Here’s my latest favorite use of technology these days. Install the Merlin app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, go out in your backyard, and let the app take a listen… You’ll soon find out what birds are all around you, and you may find some surprises.
Spring migration is in full swing. Give it a try and show us what’s in your backyard!
Will the app identify what kind of lawn tractor my neighbor is using? That’s all I can hear right now… .
(Thanks for the suggestion – I will be installing it on my phone. We usually have a lot of noisy birds at our feeders).
Yes, it’s a wonderfful app. In St. Petersburg, FL this week, my suppers have been accompanied by the Northern Mockingbird (very proliflic here), Blue Jay (quite a repertoire!), Eastern Swallow, Tufted Titmouse, and Grackle.
Cornell Ornithology is great – they have a You Tube channel too. It’s always playing at a Wild Birds Unlimited store near me.
Also – iNaturalist is a great app – plants, insects, etc.
A Community for Naturalists · iNaturalist
Thanks for the tip!!
I installed it on my phone a couple of weeks ago as well and love it, too! We have a lot of chirpy birds here and, although I still don’t know what they’re yelling at me, at least I know now WHO is doing the yelling. 
Recent walk around the neighborhood identified: House Sparrow, House Finch, American Robin, Northern Mockingbird, Song Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, White-breasted Nuthatch, American Goldfinch, Carolina Wren, and Red-eyed Vireo!
Not my backyard but there is a shopping plaza along my running route. When out running early in the morning, I’ve heard what sounds like a rooster. Thinking it can’t actually be a random rooster roaming around what is not at all an area with farms, I was about to install the app referenced in this topic. A quick Google search suggested mourning doves as one possibility of a bird sounding like a rooster. Mourning doves are common here.
Then; while shopping at this plaza later in the day I saw this…
So, it really is a rooster just roaming around the parking lot. 
No sign of any hens. 
