Almost nobody searches for a Merlin Bird ID alternative because Merlin disappointed them. It's free with no upgrade, it comes from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, it identifies birds from a photo, a sound recording or a few simple questions, and it sits at 4.9 stars across more than 110,000 ratings. You can see the whole thing at merlin.allaboutbirds.org. On the job it was built for — what bird is that? — it is the best free tool available.
People go looking for something else because of scope, not quality. Merlin answers the question at the moment you ask it, keeps a running list of the species you've found, and stops there. It doesn't give you a record of that bird: the photos you took, the exact spot, how it looked in spring versus autumn, a log you can actually browse a year later. And it is built entirely for wild birds — if you keep budgies or cockatiels, there is nothing in it for you at all. Below are five alternatives, each best at a different one of those jobs, starting with the one we make.
1. BirdingPal — the visual life list, and the one app that covers pet birds
BirdingPal (ours, formerly Bird Days) starts where Merlin finishes. Merlin tells you the species; BirdingPal keeps the record. Every bird gets a real profile — species, sex, acquisition date, location, habitat, conservation status and a custom group — and then a photo timeline that builds a chronological story from your first sighting through seasonal changes, molting or breeding milestones. Live Photos are supported, so a moment keeps its motion. Batch import pulls in the history already sitting in your camera roll.
That one timeline serves two very different birders. If you go out looking, it's a visual life list with proof and location data attached, instead of a column of ticked species names. If you keep birds, it's a growth diary for each individual — and this is the part no wild-bird app touches, Merlin included. There's also an aviary map for laying out enclosures and birdhouses with a marker per bird, and snapshots over time so you can see how a setup evolved.
The sharing is deliberate rather than an afterthought: photo collages with 30+ layouts and drag-to-reorder, or longshot cards — tall vertical images that scroll through a bird's full profile, stats and sighting log, sized for Instagram stories or a birding group post. It syncs over iCloud, backs up, and exports to CSV.
Be clear about the trade: BirdingPal does not identify birds. There's no photo ID, no sound ID. It expects you to already know, or to keep Merlin on the same phone and use it for the naming — which is genuinely what most of our users do. Free for up to 3 birds; Premium is $1.99/month, $9.99/year or $10.99 lifetime. Available in English, French, German, Japanese and Traditional Chinese. (Head-to-head detail: BirdingPal vs eBird.)
2. eBird — the serious checklist, from the same lab
eBird is Merlin's sibling: same Cornell Lab, and Merlin is powered by eBird's data in the first place. It's the natural step up if what you wanted from Merlin was a rigorous record. You submit checklists from the field, and those observations flow straight into a global database used for scientific research, education and conservation — your weekend walk genuinely becomes a data point.
It's free, and it is the strongest pick if you want your birding to count for something beyond your own memory. The honest caveat is that it's a data-entry tool at heart, and it shows: at 3.9 stars it's the lowest-rated app on this page, and the discipline that makes the dataset valuable is the same discipline that makes casual logging feel like homework. Choose it if you want structure and rigour. Choose something else if you want photos and a story.
3. Birda — birding as a social, outdoor habit
Birda is birdwatching reimagined as something you do with people. It identifies birds, tracks your progress toward your next life tick, and wraps the whole thing in a friendly global community — the pitch is explicitly about getting outside, noticing more and reconnecting with nature rather than about building a dataset. It's free, and at 4.7 stars across 2,000+ ratings it's clearly landing with the people it's for.
Pick Birda if the thing that would actually keep you birding is other people noticing. Skip it if you'd rather your records stayed yours and quiet.
4. Audubon Bird Guide — the free field guide
Audubon Bird Guide is the closest thing here to a reference book you carry. It's a free and complete field guide to over 800 species of North American birds, built for every experience level, with identification, a record of the birds you've seen, and help finding new birds near you. Over 2 million downloads, from the National Audubon Society.
Take this one if the part of Merlin you used most was the learning — the ID tips, range maps and species pages — and you'd like it deeper and organised like a guide. It's North America only, which is the main thing to check before you commit.
