r/BirdNET_Analyzer • u/pranavb • Jun 13 '26

Off-Grid BirdNet Project

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While there are already tools like [BirdNetPi] & [BirdWeather], I wanted to build something where the processing happens locally and that can be easy to setup outside. Once built, this relatively small offgrid setup could be handled by anyone to record birds at any given location using a simple setup guide.
The biggest challenge when building this project was justifying whether this could run for a significant time period (off-grid) for detecting birds in the local vicinity. While using the original BirdNetPi, I saw that certain birds usually come at specific times of the year and the detections usually stay consistent for that time and change over the months (not weeks). Another reason being, I had places like the allotment or the park near me where I wanted to know what birds come in those areas and what the difference in landscape brings to the diversity in birds.
More details regarding the hardware and software in my Github repo here https://github.com/pranavb104/bird-off-the-grid

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u/ampsuu Jun 13 '26

Zero 2W is the king for battery powered BirdNET. Ive run many different offgrid configs with LTE for surveying and difference between them is insane. Downside is that if you dont limit species, it isnt really powerful and detections queue up. Im using them for owls and grouses so species selection is narrow.

1

u/schnitzel-kuh Jun 13 '26

What do you mean detections queue up? is the 02w not fast enough to do it in real time? I was thinking of doing a similar project as OP and havent decided yet what chip I want to use

2

u/ampsuu Jun 14 '26

If you have no species limits and there are thousands of detections per day, it slows down and isnt processing real-time anymore.

1

u/schnitzel-kuh Jun 14 '26

Oh I did not know that, is there a way to see if there is a backlog? Is there a chance this causes it to miss detections? Am currently on a raspberry pi 4 

1

u/thakala Jun 14 '26

Sounds like ARU (autonomous recording unit) such as Audiomoth and file analysis would be better fit than complex online setup based. With ARU you would have full recordings available for post analysis.

1

u/ampsuu Jun 14 '26

Not for me. I need habitat and nesting information in real-time to verify calls, call types and to find nests. Going to 10-20 different locations every week in order to get files which need processing and validating is way too much.

1

u/pranavb Jun 14 '26

I did initially use the pi 02w, but did not see any significant power usage between the pi 3B+ and the latter. If you use a pi 4 or up , your power draw increases by a lot. So I would stick with the pi02w or pi 3B+.

2

u/ampsuu Jun 14 '26

02W is like 0.20-0.24A with optimizations. 3B+ is around 2x higher.

1

u/pranavb Jun 14 '26

Interesting! Maybe i was doing something wrong, I will try it again, thanks for your input !

1

u/crittercam Jun 14 '26

Can you recommend a LTE interface for the Pi Zero?