BirdUp - birdsong recognition

Jon Burn

- 4 June 2017

Everyone

Education

Offers in-app purchases

( 189)

BirdUp - birdsong recognition- screenshot thumbnail

Description

BirdUp instantly identifies birds by their songs or calls.

BirdUp recognises all common birds found in gardens, parks and woodlands in the UK.

BirdUp works offline, so requires no wi-fi or mobile phone signal.

This is a 30-day free trial version. If you like it and want to continue using it after that you can easily upgrade to the premium version from within the app.

Reviews

3.9

189 total

5 102

4 27

3 16

2 18

1 26

Mark Moody

Fails to recognise 100% of recorded calls. Even in premium database is woefully small and excludes gulls or any species living on or near water. Not really worth persisting with.

Fantastic app. Many a time when walking we have heard a birdsong that we have not recognised. This easy to use app has made their Identification simple.

The earlier free version worked reasonably well, but since I have installed the latest version and paid for premium service, the app has proved less than useless. I use this on both a Samsung S5 phone and a Samsung tab. I have read all the help files, tried the different sensitivity settings, and it has failed at every use. Recently I had the chance to do a positive test on the app, a bird was singing close to me in my garden, and it was quite loud with little or no wind or background noise. I made 3 recordings on both my phone and tablet. Only one recording recognised that there was a bird there, the other 5 showed nothing at all. It identified a Chaffinch (I could see the bird) as being a Yellowhammer. I am very dissapointed with this app and certainly can't recommend it.

Neill Mitchell

Does not work at all on my ZTE Axon 7. Standing literally 2 metres from a Goldfinch in full song and this app gave a 30% probable match to a Chiffchaff and 25% Robin. Birds further away don't register at all. Tried playing with the settings, but it doesn't seem to help.

Andrew Morris

The free version worked very well. Now I suspect, that if a bird came up to it and said, 'I'm a robin, the app still wouldn't get it. Less than useless on the S7... please replace this version with the original....

Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Nice idea, but telling me seagulls are chaffinches with 62% confidence doesn't make me super confident about the recognition

User reviews

Mark Moody 9 June 2017

Fails to recognise 100% of recorded calls. Even in premium database is woefully small and excludes gulls or any species living on or near water. Not really worth persisting with.

18 June 2017

Fantastic app. Many a time when walking we have heard a birdsong that we have not recognised. This easy to use app has made their Identification simple.

14 June 2017

Jon Burn 15 June 2017

I'm sorry you did not get good results. I cant say specifically why it does not work for you. but the recognition engine is sensitive to a number of factors (device type, recording conditions etc) and I am always trying to improve it, so hopefully you will give it another go sometime in the future.

Neill Mitchell 8 June 2017

Andrew Morris 7 July 2017

Paddy Robinson-Griffin 13 June 2017

Nice idea, but telling me seagulls are chaffinches with 62% confidence doesn't make me super confident about the recognition

Jon Burn 13 June 2017

Hi Paddy BirdUp tends to work best with ordinary garden birds. Gulls are not on its list of birds that it knows about (see the Birds tab for the list) , so it does not recognise that and chooses the nearest other match. I'm surprised that is chaffinch tho..

Paul Holman 10 June 2017

Very useful and easy to use app. Works well on an Xperia Z5. It would be fun if types of chickens were included too!

18 June 2017

The free trial version doesn't work

Richard Renwick 18 June 2017

£2.39 is just plain greed.

Chris Parkes 3 June 2017

Excellent app, works extremely well considering the limitations of the mic. in a mobile phone.

28 July 2017

A brilliant app. Always recognises the birds in my forest in Ireland.

Harold Hall 5 June 2017

Really works well

15 June 2017

Brilliant!

Christopher Mulliss 28 May 2017

Tried this out and have identified some unknowns. Works well as we live in the country and reasonably has problems when human generated noise is around to interfere.

Carol Haughton 1 May 2017

This is a fantastic app and the fact that there are pics and samples of the birds to compared is a real bonus. I upgraded after a week I was so pleased with it.

