A northern yellow warbler is haunting me.

At least that’s what my new best friend Merlin keeps telling me.

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Merlin can hear the tiny warbler chuckling at me from deep inside the foliage while on a walkabout at Fountain Creek Regional Park. Alas, my feeble human eyeballs are unable to detect the elusive bird.

However, Merlin is a great teacher. I now know the call of one of my favorite birds, the belted kingfisher — those little rebels with their perfect mohawks who like to screech as they go tearing across ponds and streams, hunting small fish.

Maybe you also know my buddy Merlin. I’m talking about the Merlin Bird ID, the best app to ever take up residence on my phone.

I’ve longed to download the free app for years, but with zero space on my phone, ’twas but a dream. And then I got a new phone late this summer. First order of business? Download the app that listens for bird calls and magically identifies them.…