BirdEcho: Discover Birds Around You with Open-Source AI 🐦

This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 1: Touch Grass.

What I Built

I built BirdEcho, an AI-powered bird sound identification app that encourages people to step outside and explore nature.

Ever heard a bird singing and wondered what species it was? With BirdEcho, you can record its sound and let AI identify it.

The app also lets you:

• 🎙️ Record or upload bird sounds.
• 🐦 Identify birds using AI.
• 📖 Save discoveries in a personal bird journal.
• 🌿 Learn about different bird species.
• 🔒 Analyze recordings privately on your device.

The goal is simple: less scrolling, more exploring!

Demo

🌐 Live App: https://birdecho.pages.dev

Open the app, record a bird singing, or use the built-in sample to try bird identification.

Code

💻 GitHub: https://github.com/shadowe1ite/birdecho

The complete source code is publicly available, including setup instructions and model documentation.

How I Built It

I built BirdEcho using React, Vite, BirdNET+, and ONNX Runtime Web.

BirdEcho uses the BirdNET+ V3.0 model to recognize bird sounds. Audio is processed directly in the browser using WebAssembly, without sending recordings to an AI server.

The app uses:

• BirdNET+ for bird sound identification.
• ONNX Runtime Web for local AI inference.
• React and Vite for the interface.
• IndexedDB to save recordings and discoveries.
• Cloudflare Pages for hosting.

One challenge was running a large AI model inside the browser while keeping the app responsive. I used Web Workers to handle inference and split the model into smaller downloadable chunks.

Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

Openly available AI models made BirdEcho possible without depending on paid AI APIs.

By running AI locally, BirdEcho can identify birds without uploading their recordings to external inference services.

The application's code is open source under MIT, while the BirdNET+ model has its own CC BY-SA 4.0 license and additional usage restrictions.

I believe AI shouldn't always keep us glued to screens. Sometimes, it should encourage us to explore the world around us.

That's the idea behind BirdEcho. 🌿🐦