BirdWatchAI connects to your camera and uses artificial intelligence to automatically detect, identify, and notify you of bird visitors — even when you're away.
30-day free trial • No credit card required • Runs on a Pi, PC or Mac
Where birds are being spotted by BirdWatchAI feeders across the country.
Real birds, real feeders — spotted by BirdWatchAI users right now.
The best moments from community feeders over the past 7 days.
Species detected this month — see what's passing through right now.
Powerful features designed for bird enthusiasts who want to see every visitor.
Our trained neural network identifies 965+ North American bird species in real-time. Get instant notifications with species name, confidence level, and rarity for your location.
Works with most IP cameras including popular TAPO C113. Easy setup wizard guides you through camera configuration.
Captures and saves photos of every bird detection with beautiful overlays showing species, time, temperature, and more.
Record video clips when birds are detected. Never miss a special moment at your feeder.
Get push notifications via Pushover or email alerts with photos. Know when rare species visit!
Weekly and monthly summary reports with detection stats, species counts, and your best snapshots.
Automatically records temperature at detection time based on your location's zip code.
BirdWatchAI does all its processing on your own computer. It never uploads your camera feed or your data.
Simple setup gets you watching birds faster.
Point any RTSP-compatible camera at your bird feeder. Our setup wizard walks you through the process, with special guides for popular cameras like the TAPO C113.
Click "Start" and BirdWatchAI begins watching your feeder. Motion detection triggers the AI to identify any birds that appear.
Receive instant notifications on your phone with photos. Review your detection history, browse snapshots, and enjoy weekly summary reports.
A glimpse of what BirdWatchAI looks like.
🪺 Build & price
Pick a feeder, a camera and a computer — or bring the ones you already own — and see the price update as you go. Nothing recurring, and anything you skip is listed so you know exactly what's in the box.
See real-time bird detections from community feeders — no download required.
This is a live feed from real BirdWatchAI feeders. Imagine this on your own website or blog!
Explore the Community FeedActive BirdWatchAI feeders sharing their detections with the world.
Buy once, own it. No subscriptions, no hidden fees, just great bird watching.
Spots the bird and names it
Where the birds actually land
Watches the feeder day and night
Runs the software around the clock
Bring the ones you already own and buy the rest. Below is what each piece is; the builder at the bottom is where you choose and see the price.
The pieces
Four things to choose between, and a lens if you want one. No prices here on purpose — pick what you want in the builder below and it totals everything up in one place.
$75 one-time — or $50 as part of any kit below
The part that watches the camera and tells you what landed. Runs on a computer in your home rather than in the cloud, so your footage never leaves the house unless you choose to share it.
Free to try for 30 days — install it and see what turns up before you buy anything.
Group several feeders under one name and decide whether the group is public or private. Built for a school, a nature centre, a bird club, or a family with feeders in different towns. Members get the group's own feed, gallery, statistics and leaderboard.
| Feeders | One-time | Per feeder |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 5 | $20 | $4.00 |
| Up to 25 | $50 | $2.00 |
| Up to 100 | $150 | $1.50 |
Pick by how many feeders will join, not how many you own today. Each feeder still needs its own BirdWatchAI license, and this doesn't include cloud photo storage. Buy from the dashboard →
The feeder sticks to the outside of a window and the camera mounts on the inside, looking out through the glass. Made for apartments and condos where there is nowhere to put a post.
A feeder that mounts on a post, with a bay built for the camera, so the lens sits at the right distance and stays out of the weather. The one to pick if you have a yard.
An RTSP camera matched to whichever feeder you choose, so the framing and focus distance are right out of the box. Already own an RTSP camera — Tapo, Reolink, Wyze, Amcrest? Leave this out and point the software at yours instead.
A snap-on lens that tightens the shot for smaller visitors. Chickadees, wrens and finches fill much more of the frame, which makes for better photos and gives the AI more to work with.
It also throws everything behind the feeder out of focus. A neighbor, a passer-by or a car in the background comes out as a soft blur rather than a recognizable face — handy if the camera happens to look out over a sidewalk or a shared yard.
Plenty for one feeder camera running around the clock. About the size of a deck of cards, silent and fanless, and it needs no monitor or keyboard — plug it into power and your network anywhere in the house.
The same job done faster. Worth it when the feeder gets busy and several birds land at once, or when you have built up years of history and want the dashboard to stay quick.
Pick one and the builder is set to it. Each is a whole setup in one box — software, feeder, camera, and a computer with the software already installed and set to start on its own. Nothing else to buy. They differ only in the computer inside and the size of its drive, and every one comes with either feeder style — so choosing a build here leaves your feeder choice alone.
A quiet feeder and everyday watching. The one most people want.
The same computer, the bigger drive — for keeping a full season of video.
A busy feeder. Quicker identification when several birds land at once.
Both upgrades together — a busy feeder and years of history kept.
The names are build sizes, not birds the software looks for — it identifies 965+ species whichever one you pick. Prices are in the builder, which names your build as you choose. One step is still yours: connecting it to your camera in the setup wizard, since the camera's address depends on your own network.
📷 The photos on this page are for illustration. Feeders, cameras, lenses and computers are sourced as models come and go, so the piece that arrives may not be the exact one pictured — it will do everything described here, but the color, case or model can differ.
Build & price
Choose a version of each piece, or leave out the ones you already own. The price updates as you go, and anything you skip is listed so you can see exactly what is and isn't in the box.
