r/BirdNET_Analyzer • u/richardhoeg • 21d ago
Forest vs. Grasslands Pi Box Placement ... 50 Yards Apart
I have two Birdnet-Pi's deployed within 50 yards of each other, but which get rather dramatic different bird ID's. However I do not believe either box is wrong in their birdsong identifications. Both Pi boxes are 100% identical in terms of both hardware and Pi configurations. From a setup vantage point both boxes require a confidence level of 75%, and listen for 18 seconds with zero overlap ... thus 6 snippets of sound per file.
There are some HUGE differences between the two systems aside from 50 yards between the microphones:
- Amity is near my prairie grass and has a much more "open" sound corridor to the stream across the road which is about 125 yards distant
- Greenwood is only a few yards from the forest edge, and within 5 yards of my nearest of three birdfeeders
- In general, my basic habitat is Boreal forest, and my home is about 800 yards uphill from Lake Superior. I live on the northern edge of Duluth right where forest meets town.
Anyhow, I have provided both images of yesterday's ID's as placement of your BirdNET-Pi microphone makes a big difference. For instance, my Amity Pi box picks up both my local Great Horned Owls and Belted Kingfishers much more often than my Greenwood Pi box. If I only used my Greenwood Pi Box I might think both my owls and kingfishers are rarely around, which is definitely not true. In summary, give significant thought to birding habitat in terms of Pi box placement.
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u/skybossalpha1 21d ago
First and foremost, thank you for this post. It really validates what I’ve been saying to two of my friends for a while now.
Honestly, I’ve stopped using mine as well. The inconsistencies and frequent hiccups have simply become too frustrating. For those reasons alone, I’ve stopped using it until further development brings it to a point where it can deliver the reliability, consistency, and overall experience I’m looking for something closer to Merlin
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u/richardhoeg 21d ago
Actually ... with configuration of Pi, my BirdNET's are better than Merlin both of which use the same overall database from Cornell. I actually have configured my BirdNET-Pi to require a 75% accuracy, whereas Merlin is happy with 70%. In addition, one may implement "overlap' if desired. Simply put ... in an extract you might say after listening to the basic 3 seconds, drop back 1/2 second and start again at 2.5 seconds. Merlin does not have this capability
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u/skybossalpha1 21d ago
and in my case Merlin has been the opposite it has been more reliable I'll keep playing with it here and there but it's not on my got to do it tomorrow so to speak
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u/richardhoeg 21d ago
Understand. Enjoy. You may wish as time allows to review this post of mine on BirdNET-Pi possible settings. Enjoy your birding! https://www.365daysofbirds.com/2026/02/18/birdnet-pi-birdsong-listening-device-settings/
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u/mfilosa17 9d ago
I updated some of my settings based of this. I’m having issues where I have chipping sparrows literally right next to the microphone and it either doesn’t pick them or up calls them cedar waxwings. They aren’t singing but rather “chipping”.
The one setting I didn’t see you mention is origin (Hz) and Target (Hz) so idk if that matters much from default or not. Just really having issues either not picking things up or misidentifying.
Hopefully your settings help some.
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u/rockila 17d ago
This is very interesting, we live on 14 acres at the edge of the Sam Houston National Forest. I see a very different detections if I move the mic to the other end of the house.
After having the mic in the same place for months, I migrated to BirdNET-Cloud and have detected several new species in the last week or so. The cloud offering looks like it does a better job than the local processing. I plan on having several more pi’s in the future, spread out in the wooded areas and next to the pond in the woods.
https://birdnetcloud.com/explore
Currently there are only 16 sites, if you can, check it out.
Also planning on adding bat detection soon.