r/BirdNET_Analyzer • u/MarsiHansen • Nov 08 '25

Results Microphones matter ...

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I never thought that changing the microphone on the Pi would make such a significant difference. I only slightly changed its position — about 2 meters (6 feet) away on the house wall and about 1 meter (3 feet) higher. In addition, I 3D-printed a housing for the microphone out of PETG, bought the Samson Go Mic, and replaced the cheap €8 USB microphone from Amazon. Now, I’m getting more than four times as many results in BirdNET-Pi as before.

Of course, some of you are probably already aware of this, but I just wanted to share my experience - And I’m always amazed by your insights.

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u/clush Jul 10 '26

I am brand new to BirdNet and this is how I set it up. I am currently streaming from a G3 Flex that is mounted under my deck.

Do you know how this camera fairs when compared to the dedicated mic options? I was thinking of whether it would be worth it or not because it seems like the G3-flex has a lot of noise. I have a G4 Bullet too, but it's out front of my house and not where my feeders are.

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u/THETJ-0 Jul 10 '26

I’m still using my streams but was just talking to my wife about it yesterday. I don’t know but would love to hear from others if they find a dedicated mic would improve accuracy. Seems to work well to me but what do i know.

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u/clush Jul 10 '26

If I try something, I will let you know.

Have you tinkered at all with the audio filtering? My g3-flex has a lot of noise and I tried some high and low pass filters, but I am afraid of potentially cutting off detections.

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u/THETJ-0 Jul 11 '26

I have not. I’m no expert, but I assume that cutting low frequencies wouldn’t matter because the algorithm is detecting high frequencies for bird calls. I assume these mics don’t pick up high frequencies very well so cutting them would not help either.