Identify birds offline using AI: New app records animal sounds directly on your smartphone

· 5 min read
Identify birds offline using AI: New app records animal sounds directly on your smartphone
Martina Buchna, a ranger at the Bavarian Forest National Park, and developer Dr. Stefan Kahl are convinced of the strengths of the BirdNET Live bird-song app. The ranger demonstrates an audio logger that can be left hanging in the forest for several days to record sounds. Training data for the app was collected using this device. Credit: Gregor Wolf / Bavarian Forest National Park

Previous apps for identifying animal calls regularly hit practical limits: Without a stable internet connection, real-time identification in forests or high mountains was impossible.

The new BirdNET Live app, an advancement of the BirdNET app, solves this problem with a technological breakthrough: The underlying AI models have been optimized, streamlined and accelerated to the point that they can now run directly on a smartphone.

Around 11,000 bird species are currently known worldwide; the app can recognize 8,927 of them. It can also identify the calls of 268 mammals, 254 insects and 340 amphibians in real time and completely offline. In total, BirdNET Live can identify almost 10,000 animal species by their sounds—more than any other app, as lead developer Dr. Stefan Kahl of the Professorship of Media Informatics at the University of Technology Chemnitz explains: The next-best offline app can identify only around 2,300 species.

As an open-source project, BirdNET Live offers maximum usability. The app's user interface is currently available in seven languages; the names of identified animal species are translated into 25 languages.

Identify birds offline using AI: New app records animal sounds directly on your smartphone
Here, chaffinches, robins and blue tits are singing: with the BirdNET Live app, even non-experts can identify bird songs in real time. Credit: Stefan Kahl / University of Technology Chemnitz

A tool for experts and the general public

While conventional identification apps are primarily intended for occasional use in one's own garden, BirdNET Live is aimed first and foremost at nature conservation professionals, researchers, students and ambitious citizen scientists. Amateur ornithologists can also use it.

The app features specialized modes for structured surveys, such as those standard in scientific fieldwork. It automatically records animal calls with precise location and time data and stores them locally on the smartphone.

The recordings can subsequently be reviewed, exported or shared with other experts for validation. At the same time, the app serves as a learning tool: Users can listen to their own acoustic recordings directly and continuously improve their species-identification skills.

BirdNET Live is the result of close interdisciplinary collaboration as part of the RangerSound project.

Identify birds offline using AI: New app records animal sounds directly on your smartphone
In transect mode, the BirdNET Live bird song app runs for several hours. This is useful for applications in national parks, ecology and nature conservation, as it allows bird songs to be assigned to specific points along a route that has been walked. Credit: Stefan Kahl / University of Technology Chemnitz

To identify the shortcomings of existing bioacoustic systems in everyday use, conservation biologists from the University of Würzburg, rangers at the Bavarian Forest National Park, hardware experts from Oekofor (Freiburg / Breisgau) and AI specialists from the University of Technology Chemnitz worked hand in hand.

The result is a practical, robust app designed specifically for field conditions. When used with an external microphone, for example, the smartphone can be carried safely in a waterproof backpack while the app continuously records data in the background.

BirdNET Live represents enormous technological progress

"At first glance, running the AI locally on a smartphone seems like a small, logical step forward. However, behind this lies enormous technological progress in optimizing our AI models," says Kahl, an AI expert and lead developer of BirdNET.

The app demonstrates how important interdisciplinary collaboration is: "It was only when practitioners, conservation biologists and we, as AI developers, sat down together that we were able to identify the real shortcomings in the field and create a tailor-made, practical solution. This is a model that can be applied to many areas where AI is finding its way into our everyday lives."

'An app for students, too'

"We will now be using BirdNET Live as standard in our university teaching. This will give our students entirely new opportunities to collect standardized data for their dissertations or during field courses," says Müller, chair of conservation biology and forest ecology at the University of Würzburg.

The app's potential extends far beyond local forests: "We expect the app to serve us exceptionally well in our research work in the extremely species-rich lowland rainforest in Ecuador, where there is no cell service whatsoever."

'Ideal for rangers'

"Local analysis carried out directly on-site is exactly what we've been hoping for in the day-to-day work of ranger teams in protected areas," says Dr. Simon Verdon from the University of Würzburg, a member of the RangerSound project. "They can simply leave the app running during their patrols and immediately get a clear picture of the local species composition without having to rely on cellular coverage."

Who's behind this story?

Gaby Clark

Gaby Clark

MA in English, copy editor since 2021 with experience in higher education and health content. Dedicated to trustworthy science news. Full profile →

Andrew Zinin

Andrew Zinin

Master's in physics with research experience. Long-time science news enthusiast. Plays key role in Science X's editorial success. Full profile →

Citation: Identify birds offline using AI: New app records animal sounds directly on your smartphone (2026, July 27) retrieved 27 July 2026 from https://phys.org/news/2026-07-birds-offline-ai-app-animal.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.