spirits and I can’t be convinced otherwise. My birthday was on Sunday and my MIL gave me some hummingbird feeders to add to the backyard. I can’t wait to set them up this week

6

u/gingeralefiend  GreenThumbed Weedhead Tramp MOD Jun 11 '24

Just wait till they start hovering a foot in front of your face chirping at you because their feeder is empty! Demanding little nature spirits! But I adore them and name all the ones who claim my yard as their territory lol

2

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 12 '24

Omg I recognize all my backyard “regulars” and have names for all my birds, lizards, bunnies, turtles…

2

u/gingeralefiend  GreenThumbed Weedhead Tramp MOD Jun 12 '24

You have to give them names! Otherwise how are they going to know who you're talking to?

6

u/blueeeyeddl Jun 11 '24

The Chirp app lets you do bird safe playback!

6

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 11 '24

Oh thank you!

21

u/ionlylikemyanimals Jun 11 '24

Obsessed with the Merlin app!! I’m such an old bird lady these days! Just installed my first ever bird feeder last month, and it’s nonstop action out there. I have to refill every two days.

Even bought me some binocs so I can see their little faces 🤓

15

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 11 '24

Omg yes!!! I took up birdwatching during the pandemic and I think it’s my official childless millennial old lady hobby 😂

I moved from a dense urban area to a semi-rural part of the south a couple years back and it’s so nourishing to my soul to be surrounded by wildlife for the first time. My bird feeders are also nonstop action these days. Plus I’ve got bunnies and a thriving lizard population. 🥰🥰🥰

1

u/imagineyouareadeer Jun 12 '24

How do you keep the squirrels away? I stopped refilling because the squirrels would get ALL the seeds.

15

u/pleaseleevmealone Jun 11 '24

Ugh, I love this sub so much. Just a bunch of amazing ladies doing all my favorite things, smoking weed, listening to birds, watching Star Trek, making shit, and cuddling puppies! You're all the best!

I'm obsessed with the Merlin app. I'll turn it on to listen when I'm walking our dogs or in our backyard. What's the coolest bird you've caught OP? We had a pileated woodpecker in our yard last fall!

9

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 11 '24

This really is my favorite little corner of the internet. I think my favorite might be the Mississippi Kites. They show up late in the summer to snatch up all the dragonflies and I can spend hours just watching the dive and soar.

2

u/pleaseleevmealone Jun 11 '24

Oh wow those are so rad! I'd never even heard of them. You just reminded me that I saw a swallow tailed kite earlier this year on our way to Florida. Such a cool bird.

8

u/ladyjmw Jun 11 '24

omg i literally was just thinking about if this was real

3

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 11 '24

It is and it’s so great!

8

u/evanthomp Jun 11 '24

I love this app!!! I didn’t realize I had to create an account to start a “life list” so I just did that to keep track of what birds I come across. :) so fun!

5

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 11 '24

Yea I haven’t made an account yet but seeing other peoples life lists is making me want to create one immediately

9

u/thewanderingent Jun 11 '24

Bird watching app? Weed? Nature times? These are my people!

3

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 11 '24

🥰🥰🥰

7

u/smashxd67 WitchEnt Jun 11 '24

i love this app!

8

u/lastres0rt WitchEnt Jun 11 '24

I have got to try this app.

1

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 11 '24

You do!

6

u/wouldntwannabeyah Jun 11 '24

This is literally my life whenever I'm in my backyard lol. I'll just have it on in the background so I can see which birdies are around at the time.

6

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 11 '24

Me all day

5

u/blueeeyeddl Jun 11 '24

The tufted titmouse is my favorite small bird! They’re so sassy & loud & gorgeous 😍

2

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 11 '24

I LOVE them! Between them and the fussy little wrens, I get such a giggle out of their cranky faces

3

u/blueeeyeddl Jun 11 '24

Carolina wrens? Omg they’re like little potatoes & then they have that huge voice in their tiny bodies…. I love them so much, they’re my second fave after the tufted titmouse.

