Who’s Visiting My Backyard? How I Built a Birdsong Analysis System
My love for birding began in 2015. I bought an SLR camera and started photographing birds, gradually building a portfolio that I share on Instagram at @aarons.perspective . Photography led naturally to wanting to know more about my subjects. I enjoy learning to identify species, log my sightings on eBird, and use Merlin Bird ID to help identify what I’m seeing and hearing. One day, sitting on the deck in my backyard, I wondered: which birds visit when I’m not around to notice them? I already had experience with Raspberry Pi and had recently purchased a Jetson Nano. That question seemed like a good home project: put a microphone outside, record bird calls, identify the species, and build a way to explore the results. The finished system became Chirp Charts . Getting there involved Python, BirdNET, databases, dashboards—and a surprising amount of troubleshooting power supplies, microphones, and network connections. 1. Split Recording From Analysis I separated the project into two j...