5. Birdbuddy — for the birds in your own backyard
Birdbuddy recognises species by photo or sound like Merlin does, but its real centre of gravity is the smart bird feeder: put one in the garden and it identifies visitors automatically, sends you an alert when a bird arrives, and hands you collectible postcard photos of the ones that stopped by. It's free as an app, at 4.8 stars across 61,000+ ratings.
It's the best pick if your birding happens through a kitchen window rather than on a trail. The catch is obvious enough: the feeder is hardware, and without it you're using a good ID app rather than the product Birdbuddy is really selling.
How they compare
| If you want to… | Pick | Best at | Free to use | Covers pet birds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keep a photo record of each bird | BirdingPal | Visual life list & growth diary | Free up to 3 birds | Yes |
| Contribute to real science | eBird | Rigorous checklists, global database | Yes | No |
| Bird with other people | Birda | Community, progress and life ticks | Yes | No |
| Learn the species properly | Audubon Bird Guide | 800+ species field guide (N. America) | Yes | No |
| Watch your own backyard | Birdbuddy | Feeder alerts and automatic ID | App yes, feeder no | No |
"Merlin told me it was a goldfinch. Six months later I couldn't tell you which goldfinch, or where I was standing, or what the light was doing. That's the part I wanted back."
The bottom line
If you want identification and nothing else, stay on Merlin — it's free and it's the best at that job, and swapping it out would be a downgrade. If you want your sightings to mean something scientifically, eBird is the honest upgrade from the same lab. If you want birding to be social, Birda; if you want to learn, Audubon; if you want your garden, Birdbuddy.
But if what's been missing is the record — proof, photos, place, and a bird you can actually revisit rather than a species you once ticked — then the answer isn't a better identifier. It's a journal running alongside the one you already have. And if some of your birds live in your house, it's the only category on this page that includes them.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Merlin Bird ID alternative?
It depends which part of Merlin you were relying on. If you want identification plus a rigorous, scientifically useful sightings record, eBird is the natural step up — it comes from the same Cornell Lab and feeds the same database. If you want your sightings to be a visual record with photos and locations rather than a list of ticked species, BirdingPal is the closer fit. If you want birding to feel social and playful, Birda is built around that. And if you mainly wanted a reference book, the Audubon Bird Guide is a free field guide to over 800 North American species.
Are there free Merlin Bird ID alternatives?
Yes, and most of the category is free. eBird, Birda, the Audubon Bird Guide and Birdbuddy are all free to download. BirdingPal is free for up to 3 birds, with Premium unlocking unlimited birds, photo collages, longshot sharing and batch import — monthly at $1.99, yearly at $9.99, or a $10.99 lifetime option. Merlin itself is free with no upgrade at all, so if price was your only concern, you probably do not need an alternative.
Does Merlin Bird ID keep a life list?
Merlin does keep track of the birds you find and builds a personal list from them, so you get a running record of which species you have seen. What it does not give you is a record of an individual bird — the photos you took, where exactly you stood, how the bird looked in different seasons, or a log you can browse visually months later. Merlin's list answers "which species have I seen?" If you also want "what did that day look like?", you need a journal alongside it, which is the gap BirdingPal and eBird's checklists fill in different ways.
Is there a Merlin Bird ID alternative for pet birds?
Merlin is built entirely for wild birds, so if you keep budgies, cockatiels or parrots it has nothing for you — there is no way to create a profile for a bird that lives in your house. BirdingPal is the alternative that covers both sides: each bird gets a profile with species, sex, acquisition date and custom group, plus a photo timeline that works as a growth diary for a bird you keep and as a visual life list for one you spotted. It also includes an aviary map for laying out enclosures and birdhouses, which no wild-bird app offers.
Merlin names the bird. BirdingPal remembers it.
A photo timeline and a real profile for every bird you keep or spot — plus collages worth posting. Free for your first 3 birds.
Download BirdingPal on the App Store →Go deeper: BirdingPal vs eBird, and the rest of our writing on the apps we make. Questions? Email us.