Survey

Contents 5 sections

Capture bird calls along your route

With survey mode you record bird calls while you’re on the move – for example on a walk or along a fixed route. The app tracks your path via GPS, recognizes species automatically, and assigns each detection to the place where you heard it. This creates a complete, spatially referenced record of your walk. At the end, you review everything conveniently in the Session Review.

Smartphone with the BirdNET Live app in survey mode.

External Bluetooth microphone on a backpack.

Smartphone with an external Bluetooth microphone.

Typical use cases

Survey Mode is especially suited for:

walks and hikes with continuous recording
surveys along fixed routes
transect mapping
surveys where the location of each detection matters
citizen-science projects with a spatial reference

What is Survey Mode not suited for?

exploring nature spontaneously

Live Mode

capturing bird sounds at a fixed location over a set period of time

Point Count

using your phone as a recorder

ARU Mode (Autonomous Recording Unit)

How Survey Mode works

Open Survey Mode.
Complete the setup wizard.
- Enter the details. For the start location, it’s advisable to use the current GPS position.
- Set the parameters. See Settings for more information. The default settings are suitable for most applications.
- Configure species alerts. The app can alert you to certain species during the survey. For this feature, we recommend using headphones. That way the voice output is not picked up again by the microphone and does not affect the analysis. The announcements are especially helpful when you carry your smartphone in your pocket during a hike.
- Review the field tips.
- Check the configuration and start the survey.
Monitor the live survey. During the survey, the dashboard shows:
- a route map with detections
- an audio spectrogram
- an overview with a species breakdown
- a list of possible species in your area
Let the survey run in the background.
End the survey and evaluate it

In the live dashboard, tap the red button to end the survey. The app saves the finished survey. BirdNET Live then automatically opens the Session Review.

For survey mode to record your location correctly, BirdNET Live needs permission to access your location in the background as well. To do this, open your smartphone’s settings and go to Apps → BirdNET Live → Permissions → Location. Then select “Allow all the time” (Android) or enable continuous location access (iOS). Only with this permission can BirdNET Live reliably record your route during a survey recording – even when the app is in the background or the display is turned off.

Evaluating the results

After you end the survey, BirdNET Live automatically opens the Session Review. There you can see your route with all located detections on the map, listen to individual detections, view spectrograms, and add metadata.

Later, you’ll find the survey at any time in Sessions, where you can export the results or share them with others.

Settings and tips

If you want to improve your recording quality, take a look at the settings and tips.

Settings and tips