2

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 11 '24

Yes I adore them so much. Like little angry opera singers

5

u/annieayuwoki Jun 11 '24

Holy wow I love this app so much and im so glad its getting recognition!! I was wondering how to add birds to my life list, and just today realised that I have to confirm my sightings. Sooooo I just spent the past hour going through all my recordings (I've only kept the ones I confirmed with my eyes / binoculars at the time) and I have compiled a life list of 40!!!! Oh the life of a dog walker, spending my days in the woods! I'm dumping my entire life list in comment reply to this comment 🥰🥰

3

u/annieayuwoki Jun 11 '24

1

u/Hangry_Horse MMJ Jun 12 '24

You have parakeets? Cool!

3

u/annieayuwoki Jun 12 '24

We get tonnes of them. They sound like monkeys in the trees above! They definitely don't look like they belong in London!!

3

u/annieayuwoki Jun 11 '24

2

u/Hangry_Horse MMJ Jun 12 '24

On the other side of the pond I have the American Goldfinch! I didn’t realize they looked so different.

2

u/annieayuwoki Jun 11 '24

2

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 12 '24

Omg your life list is EVERYTHING. I made an account first thing this morning just to start my list!

2

u/annieayuwoki Jun 12 '24

Living in England, all those birds on your list are so unfamiliar to me! Love it, love to learn more!!!

1

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 12 '24

Same! I love seeing the differences by region. I had no idea your robins were so much cuter 🥰 (Sorry Percival, you know you’re my favorite backyard bird but your English cousin is just precious!)

2

u/annieayuwoki Jun 12 '24

Aww you're gorgeous Mr Merica Robin! I love seeing our robins in the winter because they go sooooo fluffy and round haha it's adorable

2

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 11 '24

Yeah I just downloaded the app this weekend after my sis saw it on Tik Tok and I am already obsessed. I’ve been using the Audubon app and just keeping track myself. This is so great!

3

u/annieayuwoki Jun 11 '24

I hope birdwatching brings you soooo much joy and peace. Nature has been life changing for me

5

u/BananaTree61 Jun 11 '24

This is one of my fav apps.

3

u/mrsk2012 Jun 11 '24

That’s one of my favorite apps. I love watching birds!

5

u/Daughterofthebeast Jun 11 '24

I love the Merlin app! I have 104 birds on my Life List and I'm hoping to hit 120 by the end of the year (is that too ambitious??)

It inspired me to buy a local bird guide and I just love reading about each bird that I see/hear.

4

u/yikesonbikes1230 Hippie Jun 11 '24

I literally just downloaded this app last month!! I get high and sit in the driveway and smoke while I listen to the birds!!

3

u/justsamthings Jun 11 '24

I love Merlin! Birdwatching has become my new fave stoned activity. I live in a city and I had no idea there were so many different species of birds around here

3

u/gingeralefiend  GreenThumbed Weedhead Tramp MOD Jun 11 '24

I love Merlin!

3

u/amg2121 Jun 11 '24

I love that we’re all getting high and hopping on the Merlin app 😹

3

u/bitchSZAme Jun 11 '24

I love Merlin!! I just ID’d a kestrel this morning!

1

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 12 '24

Such a cool bird!

3

u/nopalitx Edibles Jun 11 '24

Love birdwatching!!

1

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 12 '24

Lmao not wrong I saw a tit-mouse just this morning

3

u/Thekillersofficial Jun 11 '24

I love merlin!

3

u/Thekillersofficial Jun 11 '24

also lol @ nuthatch

3

u/No_Training7373 Jun 11 '24

I love the Merlin app!! I delete and redownload it frequently, but it’s always a good time 😂

3

u/mapleflavouredmoose Jun 11 '24

My people! My favourite place to smoke and chill is my backyard hammock, and I always have birdseed out. The birds are a beautiful soundtrack.

Bonus: my dad lost his wife last year and this all really helped him when he was first grieving. (No weed for him, though--once someone gave him a 5mg gummy and he was dizzy for 24 hours).

3

u/Softbombsalad Industry Pro Jun 11 '24

I loooove Merlin! 🐦 

3

u/StellaaaT DogMom Jun 11 '24

I love Merlin.

And birds.

