When I set out to do anything outdoors, whether it is to hike, garden, listen to the birds, mow the yard or build a camp fire, I always take with me my phone. I use my phone almost solely as a tool for animal and plant identification via visuals (photographs) and sound, as a GPS for hikes in areas with no cell service and to listen to music and gardening advice. Over the years, I have downloaded a few apps on my phone which I have come to rely heavily on for animal and plant identification. I thought it might be useful to touch on the experiences I have had with these apps in case it helps others find a helpful app or vet a current one.
The app I use most frequently for plant identification is called "Picture This". It can be downloaded and used free. The free version has a limited plant library it pulls information from and ads. I found that useful but I would run into an issue from time to time where a plant could not be identified. A few years ago I upgraded to the paid subscription version. It allows unlimited plant identification, it provides a ton of background information for each plant such as all the common names the plant goes by, how far back in history the plant is mentioned, uses for the plant, whether it is a native or invasive, whether it is toxic to humans and pets, etc. There is also a lot of information on diagnosing whether a plant is sick or needs special care and then it explains how to take care of the plant to nurse it back to health. I have found the paid subscription version of this app to be extremely helpful to me. The identification of the plants typically is very quick as well. The only time I have issues is when there is low cell signal, usually when I am hiking. If this happens, you can take photos of plants you want to identify and then, when you are back in a good signal area, upload each photo and it will identify the plant right away.
When I first began using Picture This, I would try it out on plants I knew the identification of just to be sure it was identifying properly. I have never had it mis-identify a plant to my knowledge. There is a feature in the app where you can save any identified plant to "My Garden". I use this feature for plants in and around my yard I am purposefully keeping alive so I can quickly go back in subsequent years to look at data. I have also successfully identified "weeds" in and around my yard that are toxic to pets and have successfully eliminated those so as not to worry about my dog consuming them. The disease diagnosis is also very helpful- many times, it provides possible ways to treat a plant using household ingredients. The free version of the app used to be slightly annoying when I would snap a photo and get asked if I wanted to purchase the "Premium" subscription. Ultimately, I did and have been using it with high success the past few years.
"Seek" is an app I started using rather recently. I was trying to compare the outcomes of the "Picture This" app to another source. What drew me to the app was the fact you could not only identify plants, but bugs and animals as well. I thought that was a great feature, especially for hiking or when I come across nope ropes and ticks in my yard. So far, the app has worked okay for me but it does not always provide the information I am looking for. 50% of the time when I use the app, I feel it correctly identifies the plant or insect I am looking at. The other 50% of the time, it will tell me it is from a particular "family" but cannot identify the exact species and needs another or closer picture. I also get a sense the app is geared more towards a younger audience- it keeps track of the number of things I have identified and "cheers me on" when I hit certain wickets. If someone is motivated by those type accolades, this would be a fun app to use for sure. Either way, I like the app, I just think it needs a lot more user input so it can more accurately identify plants and animals using a biological hierarchy.
I have been an avid bird watcher and "listener" for years. I used to have a field guide with my binoculars so I could snap a photo of a bird with my camera or just trying to commit it to memory and the attempt to look the bird up in the guide. I was told about Merlin by a fellow nature lover and was immediately interested in something I could use easily "on the go" to identify birds quicker. I have been using the app for quite sometime and it has not disappointed. The biggest reason I use the app is for sound identification. I feel as if I hear different birds often in the forest area surrounding my home so with a click, I can tap on the "sound recorder" and in real time, when a bird sings, the sound is recorded and the bird identified. If there is more than 1 bird singing, the app can parse out the different songs and, as the bird is singing and is identified, the bird name will become highlighted in yellow so you can easily associate the bird song with the type of bird. This feature is exactly what I was looking for in an app. The app will also ask if the identification was corroborated- essentially, can you see the bird that is singing and verify it is the bird that was identified. I do not use this feature since the birds I am hearing and typically nested up in trees and I cannot see them at all. But, if you happen to have eyes on and can verify the bird you are seeing is the bird you heard, the data is collected to add to the Merlin Lab database. There are other ways to ID birds- if you see a bird, you can search for it by either taking a picture of it and allowing the app to identify your specimen or by searching the database of pictures and sounds to hone in on what you have seen. I have also been able to identify rare birds to my area. The GPS allows the app to know your location so it can pull up the common birds you will likely see/hear at different times of the year, but while kayaking one spring afternoon, I found a bird I had never seen before. I was able to photograph it from about 20yds away and upload the photo to Merlin. It identified the species and indicated how rare it is for my area! This is one of the most intuitive and easy to use apps for bird identification and it does not cost anything.
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