During this lockdown in the UK, I have spent much more time than usual sitting in my garden, listening to the beautiful birdsong around me and feeding the various, kind, feathered visitors. In fact, colleagues and friends often comment on the birdsong in the background of my Zoom and MS-Teams meetings. I must admit, I know nothing about ornithology, and to my shame, I decided to do something about it.
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| Simply open your microphone when the birds are singing! |
BirdNET is an acoustic monitoring app that lets you detect birds in the vicinity. You simply open the app and let your microphone record all the ambient birdsong around you. Once you have a few seconds of bird song recorded, the app analyses the sounds, and reports you with varying degrees of confidence which birds have been recognised.
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| BirdNET has done a good job of detecting several frequent visitors to my garden, although I am sure I have seen emus and archaeopteryx today... |
You can also track your observations on a map and explore the area around you. Visit the website for more information on how it works or to download the Android app.
BirdNET is partly funded by the European Social Fund for Germany, German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and is supported by the Arthur Vining Foundation.
Plus one geek experience point is awarded each, to Stefan Kahl, Shyam Madhusudhana and Holger Klink.
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| The software wasn't fooled by my attempts at whistling a tune. I won't say what tune. |
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