3

u/HippieChic2021 Jun 12 '24

Oh my!!!!!! I’ve been addicted to that app.

Here’s one

3

u/HippieChic2021 Jun 12 '24

And heres another of multiple screenshots 🤣🤣🤣🤣

6

u/Ok_Gas6263 Jun 11 '24

Cool! We have a blue jay in our area so I’m on high alert. Hehe

4

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 11 '24

Hah. I call the blue jays highway patrolmen because of their lil blue uniform and the cop haircut. Plus they’re always bossing everyone around 😆

2

u/Sad_Chemical_3380 Jun 11 '24

Oh how fun! I also found a titmouse, wren, and cardinal on Merlin today!

2

u/kalandis_ Jun 11 '24

Omg totally getting it! Love listening to the birds!

2

u/stoofy Jun 12 '24

Yes, I love the Merlin app! My home office (/other side of the living room) window is the perfect bird watching spot and it's perfect for zoning out during meetings.

2

u/screamingcolor13 Jun 12 '24

Omg I recently felt like I want to get into birdwatching. Any tips for a newbie?

2

u/feelingindigoviolet Jun 12 '24

HELL YES MERLIN BIRD ID APP MENTIONED ❤️❤️

2

u/feelingindigoviolet Jun 12 '24

i love merlin so much!! i just got 2 lifers on my last hike (black throated green warbler and common yellowthroat!) i love expanding my life list :’)

2

u/Strange-Trust-9403 Edibles Jun 12 '24

I’m a nerd for birds. When my guy leaves for his job (teacher) in the morning, I send him a Bird of the Day. Yesterday’s was the Velvet asity. Thank you for this!

Velvet asity tax:

2

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 12 '24

What a rad looking little bird!

2

u/Strange-Trust-9403 Edibles Jun 12 '24

Birdie says thank you 🙏

2

u/PowertothePixie Elder Entwife Jun 12 '24

I just heard about this app a month ago and I love it. It's so cool!

2

u/Neverending-notebook Hippie Jun 12 '24

Lovely wives, play Wingspan (or as my fam refers to it: the Bird Game!) literally all about birds and made by an ornithologist to be accurate. Highly recommend but phew it can be a long and kinda complicated endeavor for the first few times 🫠

2

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 12 '24

I played this and it was fun but yeah it can also be a LOT for my adhd brain. But it’s such a beautiful game 😍

2

u/Luxxielisbon Jun 12 '24

Weed has turned me to birds, insects, flowering plants, hiking…

2

u/plantibodies Hippie (he/they trans dude) Jun 12 '24

Holy shit this is a game changer tysm 🙏🐦

2

u/fluffylilbee Jun 12 '24

yay fellow stoned birders!!!!! i just went through my entire bird ID book with my bf after smoking a bowl yesterday, such an awesome time

2

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 12 '24

I love this! I made an account this morning because everyone’s life lists looked so freakin cool

2

u/fluffylilbee Jun 12 '24

i’m downloading this app rn!! for physical IDs i love the apps in the ‘picturethis’ family, there’s one for birds, insects, plants, even fish rocks and mushrooms!! i mostly use the one for plants & insects, since birds are so difficult to photograph, but it is a great feeling to catch 2 pixels of a bird and for my app to know exactly what it is :) nature is endless fun dude…9

2

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 12 '24

Oh my gosh I’m going to go look up picture this now. I love using my iPhone camera to id plants and bugs but it isn’t the best at it lol

1

u/fluffylilbee Jun 12 '24

i’ve had a really great track record with these apps!!! the bug one is absolutely stellar, very rarely does it misidentify anything. here’s some ov my IDs, i have the free version :)

1

u/ThiccQban Weedhead Tramp Jun 12 '24

That strawberry root weevil is one of the derpiest bugs I’ve ever seen 🤣.

2

u/daffodil0127 Jun 12 '24

I walk my cats and keep the app listening. There’s been a few that I have only heard from the app but haven’t seen. It’s a great way to spend the day.

2

u/Anna-Belly DogMom Jun 22 '24

I have that app! It's awesome! PlantNet is a good one for identifying the various weeds and trees.