{"id":20,"date":"2025-02-04T16:39:54","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T16:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/passerbliss-wp-e4hqetgmgkaqcrhv.uksouth-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=20"},"modified":"2026-04-18T12:15:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T12:15:14","slug":"embracing-ai-for-bird-calls-in-this-years-big-garden-bird-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/passerbliss.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/embracing-ai-for-bird-calls-in-this-years-big-garden-bird-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"Embracing AI for bird calls in this year&#8217;s Big Garden Bird Watch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In recent years, I\u2019ve become a regular participant in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rspb.org.uk\/whats-happening\/big-garden-birdwatch\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.rspb.org.uk\/whats-happening\/big-garden-birdwatch\">RSPB\u2019s Big Garden Birdwatch<\/a>, contributing my citizen science data to help track the UK\u2019s garden birds. This year I took a different approach &#8211; relying not just on my eyes, but using BirdNET-Pi, which harnesses AI to identify bird calls from audio, creating a richer picture of the birds in my neighborhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BirdNET-Pi is an open-source project available on GitHub designed to run on a Raspberry Pi, a small and affordable computer. After setting up BirdNET-Pi, I can easily access a comprehensive dashboard via a web browser, where I can explore detailed information about the birds identified in my area from a microphone I snaked out my window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"710\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/assembled.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-59\" srcset=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/assembled.jpg 960w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/assembled-300x222.jpg 300w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/assembled-768x568.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The assembled Raspberry Pi 5 complete with Pibow case, active cooler and microphone attached to the USB port<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Whilst there are countless guides on how to set-up BirdNET-Pi, I thought I&#8217;d share the details of my configuration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The kit:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Raspberry Pi 5 (4GB model is fine, however I opted for 16GB)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Raspberry Pi 5 Active Cooler. To take the heat off crunching those chirps!<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Raspberry Pi 5 USB-C power supply<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pibow Raspberry Pi 5 case. Because it looks pretty cool and nicely fits around the active cooler.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>SD card (for the OS image with ample capacity to store audio data &#8211; I purchased 128GB).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>USB microphone (I purchased a Movo M1 USB Lavalier microphone, a relatively inexpensive option).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1020\" height=\"768\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/unboxing1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-60\" srcset=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/unboxing1.jpg 1020w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/unboxing1-300x226.jpg 300w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/unboxing1-768x578.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1020px) 100vw, 1020px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Unboxing the Pi 5 &#8211; stage 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1020\" height=\"768\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/unboxing2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-61\" srcset=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/unboxing2.jpg 1020w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/unboxing2-300x226.jpg 300w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/unboxing2-768x578.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1020px) 100vw, 1020px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Unboxing the Pi 5 &#8211; stage 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The specific assembly instructions for the Pibow for Rasperry Pi 5 can be found at <a href=\"https:\/\/learn.pimoroni.com\/article\/building-your-pibow-5\">https:\/\/learn.pimoroni.com\/article\/building-your-pibow-5<\/a>. The peripherals for Pi 5 can easily be swapped out for Raspberry Pi 4 (with the associated case, power supply and active cooler for 4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m going to skip straight to BirdNET-pi, as there are guides aplenty on how to set-up Rasperry Pi. However the official guide was enough to get up and running: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.raspberrypi.com\/documentation\/computers\/getting-started.html\">https:\/\/www.raspberrypi.com\/documentation\/computers\/getting-started.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I installed BirdNET-Pi from a particular fork to ensure compatibility with the Raspberry Pi 5, which runs on the Debian Bookworm OS: <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/Nachtzuster\/BirdNET-Pi\">https:\/\/github.com\/Nachtzuster\/BirdNET-Pi<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The installation worked without a hitch, perhaps a moments delay before the data began to flow in and I was able to locate my installation on my local network under birdnetpi.local.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BirdNET-pi has support for <em>Apprise<\/em> &#8211; a notification library that can be configured under via the Settings menu. For example, I subscribed to <em>MQTT <\/em>(a type of message broker) to join a community network of BirdNET-Pi devices in my locality, enabling us to share bird detection data and collaborate on monitoring local bird populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"824\" height=\"456\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/birdnet_pi_soft_edge-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-62\" srcset=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/birdnet_pi_soft_edge-1.png 824w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/birdnet_pi_soft_edge-1-300x166.png 300w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/birdnet_pi_soft_edge-1-768x425.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 824px) 100vw, 824px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">BirdNET-pi in action!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>So how about the Big Garden Bird Watch results? <em><strong>Herring Gulls<\/strong><\/em>, <strong><em>House Sparrows<\/em><\/strong> and <strong><em>Starlings <\/em><\/strong>amongst the most numerous detections were of no surprise. Undetected by BirdNET-pi were my more silent avian neighbours, a flock of <strong><em>Feral Pigeons<\/em><\/strong> and a pair <strong><em>Carrion Crows<\/em><\/strong>. However a couple of detections BirdNET-pi made irrespective of what I saw included the<strong> <em>Eurasian Oystercatcher<\/em><\/strong>, <strong><em>Dunlin <\/em><\/strong>and <strong><em>Common Goldeneye<\/em><\/strong>. Oystercatchers and dunlins are regulars in my neighborhood, but I\u2019ve never spotted a Goldeneye -though the audio recording sounded legit! And my most counted bird? The feral pigeon!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not only was this is a novel way for doing the Big Garden Bird Watch this year, the motivation to get my own kit came after learning about the <em><strong>Dundee Bionet<\/strong><\/em>, a network of acoustic bird detectors spread across green spaces and community gardens in Dundee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is only just the beginning of my foray into bird audio data &#8211; stay tuned for what projects take flight next!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How I used BirdNET-pi, a bird audio classifier for the Raspberry Pi to compliment my results in this year&#8217;s Big Garden Bird Watch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[10,11,18,9,8,27,7],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birding","category-tech","tag-ai","tag-biggardenbirdwatch","tag-bionet","tag-bird-watching","tag-birdnet-pi","tag-birds","tag-raspberry-pi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/passerbliss.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/passerbliss.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/passerbliss.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passerbliss.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passerbliss.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/passerbliss.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79,"href":"https:\/\/passerbliss.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions\/79"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/passerbliss.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passerbliss.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passerbliss.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}