Overview of the parts and accessories needed to build a BirdNET-Pi bird station.
Contents1 section
Checklist: What do I need?
A Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi 5 approx. $50–140 (2–16 GB RAM)
Raspberry Pi 4B approx. $40–80 (1–8 GB RAM)
Raspberry Pi 3B approx. $40
Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W approx. $20 — the least powerful supported model. If you choose it, invest in a high-performance SD card, since a large part of the system load is shifted onto the card. Not all BirdNET-Pi functions run reliably on it; to avoid crashes, it is advisable to disable features such as live audio.
SD card at least 8 GB
For the Raspberry Pi 5, 4B, and 3B+, a normal SD card is usually sufficient – for example a Class 10 or UHS-I card with good read and write speeds.
For the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W we recommend a high-quality SD card, since a larger part of the system load is offloaded onto it and the card’s performance and durability matter more here.
possibly an adapter for a microSD card to your computer
Power supply for your Raspberry Pi
USB microphone or USB sound card and AUX microphone
For the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, a microUSB-OTG adapter is additionally required
Optional, for setup without SSH or for troubleshooting:
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 provides
