Implementing BirdNet Raspberry Pi

Someone on my local online marketplace was selling a Raspberry Pi 4B (8GB of RAM) for $75 (the kit is shown in the image below). It came complete with Power Supply, the Raspberry Pi computer (its the size of a credit card), MicroSD Card (64GB Hard Drive) and a plastic case.

On this little credit-card sized computer - you can install an Operating System (Linux) and then an application called BirdNet.Pi  --- its a full fledged program with a web-based "front end", a server that listens to bird sounds in your yard, and uses AI to ID those sounds. The data obtained is stored in local database on the "back end".

I've tried to implement this a few times and I was never really able to get it to work until this week. This is what I've realized:

SPECIFICIONS AND REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS PROJECT:

• You need a Raspberry Pi 4B (with 2, 4 or 8GB of ram)
• You need to install the "Bullseye" Linux OS (64bit).
• You need to install the Birdnet.Pi application from the command line in Linux OS on your Raspberry Pi.
• You need a microphone with a USB connection.
• You need to change the audio recordings library from the default to the other option.
• If you deviate from these specs above - this project will fail.

The reason I wanted to implement this is because I have been amazed at the birdlife in my backyard over the years. I have heard American Woodcock on Feb 19th. I have heard Whip-Poor-Wills just by chance, along with other good birds like Olive sided flycatchers, yellow bellied sapsuckers ... and more. Last year I had Northern Waterthrush in singing distance for over a week!  The thing is --- I'm on my back porch maybe 3% of the day. Just imagine what I could be missing!!!

These are screenshots of the daily reports (as seen from the web-view from my celll phone) on March 5 & 6th. Some of these birds would be new on my ebird yard list. 

March 5th Report

March 6th Report (I've excluded Blue Jays in the settings after the previous day)

Installing this application at this time of year (Early March) can give me daily reports of what birds are singing while I'm at work. Today - March 5th, 2025 was the first day I had success with an interesting report (see screenshots). It will be amazing to see the day by day reports through April and May this year. I can post these reports to ebird as well. 

One further tech tool I've implemented was to use a VPN server to connect to my house's lan from outside my local network. So --- today, using my cellular data from work during lunch, I was able to "VPN" into my LAN to check the web based interface- which is hosted from the raspberry pi wirelessly through wifi.  This is a surprising amount of Tech --- just to see a daily report of birdlife.

Here is a cost breakdown of this project:

• $75-$125 - Raspberry Pi 4B Computer and Kit, case, power
• $20 - USB microphone
• Free - 1-2 hours to install OS (free) and The Application (free)

Web Links of Interest:

• The Project Code Site by its Author (respect):
• https://github.com/mcguirepr89/BirdNET-Pi
• https://www.birdweather.com/birdnetpi
• Kevin Murphy (no relation)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obHcjxEITQk
• Core Electronics
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM-F4sJ-5rc
• https://core-electronics.com.au/projects/bird-calls-raspberry-pi/

Conclusions - This is really neat. Its the real deal and it will be really exciting to see a day-by-day report of migration, summer breeding birds, and southbound fall migration. I will try to automate Ebird and Bird-weather connections to maximize the data sharing with the scientific community.

Good birding,

Dwayne

Jan - Feb 2025 - Birding Highlights

 

Northern Mockingbird was a nice find on March 1st - Seen at Ojibway Park in Windsor !

In SW Ontario - Jan and Feb are the coldest, dreariest months to live through. Cold, lack of sunlight make birding (and living/working) a little bit challenging. But some decent birds have been around (few and far between). 

The listing below shows some of the nicer (seasonal) birds that I was able to see over the last month or two ...

Rough Legged Hawk - Mike S noted this bird out near Harrow and I made an effort to go see it. The bird was flushed by a snowplow driving by. On the way home, I found a raptor perched on a thin branch (see second photo) but I'm not 100% sure it was a Rough Legged. Still always nice to see one.

Northern Shrike - Seen in a lot adjacent to Black Oak Herritage Park. Found by Ian Woodfield.

Eastern Screech Owl - This was interesting --- my brother told me that a warehouse worker at a local car factory had an Owl Sitting on a hood of a car in a warehouse. The warehouse is called "the barn" --- so I was tempted to call this a barn owl. The doors to this warehouse open and close all day so I'm sure it can leave when it feels it needs to do so. I was granted private access to see the bird.

Saw Whet Owl -  I recently was able to see two of these birds within meters of each other. Its always amazing to see this species.

