Chart position — tracked daily by LaunchShots
Screenshot style breakdown
Sampled from 6 of Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab's App Store screenshots — background, accent and theme, measured by LaunchShots (not something Apple publishes).
#9CAC64 bg
#899758
#6C7CAC accent
#111111 text
Screenshots
Icon palette
About this app
What's that bird? Ask Merlin—the world’s leading app for birds. Just like magic, Merlin Bird ID will help you solve the mystery. Merlin helps you identify birds you see and hear. Merlin is unlike any other bird app—it's powered by eBird, the world’s largest database of bird sightings, sounds, and photos. Merlin offers four fun ways to identify birds. Answer a few simple questions, upload a photo, record a singing bird, or explore birds in a region. Whether you’re curious about a bird you’ve seen once or you’re hoping to identify every bird you can find, the answers are waiting for you with this free app from the renowned Cornell Lab of Ornithology. WHY YOU’LL LOVE MERLIN • Expert ID tips, range maps, photos, and sounds help you learn about the birds you spot and build birding skills. • Discover a new bird species each day with your own personalized Bird of the Day • Get customized l…
App details
What you can learn from Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab
Every shipping app on the App Store has gone through the same decisions you're working through right now: which screenshot goes first, what caption sits over it, which device frame to show, what color the background should be. The 8 screenshots above are Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab's answers to those questions — they're public, they're real, and they made it through Apple's review.
What the numbers say: Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab runs a mixed light-and-dark set where the background shifts from screenshot to screenshot (first shot #9CAC64) — each image has to stand on its own, so the captions carry more of the story. The accent colour we picked up, #6C7CAC, is the one to reuse for badges, arrows and highlighted words if you borrow this look. Hit Use this style to open the editor with these exact colours and drop your own screenshot in.
Notice the first screenshot in particular. It's the one users see in search results and on the product page, and it's where most apps spend their best caption and tightest design. Look at the proportion of background to phone, where the text sits, what one thing the image is trying to communicate.
Want to see how other Reference apps approach the same problem? Browse more Reference apps in the showcase.
Take what works into your own screenshots
Open LaunchShots and design your App Store & Google Play screenshots — pick a device frame, drop captions, ship in minutes. Free, in your browser.
Open the screenshot editor →Apps with a similar look
Closest background + accent colours among the listings we've analysed — useful when you want to see the same palette handled by a different team.