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Comment by haswell | Hacker News Reader

The Merlin app has transformed my nature/photo walks, and got me interested in birds.

I never realized how many unique birds I was hearing as I’d walk through an area until I turned this app on. It opened a whole new awareness, and helped me remember which bird calls go with which species.

There’s also something incredibly cool and satisfying and beautiful about the resulting spectrograms. Watching the shape of the bird call appear visually in realtime really changed my experience of listening.

I blame this app for making me buy a birding lens for my camera, which had previously been used primarily for landscapes/cityscapes. I highly recommend giving it a try.

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> I blame this app for making me buy a birding lens for my camera

Haha, same thing, girlfriend installed Merlin on her phone, our walks turned into birdwatching hunts and now I’m eyeing the nice and affordable RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM to make things more interesting. I’m hoping it stops at that, birding lenses are expensive.

I should warn you now. That lens will definitely get you started and you’ll get some great shots. It’ll also make you want something even longer if you’re anything like me.

Still seems like a good place to start because it’ll make you extremely aware of everything you want the next bigger lens to do ;)

One of the underappreciated health benefits of birding is the increase in upper body strength you get from lifting all that heavy glass you end up purchasing ... ; )

And, yes, Merlin has been transformative for me, too.

I made a choice to make birdwatching an interest I immerse myself with while there. Basically meaning, I prefer to watch birds through binocculars, in the moment, and keep them in memory, more than capturing the moment for later. I am not against the idea of photographing birds as such, I just realized that in most cases, they will remain small even with very expensive lenses, and the effort to capture really great birding images is going to be significant.

Part of the reason I started photography is because I have Aphantasia, and when I learned that other people had visual memories, it cemented photography as an important hobby for me. Without the photos, I only take home a sense of knowing what I saw. Nothing visual.

I don’t think I would have invested in a birding lens if I wasn’t already deep into photography, but it’s possible to get a reasonable starter kit for $2K or less if the goal isn’t to make 30” prints.

It’s still nothing to sneeze at, but those $10K lenses aren’t necessary to get some really great results for hobby purposes.

The challenge of getting the shots is part of what makes the process enjoyable and the resulting photos extremely rewarding. It also lets me explore in far more detail once I get home. I brought home a 40MP photo of a cardinal fully filling the frame today, and it’s pretty incredible zooming up on the plumage, seeing the intricacies of their talons, etc.

With that said, I completely respect the non-photography approach and do think that the gear gets distracting at times.

Are there not binoculars available that will take pictures?

There are binoculars with cameras but they aren't good cameras cause small sensor and not good binoculars cause cheap.

Find a nice used EF 400 f/5.6L. It's hard to know what to write about it, except to say that it's great and has been a reliable companion for years.

for birds I would recommend something 600mm or more. Smaller birds are hard to photograph with anything under. Sigma makes cheap ones.

I have similar experiences. My parents both use the app also. It’s one of the few apps I hear their generation (retired and 65+) talking about.

Now I’m imaging a crossover with this and Pokémon Go. Gamified bird watching!

thats Birda!

Seconded. using this app made me realize the diverse ecosystem singing in the neighborhood. I’ve always enjoyed outdoors, but never really saw the point of birdwatching until this app.

I'm hooked as well. I recognize many birds by sight, and quite a few by their calls and songs. Many tho, especially smaller wrens, chickadees, etc I cannot tell apart. And others like vultures I see often but have never heard.

If they implemented a function to post your list for a single recording even to social media, usage would blow it up. I've recorded 15 species on a 10 minute walk. Blows my mind.

What specs does your birding lens have, if I may ask?

I went with the Fujifilm 150-600mm F5.6-8 and I’m shooting on an X-T5.

Because it’s an APS-C sensor, it’s a 225-900mm full frame equivalent focal length.

I had tried the Fuji 70-300 with a 1.4X teleconverter before that, and while it’s a nice lens in a small package, I wad unhappy with the reach. The 150-600 is pretty great so far, but is not good in low light.

Same here. It's helping me train my own ear and eyes to identify birds.

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