BirdNET-PiPy is designed with privacy in mind. All processing happens locally on your device.
- Audio recordings - Raw audio is processed locally and deleted immediately. Only detected bird clips are saved.
- Detection data - Bird species, timestamps, and confidence scores stored in a local database.
- Location - Your coordinates are stored locally to filter species predictions and retrieve local weather conditions.
- Settings & passwords - All configuration stays on your device. Passwords are securely hashed.
- No analytics or telemetry
- No personal information
- No tracking cookies
- No data sent to cloud services
| Feature | Service | What's Sent | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bird images | Wikimedia Commons | Species name | When viewing gallery/details |
| Weather data | Open-Meteo | Coordinates | When a bird is detected* |
| Location search | OpenStreetMap | Search text | When searching in setup |
| Update check | GitHub | Version info | When checking for updates |
| BirdWeather | BirdWeather.com | Audio clip, species, confidence, coordinates, timestamp | Each detection (if Station ID configured)** |
*Weather requests are cached hourly to minimize API calls. Weather data is attached to detections to record conditions at the time of sighting.
**BirdWeather uploads are optional. Configure a Station ID in Settings to contribute detections to the global bird monitoring network at birdweather.com.
The AI model runs entirely on your device. No audio is ever sent to external servers for analysis.
- View, export, or delete your data anytime
- Disable recording whenever you want
- All code is open source and auditable
Last updated: January 2026