Twarner491AvianVisitors
A live bird collage from your window.
See it running at bird.onethreenine.net.
BOM
| Qty | Description | Price | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Raspberry Pi (4B / 5 / Zero 2W) | ~$35-80 | Raspberry Pi |
| 1 | Micro SD Card (≥32 GB) | ~$10 | Amazon |
| 1 | USB lavalier microphone | $16.95 | Amazon |
| 1 | Pi power supply | ~$10 | - |
Optional: a Gemini API key to restyle illustrations, an eBird API key to filter species by region.
1. Flash the SD card
Use Raspberry Pi Imager. Pick Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit). In the customisation dialog set:
- Username
- WiFi SSID + password
- Hostname:
birdnet - Enable SSH with password auth
Plug the USB mic into the Pi. Place the capsule in a window or mount it outside. Boot.
2. Run the installer
Installer assumes passwordless sudo (Raspberry Pi OS Lite default - if you've tightened it, run sudo raspi-config -> System Options -> restore the default first).
ssh <your-username>@birdnet.local
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Twarner491/AvianVisitors/avian-visitors/newinstaller.sh | bash
Clones this fork, installs BirdNET-Pi, symlinks the AvianVisitors overlay into the Caddy web root. Takes 20-40 minutes. Reboots when done.
Collage: http://birdnet.local/. Stock BirdNET-Pi UI: http://birdnet.local/index.php. The menu button in the top right opens an admin overlay with settings, system, log, and tool panels.
3. (Optional) Restyle the illustrations
The repo ships with 450 bundled illustrations. To restyle or add region-specific species:
export GEMINI_API_KEY='your-key'
# Re-render every species in BirdNET-Pi's model:
python3 ~/BirdNET-Pi/avian/scripts/pregen.py --labels ~/BirdNET-Pi/model/labels.txt --force
# Or filter to species observed in your eBird region:
export EBIRD_API_KEY='your-key'
python3 ~/BirdNET-Pi/avian/scripts/pregen.py \
--labels ~/BirdNET-Pi/model/labels.txt \
--ebird-region US-CA
Style lives in avian/scripts/prompt.template.md. Edit, re-run with --force.
4. (Optional) Forward off your LAN
See avian/forwarding/ for three independent recipes:
- Cloudflare Tunnel for a public HTTPS URL.
- Home Assistant REST sensor that exposes the latest detection.
- MQTT bridge that publishes every new detection.
Repo layout
avian/ # everything we add to BirdNET-Pi
├── frontend/ # static HTML/JS/CSS for the collage
├── assets/ # 450 bundled illustrations + cutouts + masks
├── api/ # PHP shims served by BirdNET-Pi's PHP-FPM
├── scripts/ # pregen.py + editable prompt template
└── forwarding/ # optional HA / MQTT / Cloudflare configs
Everything outside avian/ is upstream BirdNET-Pi.
License
CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0, inherited from BirdNET-Pi. Non-commercial use only. See the BirdNET-Pi README for full Cornell attribution.