Bird Song Id: Auto Recognition

Sunbird Images OHG

About this app

The original and the best, accept no cheap imitations !
Record a bird singing and use Automatic Recognition to help identify it.
Unlike other apps, no internet or mobile connection is needed.

Top of its class, Bird Watching Magazine rated it 9 out of 10 saying it is remarkably accurate.

Copied by a few, bettered by none, Bird Song Id is three years ahead of anyone else in this field !

The Times Newspaper said the app "Does what it says on the tin" and were amazed that "this astonishing piece of software costs about the same as a cup of coffee".

The Telegraph Newspaper said "Bird Song Id is a good walk improved, and may even put a spring in your step".

Bird Song Id helps you identify a wide variety of birds of the British Isles by their songs and calls.

Automatic Recognition takes place on the device, no connection to the internet or mobile network is needed.

Automatic Recognition is a little like Shazam for birds.

Great for identifying warbler, finch, sparrow, thrush, flycatcher and many other types of songbird.

Automatic Recognition needs good quality recordings to work well. See the help below, or follow the Developer Website link to find out how to improve your recordings.

How successful is it ? Our aim is to get the correct bird in the top three of those listed. In our testing of over 1,000 samples we found the success rate of Bird Song Id to be 85%.

Follow the Developer Website link to see a demo of Bird Song Id Automatic Recognition on YouTube

--------------- HELP ----------------
Automatic Recognition needs a good quality recording of the bird.

Only record when it is very quiet, apart from the bird singing of course.

Be close to the bird singing, as close as you can be without disturbing it.

Only record when a single bird is singing, or when a single bird is dominant

The analysis graph should have plenty of blue and green colors with few or no black peaks.

The peaks on the Bird Song Id graph should reach all the way to the top. Low peaks indicate poor quality and recognition is unlikely.

The Audio Quality, shown at the top of the results screen, should be at least Good, and preferably Very Good or Excellent

The highest Bird Song Id score should be above 70% to be useful. Below this and the system is telling you it is not sure what the song is.

A difference between two birds of less than 10% is not that significant, so listen to the samples from both to help you further

Make sure it is very quiet apart from the bird song which should be nice and loud

Be as close to the bird as you can be without disturbing it

Be patient, dont expect miracles, the system works but needs good clear recordings

The microphone is often at the bottom of a device, point the microphone towards the bird

Remove the case from your device if you use one as this can dampen the microphone

Record a single bird at a time

Capture at least two singing episodes if you can.

Record for the full 30 seconds

Avoid windy conditions. Air moving over the microphone will mask the bird sounds

Make sure there is plenty of life in the battery. Your device will reduce power going to the microphone as the battery runs down

Playing songs to the app from recorded material on the internet, other apps or CDs is unlikely to work as this material is digitally processed and edited (inter phase gaps are often shortened). They sound very different to recording birds for real in the natural environment. Particularly true for finch and warbler recordings.

Some devices, particularly larger tablets, do not have good microphones built in to them. This will result in a lot of background hiss that will cause Automatic Recognition to fail. Better external microphones are usually available for these devices.

Get to know the warble of a warbler, the chatter of a finch, the chirp of a sparrow, the song of a blackbird etc etc !

Ratings and reviews

Not once has this app ever worked correctly. Using the recording feature to identify a bird, its primary function as an app, it never gives anything close to the song or bird I am hearing. It always gives the same 20 birds in its suggestions, at the top is always mourning doves that arent around and 15 other birds that dont even live in my region. Worthless app.

This app is not perfect but it is good, it is useful to play to see if a type of bird is present and to help make a bird appear. However there are many not so uncommon birds that are not on this app. People must remember that most birds individually have varied calls and songs and that when learning the calls of a bird that you should listen for the properties of the song or call and that remember all varied! OVERALL this app has opened up a new world of birding to me and is essential to learn!!

Its pretty good at identifying Birds if you have enough warbling or chirping sounds in your 30 seconds. It has to be 100% still no cars or anything like that going by or Whispers only the birds. It is not user-friendly but I do like being able to identify birds.

What's new

Lots of bug fixes!