📷
Photo ID with regional context
Multimodal AI that considers your location, the date, and the season — not just the pixels. Top-3 candidates with confidence scores and the field marks the model used.
Now in TestFlight · iOS first
The bird ID app that actually feels modern.
Snap a photo, record a song, get an answer in seconds. Build a life list you’ll actually keep. Share it with birders who care. Powered by GPT-4o vision and BirdNET.
- Species
- 11,000+
- Avg ID time
- 2.4s
- App Store rating
- 4.8★
Featured inAudubon MagazineBackyard Birder QuarterlyBirding Tech WeeklyThe Outside WireLifehacker
Features
Everything birders ask for. None of the cruft.
Built around the three things that actually matter: identifying what you’re looking at, remembering what you’ve seen, and sharing it with people who get it.
🎙️
Sound ID with timeline markers
Record up to 30 seconds. BirdNET picks out every bird it hears and tells you exactly when each one called — tap a marker to jump to that moment in playback.
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Life list that doesn't feel like a spreadsheet
Sortable by family, year, location, month. Confetti when you log a lifer. Year-list and yard-list views auto-tagged from your home location.
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Personal sightings map
Every sighting plotted on a map you can zoom and filter. Privacy-aware: locations are bucketed when shared, exact coordinates stay yours.
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A community feed worth opening
Follow friends, like and comment on sightings, discover nearby birders. No engagement traps, no algorithm. Just birds and people who love them.
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Achievements and challenges
Dawn Patrol. Yard Lister. Migration Master. Lifer Streak. Set a year goal, chase it down, share the badges you earn.
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Privacy-first by default
No third-party tracking without consent. Sensitive species are auto-obscured. Apple Sign In. Full account export and deletion built in.
📚
Reference library for every species
CC-licensed photos from iNaturalist, calls and songs from xeno-canto, taxonomy from eBird/Clements. Attribution always shown — we don't pretend it's ours.
⚡
Fast, native, and pleasant
Built with Expo, NativeWind, and React Native Reanimated. Haptic feedback at the right moments. Designed for thumbs and bright sunlight.
How it works
From "what was that?" to logged in your life list — in under five seconds.
- 01Snap or record
Tap the big Identify button. Camera opens to a focused capture flow. Or hit record for sound.
- 02Add context
Your location and the date are auto-attached so the AI considers what's actually plausible there.
- 03See top candidates
Three ranked guesses with confidence and the field marks the model relied on. Tap to read more.
- 04Log and share
Confirm the species. Sighting is added to your life list, plotted on your map, and (optionally) shared with friends.
Geo
Birds wherever you are
Browse common species, peak migration windows, and trip-planning notes for your region.
Pricing
One simple plan. 3 days free.
Try the full app free for 3 days. After that it’s $4.99/month or $49.99/year, billed through your Apple ID. Cancel anytime before the trial ends and you won’t be charged.
Birder AI Premium
Most birders$4.99/ month or $49.99 / year
- ✓Unlimited photo + sound IDs
- ✓GPT-4o vision (high-detail tier)
- ✓Full life list, stats, and sightings map
- ✓Recent nearby species
- ✓Advanced filters and year/yard lists
- ✓Custom challenges and goals
- ✓Early access to new features
Questions
Frequently asked
How does AI bird identification work in Birder AI?+
When you snap a photo, Birder AI sends the image (with your location and the date) to a multimodal AI model — GPT-4o vision via OpenAI's Structured Outputs API — along with regional and seasonal context. The model returns a ranked list of candidate species with confidence scores and the visible features that support each ID. For sound, recordings are processed by BirdNET, the open-source bird audio classifier developed by the Cornell Lab and Chemnitz University of Technology.
How much does Birder AI cost? Is there a free trial?+
Birder AI is a subscription app: $4.99/month or $49.99/year, billed through your Apple ID. Every new account starts with a 3-day free trial that unlocks the full app — unlimited photo and sound IDs, the higher-accuracy GPT-4o vision tier, life list, sightings map, advanced stats and filters, year/yard challenges, and "recent nearby" species data. Cancel anytime in Settings → Apple Account → Subscriptions before the trial ends and you won't be charged.
How accurate is the AI?+
On clear, well-lit photos of common species (Northern Cardinal, American Robin, Blue Jay, Mourning Dove), Birder AI is highly accurate. On confusing groups — fall warblers, female ducks, juvenile gulls, Cooper's vs. Sharp-shinned Hawk — even expert birders disagree, so we always show the top three candidates with confidence scores rather than a single verdict. You can override and pick from the full species list anytime.
Does Birder AI work offline?+
Identification requires an internet connection because the AI runs in the cloud. However, you can take photos in airplane mode and queue them up — sightings, photos, and ID requests will sync automatically when you're back online. Your existing life list and sighting history are cached for offline browsing.
Will my exact location be shared with other users?+
No. Your home location is never shown to anyone. Sightings on the public feed are bucketed to a roughly 5km grid by default, and rare or sensitive species are obscured to county level. You can also mark any individual sighting as private. We follow the same location-protection norms used by eBird and Merlin.
How is Birder AI different from Merlin Bird ID?+
Merlin (from the Cornell Lab) is the gold standard for ID accuracy and is free — we recommend it as a complementary tool. Birder AI focuses on the parts Merlin doesn't: a delightful modern UX, a real social community feed, gamified life lists with badges, and conversational "tell me more" answers powered by current-generation multimodal AI. We're for casual birders and enthusiasts who want birding to feel social and rewarding, not just scientific.
What devices and regions are supported?+
Birder AI is available on iOS 16 and later (iPhone and iPad). Bird ID works worldwide — our species database covers all ~11,000 birds in the eBird/Clements taxonomy, with reference photos and recordings sourced from iNaturalist (CC) and xeno-canto (CC). Android is on the roadmap.
Who's behind Birder AI?+
Birder AI is built by a small team of birders and software engineers based in Indianapolis, IN, USA. Reach us anytime at info@jhobbie.com.
Birding is better with a sidekick.
Download Birder AI on the App Store and try it free for 3 days. Identify your first bird in under a minute, then start a life list you’ll actually keep.