I’ve recently discovered a useful app called BirdNET. I don’t know if this app is mentioned here before, but I thought it might be interesting to share it here.
I often walk around in nature hearing all these different bird sounds, but not able to determine the species. Especially in dense forests it sometimes is difficult to spot the birds.
So I went looking for an app and found the BirdNET app.
With the app you’re able to determine birds by their sound.
The app is created as a research project from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Chemnitz University of Technology.
They use artificial intelligence and neural networks to identify nearly 1,000 of the most common species of North America and Europe.
The app can be downloaded in the Google Play store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.tu_chemnitz.mi.kahst.birdnet&hl=en
Unfortunately for iPhone users the app is android only.
It is also possible to manually upload samples on the project website:
https://birdnet.cornell.edu/api/
How does is work?
The app works pretty simple. You just record the sound of the bird(s).
You do need to give the app permission to use the microphone of your device.
The recorded sounds are shown in a graph.
After you stop recording you can select the part where you heard the bird.
The selected part can be analyze by the app. This is just a matter of seconds.
The results are show with the probability in percentages.
Observations are saved in the app. If you give the app permission to your GPS, it will save the location as well. But this is not mandatory.
Within the app you can navigate to the Wikipedia page of the bird you discovered for more information.
The app will save an overview of your observations including the recorded audio.
They have an instruction video in the Google Play store as well:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.tu_chemnitz.mi.kahst.birdnet&hl=en
I hope you enjoy the app as much as I do.
