How to do it
- Install your home region before you go. Central Europe is built in. Anywhere else, choose one regional pack for free; it downloads once and then works offline. Further regions need World Pass and download only when you ask for them.
- Record a short, clear passage. Point the bottom microphone generally toward the sound without covering it, and move away from speech, wind on the phone, traffic or running water where you can.
- Read the evidence, not just the name. The result shows an audio score, the quality of the recording and whether the bird is expected near you this week, so you can judge whether the suggestion deserves your confidence. World Pass adds the full ranked list of alternatives.
- Confirm or reject it yourself. Your decision is what gets written to the journal, not the model’s guess. A recording of wind, traffic or a human voice is logged honestly as that.
Why offline matters more than it sounds
- Woodland valleys, reserves, uplands and coastal paths are where the birds are and where reception usually is not.
- An identifier that uploads audio for processing stops working there. Apps that run on the phone, including Merlin and BirdNET Live, keep working; BirdHere is built the same way.
- BirdHere keeps the acoustic model, an 11,149-species worldwide guide and the installed region pack on the device. There is no sign-in, and no server receives your recordings.
- 40 regional packs cover travel; the worldwide model intersects with 10,248 bird species, and actual coverage varies by the pack you have installed.
Honest limits
BirdHere reports what it cannot tell you rather than filling the gap with a confident guess.
- BirdHere can be wrong and is not a substitute for expert confirmation.
- It may deliberately return no bird when the evidence is weak, which is safer than producing a confident-looking wrong name.
- Coverage depends on the installed region pack. A species outside it may not be recognised.
- A distant single call may simply not contain enough evidence to identify.
Questions
Does bird sound identification work without internet?
In BirdHere, yes. The model, the taxonomy and your installed regional pack run on the phone, so identification works with the device in airplane mode.
Is my audio uploaded?
No. Recognition happens on the device and no server receives your recordings.
How many species can it recognise?
The worldwide guide contains 11,149 species and the worldwide model intersects with 10,248. Actual recognition depends on which regional pack you have installed.
What happens if it is not sure?
It says so, and shows why: the recording quality, the local context and, with World Pass, the full list of alternatives it considered. It does not invent a name to fill the gap.