[Tweeters] Fwd: HI beats AI

[Robert O'Brien via Tweeters]

HI beats AI.    Or not?
After hours of mulling around in Merlin I finally figured out a way to
'beat' Merlin AI
Say I got a bird recording via email asking to ID the audio file of a
singing bird.  (I did recently; which opened my Pandora's Box leading to
mulling)
I simply played the file for Merlin. No ID was given.
Hours later I finally figured it out:
The process.
I down-loaded the audio file from the email but didn't play it (yet).
I opened the Merlin App and started it recording
(Both of these on my phone)
I returned to the loaded sound file and played it.
When it finished playing in a few seconds (or minutes) I returned to Merlin
and stopped that recording.
The bird song had not been identified by Merlin.  (Next)
I saved that unidentified file in Merlin.
The bird had not been identified, because my phone had defaulted to my
location in Carver OR
In this Merlin file I clicked the 3 dots at top right and changed the
location to where the recording was made.  Still no ID.
I clicked the 3 dots again, and changed the date to when the recording was
made.  You must click backward from the current date.
Bingo the bird was instantly identified.

Corollary
I hear an unusual song in the trees at my house in April.  I can't see the
bird.  (Shades of the White-eyed Vireo).
I record the song with Merlin which does not identify it at my default
location in Carver OR
Hmmm.   I"m guessing it's some vagrant warbler that Merlin does not allow
me to identify.  I'm guessing it might be a migrant through east texas.  I
change the location to High Islands TX (Merlin defaults to the Bolivar
peninsula TX, that's fine)   Merlin identifies the bird which I would not
normally be allowed to see at all.  Bingo.
Or, Merlin still does not identify the bird.  OK, second guess.  Some
warblers migrate north through Florida, not Texas  (Cape May Warbler, for
instance) so I change the location to Miami,  Bingo the bird is
identified.  This would be the same if the bird was a Vireo rather than a
warbler, or any other bird that might be in a location during spring,
resident or migrant..  Same process, same ID.
Very tedious but at least I have vanquished Merlin at its own game.   That
is, until Merlin gets smarter (than me) and stops letting me change the
date or location.  Don't leak this. Please.

By The Way, I first tried to change the location simply to the United
States.  That way all birds would be considered.  I tried this for Bewick's
Wren.  Nope. With my location as the United States no identification was
given.  Maybe Bewick's Wren is not widespread enough in the US for that to
work.   You must narrow it down more and this seems to require guessing
where the unknown bird might be found AND when.  A singing warbler would
not be recognized in the winter since they are assumed to be NOT singing
and/or Not in the country.

Bob OBrien  Carver OR
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