using Merlin ID with a recording, offline in a different part of the world (3 Viewers)

[HouseCrow]

Good morning good people,
I am only just trying to use Merlin a little bit, I have been trying to identify a sleuth of birds in rather random recordings I made in Japan in 2018 and 2020, comparing them with simple and very complete websites. Most of them I recognize now as Narcissus Flycatcher... But I know there must be some other species in there too.... I can't hear it anymore though.
So I downloaded a Japan package for Merlin ID, but I cannot find a way to let the app use that package offline. I am in the Netherlands and it only listens for sounds it recognizes from the West European package.... so no suggestion pops up when I play a recording as these songs do not fit the European database.

Is there a work around for this? I am sure there must be, but I can't find it.

hope to hear from you
cheers,
Gerben

 

[Sc0tty]

Its probably using location services so will use the appropriate pack for Europe. Try turning off location services for Merlin and remove all except to Japan pack.

 

[HouseCrow]

Can you switch off the location in the app itself? I have found no option to do that. It works for the step by step identify-any-bird-feature, not - it seems - for the element where you let it check a sound it records/listens to.

It wants to use the database of my current location Groningen, NL.

cheers
G

 

[Kirk Roth]

Can you switch off the location in the app itself? I have found no option to do that. It works for the step by step identify-any-bird-feature, not - it seems - for the element where you let it check a sound it records/listens to.

It wants to use the database of my current location Groningen, NL.

cheers
G

For a unique situation like this, you'll probably have better luck asking Merlin IT directly.

 

[Brad Hacker]

Suggest you try Chirpity - Identify Birds by Sound
I find it quite useful. You can set your location under "Settings"
When I installed Windoze 11 I had to drag the lower edge of the spectogram up to see the species IDs, which are displayed below "Max Species Detections..."

 

[Mark Harper]

As I understand it the sound ID in Merlin has nothing to do with the packages downloaded it simply covers a list of 1382 supported species. If you go onto the settings tab, you can click on the list of supported birds to see what is covered, which is mostly North America and Europe, with a few others thrown in from elsewhere.

 

[HouseCrow]

@Kirk Roth It might be a special circumstance, although I am I think like many others: recording things in the field and then later (sometimes years later) trying to ID those recordings at home, sometimes on a different continent. I usually try to do the IDing myself but as it stands now, they all start to sound like one particularly vocal Japanese songbird (Narcissus Flycatcher). I can't see the forest for the trees.
@Brad Hacker I will give Chirpity a try too, although I think that is not functional yet for birds outside the EurNAmerican realm.
I tested it a little bit, it somehow had my location as 'somewhere in Tokyo Bay'. It did identify some European species, but no Japanese birds. Interesting app though! I will most certainly follow it to check later.!
@Mark Harper I understood that too on reading about Merlin's reach. Never mind that for now. It is a useful tool for people here (in NL) even used by profi birders to register calls they must have overlooked somehow.

thanks sofar people, much appreciated! I think I need to make a few more posts on the Xeno-canto forum with my Japanese forest ID quests.

cheers,
Gerben

 

[Kirk Roth]

@Kirk Roth It might be a special circumstance, although I am I think like many others: recording things in the field and then later (sometimes years later) trying to ID those recordings at home, sometimes on a different continent. I usually try to do the IDing myself but as it stands now, they all start to sound like one particularly vocal Japanese songbird (Narcissus Flycatcher). I can't see the forest for the trees.

I understand what you're trying to achieve. All I'm saying is that if you have a question about Merlin (that is beyond the basics), you'll probably get better answers from contacting Merlin than from contacting us. When you find the answer, I'm sure it would be absolutely helpful to post it here for future forum users - I just want you to get the help you need too!

 

[HouseCrow]

Thanks. Yet I figured others might have found the answer already and were aware of a pretty little switch somewhere in the merlin software. I will turn to merlin itself with my question...and will keep you posted here.

Cheers
Grrben