John Wright 5 May 2017

30 day trial was great but paid for app recorded nothing. John

Jon Burn 6 May 2017

The premium is just the same app so it was probably just you had an update that is poorer at noise reduction. I have released another update now which increases the level of signal to noise extraction. I am hoping this will get you better results - the whole thing is quite variable as outside noise conditions and phone microphones are all factors

David Statman 26 April 2017

Free version was great. It thought it heard a Tawney Owl in the London Underground (in the train carriage). Surrounded by about 6 birds singing when I'm in a wooded copse it says rustling, human voice, engine noise and nothing else. Crappier now than it was 3 weeks ago! A lot of improvement needed. Can you hear that? It's moaning. I think it gets worse with every"upgrade". The biggest upgrade is a refund.

Jon Burn 19 April 2017

Sorry you're not getting good results. I have just released a new version 3.0.19 to try to better pick out birds from the things it thinks are non-bird sounds. Also 6 birds singing at once will confuse it - try to just isolate the loudest/nearest

Heather Hadley 19 April 2017

Having delighted in the old version for the last year and raved about it to many others, it disappeared from my tablet and I have diligently got the updated version ( the one you keep mentioning to people Jon). However, this is a pale version of what you had originally. Go back to it and I'd pay. This new one didn't even pick up the randy collared dove a few feet away!

Jon Burn 21 April 2017

Hi Heather you are right there is a problem with picking up lower frequency songs such as doves and pigeons - I think this is fixed now in the latest update

Ben Weston 20 April 2017

I don't mind paying the small sum of money asked but I am losing confidence in this. Every bird seems to be a linnet or a song thrush.

Jon Burn 21 April 2017

Hi Ben - song thrush and linnet are both variable and chattering - it could be that this is caused by multiple different bird songs at the same time being treated as a single song by the app. It's true the app will work best if you can isolate a single song as much as possible - it is not good at the spring dawn chorus - too much going on.

Claude Monecel 19 April 2017

Doesn't recognise Black bird or Robin the most common Birds in UK

Jon Burn 21 April 2017

Hi Claude you may need to try a few times, but my analytics tell me that blackbird and robin are among the most common birds identified by birdup, so I am confident it will work if you persist. If you listen back to your recording files you will hear if you are inadvertently making noisy recordings, that might also be an issue.

19 April 2017

I have reinstalled, I will test over the weekend...thank you for responding.

Jon Burn 19 April 2017

Sorry you're not getting good results. I have just released a new version 3.0.19 to try to better pick out birds from the things it thinks are non-bird sounds.

Dave Kendall-Smith 8 April 2017

I used this a year ago, it picked out plenty of birds in my garden. However, now it only can pick out traffic, rustling and dogs barking. I didn't hear any dogs, but plenty of blackbird song, bluetits and sparrows. I so want this application to work.

Jon Burn 14 April 2017

If you listen back to the files recorded you may find that you are picking up more noise than you thought. The tips page gives some recommendations on how to get the better results

Simon Knight 15 April 2017

Like others I tried an older version and was pleased with the results. this newer version was unable to identify any birds despite a clear and dominant call in progress. Something has broken perhaps. Also, how can I store songs on sdcard I have minimal storage on phone?

Jon Burn 19 April 2017

Sorry you're not getting good results. I have just released a new version 3.0.19 to try to better pick out birds from the things it thinks are non-bird sounds. Have you tried selecting the Share icon for the file - it will present you with the choices your phone has for sound files

xyzzy xyzzy 8 April 2017

Bad practice, taking a free app, and a stealthy upgrade to make it a paid app. Result: uninstall and a nasty review. YES, you made it clear. So too is opinion of your change of policy. It sucks. When this was installed, a year ago, it was not marked as a free trial.

Jon Burn 28 March 2017

I have tried to be clear on the store listing, the intro message, the app title and the upgrade page itself that this is a FREE TRIAL. You only need to upgrade and pay if you want to continue using after the trial has expired.

Kat Buxton 8 April 2017

I used it last year and it picked up birds. Now it picks up wind, rustling, walking, etc. No birds though. Not even one, really close by. It is terrible. Uninstalling.