🪺 Every build arrives with the software already installed on the computer and set to start on its own. Connecting it to your camera is the one step left to you — a few minutes in the setup wizard, because the camera's address depends on your own network and cannot be set here. Adding pieces later costs exactly the same as buying them together, so starting small never costs you anything. 💳 Secure payment via Gumroad; your license key is emailed within 24 hours.
📦 Shipping is free on orders of $100 or more, within the continental US. Smaller orders add a flat $25 for shipping and handling — a single feeder or lens costs about that much to box and mail, so the fee is the cost, not a markup. Software on its own is a download and never carries it. Shipping outside the continental US isn't set up yet; email us and we'll work it out.
Sharing sightings to the community feed puts your photos, video clips, and stats on our servers so other feeder watchers can see them. Today that costs nothing, no matter how much you share.
Longer term, Basic will stay free with 14 days of photo and clip storage, and paid tiers will offer longer retention for anyone who wants a permanent archive. Nothing changes yet — everything is free while the feed grows, and we'll announce any change well ahead of time.
What you need to get started.
BirdWatchAI runs on a machine in your home, not in the cloud, so it needs somewhere to live. Any of these work — or let us send you one ready to go.
BirdWatchAI Server is free for 30 days, no card needed. It runs on a small computer in your house and you watch it from a browser on any device — phone, laptop, tablet. Two ways to install it:
The always-on option. A Pi is the size of a deck of cards, silent, fanless, and costs pennies a month to leave running. The guide starts from a blank SD card and ends at your dashboard.
Raspberry Pi setup guide →Rather skip the install? A preloaded Pi arrives with the software installed and running — you point it at your camera in the setup wizard.
Already have Docker? The whole install is three lines:
git clone https://github.com/JoeBarraco/birdwatchai-server-releases.git ~/birdwatch
cd ~/birdwatch
docker compose up -dThen open http://<your-host-ip>:8080 and follow the setup wizard. Your photos, database and settings stay in ~/birdwatch/data/ on your own machine.
Need help setting up? Read the complete User Manual, or the TAPO C113 Camera Guide for getting the camera itself online.
Turn your idle screens into a live bird gallery. Displays community photos with beautiful transitions across all your monitors.
Download ScreensaverFree • Windows 10/11 • Multi-monitor support
Running the Raspberry Pi or Docker server? BirdWatchFinder scans your network, hands you a clickable link to your server's dashboard, and finds your Tapo / ONVIF cameras' IP addresses for setup — no IP hunting.
Download FinderFree • Windows 10/11 • Scans your local network
Not code-signed yet — if Windows SmartScreen warns, click More info → Run anyway.
BirdWatchAI started as a Windows desktop program. It still works and existing licenses still activate it, but it is no longer being developed — new features, the statistics dashboard, the species gallery and the community feed all live in the server edition above, and that is where support goes.
If you are already running it, the last release stays available:
Download the legacy desktop app (v2.1.2.0, Windows 10/11, 102 MB)
Moving over? Your license key works on both, and Part 8 of the manual covers bringing your detection history with you.
BirdWatchAI works with any camera that supports RTSP streaming. We recommend the TAPO C113 for its excellent image quality and affordable price (~$30). Other popular options include Wyze, Reolink, and Amcrest cameras.
No. Identification runs entirely on your own computer — your camera feed is never streamed anywhere, and there is no cloud service doing the recognition.
Two things do reach the internet, and we would rather be precise than sound better than we are. If you set a location, the app fetches the temperature for it. And if you switch on community sharing — which is off until you turn it on — the sightings you choose to share are published publicly, including photos and clips if you enable those separately. Everything else stays on your machine. The privacy policy lists every outbound request.
Your camera is a separate device with its own connection to whoever made it — Tapo models need theirs up or they stop streaming. What passes over that link is between you and the manufacturer. BirdWatchAI does not use it, and pulls its video straight off your own network.
Our AI model recognizes 965+ North American bird species with high accuracy. You can adjust the confidence threshold to balance between catching more birds vs. reducing false positives.
Yes. BirdWatchAI Server runs on Windows, macOS, Linux and the Raspberry Pi — it installs with Docker and you use it from a browser on any device in your house rather than in a desktop window. Pick your platform above. If you'd rather not set one up at all, a preloaded Raspberry Pi arrives already running.
There is, but it's the old edition and it's no longer being developed. Everything shown on this page — the statistics dashboard, the species gallery, community sharing — is the server edition. Existing desktop users keep working and their license keys carry over; the last desktop release is linked at the bottom of the install section.
The 30-day trial runs the whole product locally — detection, notifications, snapshots, clips, statistics and badges. The one thing it doesn't do is publish your sightings to the shared community feed; that comes with the license, because it stores your photos on our servers. Nothing is lost by waiting — sightings recorded during the trial stay in your history, and one button shares them all once you activate. When the trial ends, detection stops until you enter a license key. It's a one-time purchase, not a subscription, and your detection history and settings are waiting where you left them.
In practice yes — because of the camera, not the software. BirdWatchAI identifies birds entirely on your own machine and keeps detecting with the internet unplugged. It only reaches out for push notifications, email alerts, weather, update checks, and community sharing if you turn it on.
The camera is the catch. Most consumer Wi-Fi cameras — including the Tapo C113 we recommend — hold a connection to the manufacturer's service and stop serving their RTSP stream when they lose internet. If your connection drops, video stops arriving and there is nothing for BirdWatchAI to look at. That is the camera's behavior, not ours. If a genuinely offline setup matters to you, a wired PoE camera that streams RTSP without a cloud account will keep running on a network with no internet at all.