Fox Sparrows - Always nice to see in the winter at Ojibway. 

Eastern Towhee - I feel I have seen a female (early feb) and now a male Towhee at Ojibway Park in Windsor this Feb. Really nice to see this bird with a snowy backdrop.

Northern Mockingbird - Self found at Ojibway this weekend. A pleasant surprise. It flew by me and its white-black wing flashes were diagnostic. 

Spring is just around the corner. The onslaught of migrants will be trickling in soon enough!

Good birding,

Dwayne

Birding in Phoenix AZ --- Mid February 2025

 

Say's Phoebe

Hey All, I attended a wedding in Phoenix AZ over the last three days - and thought I would share some birding highlights. I was in Phoenix with my family and even my dad for 3 days, 2 nights.  I think any birder in eastern north america needs to put a trip to Arizona on their birding bucket list. Its a completely different ecosystem from the Carolinian Life Zone that spoils us with our most common species. The gorgeous mountains along the horizon are stunning. Arizona is also the hummingbird capital of the US - with 14 species! 

I found one life bird --- a Costa's Hummingbird quite easily at my first birdwatching destination. A few other (potential lifers) that had been seen lately at the rio-salada center were golden-crowned sparrow and grey hawk - an accipiter of the SW'ern US. 

Costa's Hummingbird

Below I list out 3 locations I birded in the three days I was in Phoenix:

Desert Botany Garden (Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona | DBG)

Costa's Hummingbird

Curve billed Thrasher

Cactus Wren

Marine Blue Butterfly

Rio Salada - Audubon Center ( Rio Salado Audubon Center )

Anna's Hummingbird

Audubon's Yellow Rumped Warbler

Say's Phoebe

Black Phoebe

Gambel's Quail

Black tailed Gnatcatcher

Base and Meridian Wildlife Area - Base and Meridian Wildlife Area — Maricopa Audubon Society

Anna's Hummingbird

Road Runner

Cinnamon Teal

Harris's Hawk

Road Runner --- Running across the road.

This is my second time to the beautiful state of Arizona.  I had gone a few years back to SE Arizona a few years ago listed out in a 7-series blog posting. See this link for blog posting 5 of 7 Nerdy for Birdy: Part 5 of 7 - Birding Cave Creek Canyon - Portal AZ

Good Birding!

Dwayne

Lifer Summary (last 5 life birds):

Black crested Titmouse (TX) 466
Snowy Plover (TX) 467
Neotropical Cormorant (TX) 468
White tailed Kite (TX) 469
Least Grebe (TX) 470
Bachman's Sparrow (FL) 471
Costa's Hummingbird (AZ) 472

Birding & Nature Highlights from 2024 - Year in Review

 

Looking back at this year was somewhat lack-luster ---- both with my birding attempts at Pelee and in my own backyard. I did travel a little this year, visiting Miami Florida, New Brunswick and Belleville Ontario. 

I did get a chance to see two different Olive sided Flycatchers in the hedgerow behind my house.  A top highlight at Pelee was finding Praire Warbler on two separate occasions in May this year. In April - (April 19th) -, I had a surprisingly early Great Crested Flycatcher (link).

April 18th 2024 - Great Crested Flycatcher

Seeing a Southern Dogface butterfly at Point Pelee this summer was pretty amazing. I had seen them in the southern US before but did not fully come to appreciate their field marks. Another butterfly highlight from this year was seeing a Fiery Skipper in my yard, and a few more in the hedgerow behind my house. Seeing many Zabulon Skippers around the Ojibway Park complex was really neat as well. A single Horace's Duskywing was a nice find as well.  Finally - I almost forgot about a chance sighting of some European Blue butterflies seen in downtown Toronto this summer as well. 

Botany wise - I did not have too many highlights. One thought that comes to mind was finding a mid-May Orchid species that I am not aware of being seen previously - a Shining Ladies Tresses Orchid at Ojibway park. To my knowledge - this species has not been identified at Ojibway - so my sighting might be a first!(* after checking Inat - yes, another was seen outside the park ).

Astronomy was pretty exciting for me this year with some great / rare sightings which included a Solar Eclipse, Northern Lights, and three comets. 

So - each year brings with it an interesting mix of chance sightings. I still really enjoy birding and naturalizing. I enjoy blogging and reading many of the great blogs in the blog-o-sphere. Its boxing day as I write this so wishing you all belated Christmas Greetings, belated Winter Solstice greetings, and Wishing you all a great new year for 2025.

Yours in Nature,
Dwayne