Jon Burn 14 April 2017

If you listen back to the files recorded you may find that you are picking up more noise than you thought. The tips page gives some recommendations on how to get the better results

Doug Brodie 9 April 2017

Shame that this free app has been "upgraded" to a 'free trial' with a requirement to pay. Very unprofessional way to behave.

Jon Burn 14 April 2017

I only want people to buy it who find it works for them - so it is a free trial for 30 days and only then you pay a one-off amount of £2 + vat to continue using it if you like it. That seems fair enough to me. This app has taken a lot of work to create I dont see why you think you are entitled to it for free forever.

15 April 2017

Used to love this app but now it doesn't seem to pick up bird song. Standing in a wood today miles from anyone , surrounded by different bird songs and all it heard was a human voice!

Jon Burn 19 April 2017

Sorry you're not getting good results. I have just released a new version 3.0.19 to try to better pick out birds from the things it thinks are non-bird sounds. Also many birds singing at once does confuse it - try to isolate the loudest/nearest birdsong

John Lang Wilson 19 April 2017

First go today. The app found willow warbler and Goldcrest before I did! I need to learn how to get the best out of it

Michael Loughridge 31 March 2017

A great little app that I am glad to have when out birding even though results are variable and not always reliable. When I select Birds from the main menu page to read information about a particular species or listen to a sample sound file there does not appear to be a way to return directly to the bird list. Clicking the back arrow at top left of the screen returns me to the main menu and I have to select Birds and scroll through the list again. I wonder if it would be possible to rectify that? It would also help if the Bird list were sorted alphabetically. Nevertheless a nicely presented App That should appeal to young and old, novice and expert alike.

Jon Burn 1 April 2017

Thanks Michael, will take a look at the navigation issues you described.

John Naylor 29 March 2017

Great app, but a little disapointed after upgrading as there are no hawk, buzzard or other birds of prey calls ( other than tawny owl) as these are difficult to identifiy when calling while flying high. But still worth the money Cheers John

Jon Burn 29 March 2017

Thanks John - I have not prioritised birds of prey so far as I suspected they are not going to work too well as you are unlikely enough to get close enough to get a good recording on the phone's mic. Buzzard maybe. Hawks often flash past so quick you have barely enough time to raise binoculars let alone turn on a phone...

Paul Emmerson 4 April 2017

Good so far. Keep adding species! It's identified quite a few birds correctly, confirmed by visual sightings. Especially useful for those small brown jobbies flitting around at the tops of trees. But are there really so many Greenfinches in the woods?

Aled Jones 26 March 2017

Can you display the proper bird names in the recording history panel? At the moment is shows code names, robin1 is easy to desipher, but others no so much. Great app!

Jon Burn 26 March 2017

Thanks Aled, yes good idea will put that in next update

Caroline Maynard 3 April 2017

I had fair results with the previous version, but they have deteriorated in version 3, such that the app is no longer useful for me. Uninstalling for this reason, not because of the cost, which is very reasonable if it works for you.

Jon Burn 3 April 2017

Hi Caroline if you have the time please send me some details about what it was missing / falsely identifying - I would obviously like to fix this asap. Thanks

10 April 2017

You can walk the woods listening to the bird songs and calls knowing Which birds are there

Yeanuk Rho 4 April 2017

Great app! Even picked up belgian birds

26 March 2017

Nice app Look forward to any additions

sarah ward 12 March 2017

Update has improved app, but more improvements needed before I'd pay for it. Is it possible to have a 'confirm' button and a 'reject' button for correctly and incorrectly identified sounds, so that the app can learn from this? Or is that too ambitious 😊

Jon Burn 12 March 2017

Thanks am thinking about this. 2 approaches - i)to retrain the app just locally on your device using your own feedback, or ii) send your confirm/reject (plus recording) to a server and retrain centrally for everyone and reissue updated package. Am considering the pros and cons of both..

Jonathan Forty 12 March 2017

Great app..or was it would have probably paid but to update then be told is sneaky and underhand why do it that way ?

Jon Burn 13 March 2017

It is a free trial for 30 days then you can choose to update or not. I don't see why you consider that unfair?

Joanne Perry 9 March 2017

Great little app easy to use and I've used it alot very enjoyable