BirdNet-Behavior
Real-time acoustic bird classification with behavioral analytics — written in Rust, runs on a Raspberry Pi.
BirdNet-Behavior listens to your microphone or RTSP camera, identifies birds in real time with a BirdNET neural network (BirdNET V2.4 by default), and serves a fast, beautiful web dashboard you open in any browser. It ships as one self-contained binary — the ONNX Runtime and DuckDB analytics engine are compiled in, so there’s no Python, no pip, no virtualenv. Drop it on a modern 64-bit Pi and run it.
Where to start
| If you want to… | Go to |
|---|---|
| Get it running in one command | Installation |
| Run it in a container | Running with Docker |
| Understand the settings | Configuration |
| Learn what each screen does | Today |
| Move from BirdNET-Pi | Migrating from BirdNET-Pi |
| Fix a problem | Troubleshooting |
Why a rewrite?
BirdNet-Behavior is a rewrite of BirdNET-Pi in Rust, derived from it and licensed accordingly. It keeps everything BirdNET-Pi does and adds behavioral analytics, a redesigned UI, MQTT/Home Assistant integration, and a much lighter runtime.
| Aspect | BirdNET-Pi (Python) | BirdNet-Behavior (Rust) |
|---|---|---|
| Runtime | CPython interpreter + virtualenv | One native binary — no interpreter |
| Install | pip into a venv + system packages | one file, or one curl installer |
| Upgrade | re-resolve pip dependencies | replace one file |
| Inference | TensorFlow Lite (Python) | ONNX Runtime, linked in-process |
| Analytics | — | DuckDB behavioral engine, built in |
| Each release ships | — | signed SLSA provenance + CycloneDX SBOM |
It is a rewrite of BirdNET-Pi in Rust, derived from it and licensed accordingly (the repository’s
LICENSEsays “derived from”). See Credits & License for full attribution.
A modern, two-audience interface
The UI is organized into six homes — the tabs across the top, and the phone bottom bar:
| Home | “…” |
|---|---|
| Today | what’s happening right now? |
| Species | who have I heard? |
| Patterns | when & where? |
| Recordings | let me hear them |
| Reports | the recap |
| Settings | manage my station |
Every screen is designed to serve two people at once: the hobbyist who wants a delightful at-a-glance view, and the researcher who needs methodological rigor. Each page leads with a plain-English headline, then layers the dense numbers and charts beneath. The whole UI supports light and dark themes (with automatic OS-preference detection) and reflows cleanly from a wall-mounted kiosk down to a phone.
Read on for installation, or jump into the field guide for a tour of every screen.