BirdNET-Pi to Monitor Bird Calls

BirdNET-Pi Lesson

Lesson number	Step by step instructions	Dropbox Video link	Teacher resources
Lesson 2a	#The Importance of Using BirdNET-Pi to Monitor Bird Calls		Cornell University BirdNET-Pi Project
Lesson 2b	#BirdNET-Pi microSD Card Imaging		GitHub BirdNET-Pi Installation Guide
Lesson 2c	#BirdNET-Pi Software Installation		BirdNET-Pi Software Installation using SSH
Lesson 2d	#BirdNET-Pi Finalising the Installation		BirdNET-Pi Finalising the Installation
Lesson 2e	#Settings Configuration in BirdNET-Pi Web Portal

BirdNET-Pi microSD Card Imaging

• Download and install the Raspberry Pi Imaging software.
• The software is available from https://www.raspberrypi.com/software

• Insert a microSD card in the computer with the Raspberry Pi Imaging software.
• The size of the microSD card needs to be 16 GB.
• Open the Raspberry Pi Imager and click CHOOSE OS to select the operating system for BirdNET-Pi.

• Click Raspberry Pi OS (other) Other Raspberry Pi OS based images

• Scroll down the list and select "Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit)"

• Next, click "CHOOSE STORAGE" to select the SD card the BirdNET-Pi will use

• Choose the SD card onto which we will write the RaspiOS-Lite (64-bit) operating system

• Now, click the gear icon in the bottom right to open the "Advanced options" menu

• Answer Yes - to fill in WiFi details

• Set the hostname you would like this BirdNET-Pi to use to be reached.
• For example, to have multiple BirdNET-Pis on the same network, you might want to give them each a different hostname.
• In this example, the installation will be reachable at "http://birdnetpi1.local", since that is the hostname that is set during this step.

• You should also "Enable SSH" and select to "Use password authentication"
• When you scroll down, you will set the option to "Set username and password."
• This example creates a new user called pi.

• You will also configure the system's connection to your WiFi by entering the network's name (SSID) and the password used to connect to that WiFi.
• Adjust the locale settings for your Time zone and Keyboard layout.
• Save the settings

• Click "WRITE" to write the image to the SD card

• Select "YES" and enter to allow your host system (the computer you're on now) to write the SD card.
• Wait while the image is written to the card and the checksums verified

• You may need to give permission for your computer to make changes to the SD card.
• Enter your password (if requested) and click OK.

• The writing and verification process takes approx 5-10 minutes.

• When the SD card is ready, you'll be notified that is ok to remove it from your computer

• At this point, you will put the SD card into the Raspberry Pi and will allow it a few minutes to boot up.
• After a few minutes, you can move on to the next step.

BirdNET-Pi Software Installation

• At this point, you will put the SD card into the Raspberry Pi and will allow it a few minutes to boot up.
• After a few minutes, you can move on to the next step.
• Using a terminal emulator of your choosing (macOS and Linux users can use the terminals that come with the OS -- Windows users can use PowerShell or PuTTY).

• Use the username and hostname from step 8 to SSH into the Raspberry Pi.
• In this example, we created the birder user on the birdnetpi1.local host, so the command would be ssh pi@birdnetpi1.local

• When warned that you are connecting to a new machine, type yes to proceed

• You will be prompted for the password that you set for user pi

• After entering the password for your user, you will be able to begin the installation of the BirdNET-Pi software.

• Copy and paste the command below into the terminal and press "Enter"
• Note: Ctrl+Shift+V will often paste in Terminals -- in PuTTY, right-click to paste
• curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mcguirepr89/BirdNET-Pi/main/newinstaller.sh | bash

• The installation process will take approximately 5 to 10 minutes.

• When the installation is finished, the system will automatically reboot. When it is booted back up,

you will be able to reach your BirdNET-Pi using the hostname you set in step 8. In this installation example, it is http://birdnetpi1.local. The default (if you did not set a specific hostname in step 8) will be http://birdnetpi.local. It can also be reached at the Pi's IP address.

BirdNET-Pi Finalising the Installation

• Open a Browser on a computer on the local network.
• Enter the following address in the search bar http://birdnetpi1.local

• BirdNET-Pi Dashboard will open up.

Settings Configuration in BirdNET-Pi Web Portal

• The BirdNET-Pi web portal has additional configuration options.
• Click on the Tools dropdown menu.
• A Log into birdnetpi1.local:80 window will appear.
• The username is birdnet
• There is no password.
• Click on Log in

• A new series of administration buttons will appear under the main menu.
• Click on Settings

• Wait a few seconds for the Settings page to load.
• BirdNET-Pi needs to know the latitude and longitude location up to 4 decimal places.

• Use Google Maps to pinpoint the location of the BirdNET-Pi sensor.
• Enter the GPS coordinates to 4 decimal places.

• BirdNET-Pi will keep your data localised unless you upload data to BirdWeather.com.
• If you would like to share data contact Tim (tim@birdweather.com) to request a BirdWeather ID.
• Sending data to BirdWeather.com will is important for this project because we can then access the data using an API (more on this later).

• Update the Time and Date settings.
• To commit (save) all setting click on the Update Settings button.

• To check that the Settings have been updated successfully wait for the Settings page to reload.
• Then scroll down to the bottom of the page.
• A Success message should be displayed.

BirdNET-Pi API

• BirdWeather has an API in place and the BirdWeather (web) App makes use of it in producing the results seen via the web page portal.
• Documentation is here - [1] https://app.birdweather.com/api/index.html
• There is also an online query tool for testing queries here - https://app.birdweather.com/graphiql

Example Python code

• This is a simple python program that will return some BirdWeather results from station 273 (my station in Bundoora, Victoria Australia)

• Here is the Python code that can be copied.

import requests
import json

query = """query{ 
  station(id: "273")  {
    id
    location
    name
    topSpecies {
        averageProbability
        species {
            id
            commonName
            scientificName
        }
     } 
  }
}"""

url = 'https://app.birdweather.com/graphql'

r = requests.post(url, json={'query': query})
#print(r.status_code)
#print(r.json())

data_json = json.dumps(r.json())
print(data_json)

• The output is shown in the Python Shell.
• The data is in JSON format

• Copy this output and paste it in JSONviewer to make the data human readable https://jsonviewer.com
• The data should be similar to the screen shot below.

BirdWeather online GraphiQL tool

• An online query tool for testing queries at this URL - https://app.birdweather.com/graphiql
• An example output is presented for station 273.

• Use the online documentation to modify your query https://app.birdweather.com/api/index.html.
• This will help you understand how the API work.
• In this example below the wikipediaSummary has been added to the query.