Song Sleuth

The app is capable of correctly identifying sounds of the covered species with a high degree of accuracy. To get the best results you need to get a clear recording that isolates the sound of one individual bird, and it needs to be a sound that the app “knows”. Odd vocalizations, less frequently heard species, […]

Get the clearest recording you can, with the target sound isolated from other sounds, and with a half-second or more of typical background noise at the beginning of the recording (and it works best with live birds outdoors, not so well with playback of recorded sounds indoors) Help the app select the target sound. When

Check to make sure that the right portion of the recording is highlighted. When you make a new recording the app automatically outlines the strongest signal in the recording, and this is the only part that will be analyzed when you tap “Run ID”. This might be the sound you want to identify, but in

A short recording, with uniform background noise, a half second or so of plain background noise at the beginning of the recording, and the target sound standing out clearly from any background noise (not overlapping with other birds or distinct sounds). Steady background noise is OK even if it’s fairly loud, as that can be

The app is designed to work with live birds outdoors. A digital recording might sound similar to us, but it is different enough to confuse the app, and accuracy will be lower.

The full list of species is here. Currently the app includes over 200 species of birds, along with 3 species of frogs and toads, and 3 species of squirrels and chipmunks. For some species the app will identify only a single sound class such as “song”, for other species several different types of vocalizations are

Yes, you can select your state and the time of year to help the app identify sounds using a list of likely species. From the main menu select “Species List” and at the top of that screen you should see selectors for location and date. Simply select your state or province, and select the appropriate

The general rule is that the cleanest and strongest recording is the best. You want the signal (bird song) to stand out above any noise, and also to be isolated from other bird sounds or other noises. That said, modern phones and Song Sleuth together do a good job of picking out faint sounds, and

No. Once the app is installed on your device it does not require any connection. All of the data, images, and sounds are stored in the device’s memory and all processing will run without any internet connection.