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The listening birdhouse

Have you ever been curious about what’s singing on your balcony or in your garden? The listening birdhouse makes it possible! Inside is a small Raspberry Pi running BirdNET—an AI that recognizes bird songs. The system listens around the clock and will show you which species are chirping in your area.

Prior knowledge

Section titled “Prior knowledge”

Basic computer skills are required; some English is helpful. You can follow the instructions step by step even without in-depth technical knowledge – but it will be easier if you already have experience with consoles and basic programming. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us by email.

Checklist: What do I need?

Section titled “Checklist: What do I need?”

  • A Raspberry Pi

    • Raspberry Pi 5 ca. 55-140 € (2-16GB RAM)
    • Raspberry 4B ca. 40-80€ (1-8 GB RAM)
    • Raspberry Pi 3B ca. 40 €
    • Raspberry Pi W2 ca. 20 € - The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W is the least powerful model among the supported devices. If you choose this model, you should invest in a high-performance SD card, as a large part of the system load will be shifted to the card. In addition, not all BirdNET-Pi functions can be reliably executed on the Zero 2 W. To avoid crashes or limited responsiveness, it is recommended that you disable features such as live audio in BirdNET-Pi.

  • SD card with at least 8 GB

  • For the Raspberry Pi 5, Raspberry Pi 4B, and Raspberry Pi 3B+, a normal SD card is usually sufficient—for example, a Class 10 or UHS-I card with good read and write speeds. However, if you are using a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, we recommend a high-quality SD card. With this model, a larger portion of the system load is outsourced to the SD card, so the performance and durability of the card are particularly important here.

  • Possibly an adapter for microSD cards for your computer
  • Power supply for your Raspberry Pi
  • USB microphone or USB sound card and AUX microphone
  • For the Raspberry Pi Zero W2, a microUSB - OTG adapter is also required
  • If you do not want to set up the Pi via SSH, i.e., using your computer, or if you want to troubleshoot, the following may be useful: Mini HDMI to HDMI adapter to connect the Pi to a screen. USB keyboard—pay attention to which and how many USB ports your Pi has available.