BirdNET

This app is awesome and tons of fun to use when out exploring nature. One feature I would really like to see is the ability to analyze/isolate certain frequencies on the spectrogram. This would be super helpful to remove background noise or target specific birds when multiple are singing at the same time.

Always pops up try again later

Again iPhones are terrible. Play Store for Android allows editing.

I know embarrassingly little about birds, and birdsong is hard to describe in words, so it’s impossible to look up after hearing one. This has been fun and easy to use, and has even helped me start to rectify my ignorance.

Used on a bird call I was familiar with and the app came up with multiple birds all incorrectly.

I have been using this app for a few years now. I found that it was better during its earlier versions. In its current state, the app frequently says that it’s unable to identity the bird in the audio clip. I sometimes wonder if the app creators are too strict in their regional restrictions of sources. Basically, when you use the app, it uses your location to identify what types of birds are usually found in your area. It then uses this list to compare audio captures to. The problem is, I think it cuts out a large chunk of migratory birds that may not be as common as the creators are restricting their sources to. Thus, you may only have luck identifying common birds, but at that point you probably already know what those birds are to begin with. I find the Merlin bird identification app to be better even though it only goes by physical descriptions and not audio captures. Both are connected to Cornell’s Ornithology lab, but the Merlin app lets you choose what sources you want to utilize, and this allows you to identify those rare birds in your area.

If you want ‘help’ identifying birds then you need to make the app more identifiable. The only reason I stuck with it as long as I have is due to the fact that I beta test apps and know how devs think (especially when it’s wrong). First off: don’t identify every unknown bird song as some sort of ‘songbird’ from New York. I don’t live anywhere near New York and the bird the app keeps defaulting to isn’t a bird that would ever be in my area. Secondly: explaining how the app works (new recordings delete previous recordings AND there is a limited time frame for recording) would be, like, you know, helpful. I found this app through a news story and was excited to participate in recording and sharing bird calls from my area in order to assist in identifying species’ locations and migration, etc. Now I’d like to know: do you even listen to the recordings that people send you, or is this kind of a joke, on us?

The app starts up with an excellent explanation of the 2 steps involved and then presents a straight forward single screen interface that you record and submit on. Within seconds the sound analysis is done with a picture and identity of the bird. It was accurate and fun.

This app has everything!

Wow this thing is really good and has really expanded my enjoyment of birding.