Optimisation of passive acoustic bird surveys: a global assessment of BirdNET settings

Pérez-Granados, Cristian; Funosas, David; Morant, Jon; Marín, Oscar H.; Mendoza, Irene; Mohedano-Muñoz, Miguel A.; Santamaría, Eduardo; Bastianelli, Giulia; Márquez-Rodríguez, Alba; Budka, Michał; Bota, Gerard; Peña-Rubio, José M. De la; Morena, Eladio García de la; Snata-Cruz, Manuel; Nava, Pablo de la; Fernández-Tizón, Mario; Sánchez.Mateos, Hugo; Barrero, Adrián; Traba, Juan; Osiejuk, Tomasz S.; Hart, Patrick J; Navine, Amanda K.; Muñoz, Andrés F. Montoya; de Araujo, Carlos B.; Rosa, Gabriel L. M.; Torres, Ingrid M.; Catalano, Ana L.; Simões, Cassio de Alameida; Llusia, Diego; Morales, Manuel B.; Acebes, Pablo; Medina, Juan A.; Brown, Nicholas; Astaras, Christos; Kamiris, Ilias; Navarrete, Eliza; Cauchoix, Maxime; Barbaro, Luc; Arend, Dominik; Müeller, Sandra; González-García, Fernando; González-Romero, Alberto; Mammides, Christos; Pontikis, Michaelangelo; Jacuzzi, Giordano; Olden, Julian D.; Bombaci, Sara P.; Marcacci, Gabriel; Jacot, Alain; Zurano, Juan P.; Gangenova, Elena; Varela, Diego; Sallo, Facundo di; Zurita, Gustavo A.; Atemasov, Andrey; Tremblay, Junior A.; Jutschrenteiter, Anja; Monroy-Ojeda, Alan; Díaz-Vallejo, Mauricio; Chaparro-Herrera, Sergio; Briers, Robert A.; Sousa-Lima, Renata; Pinheiro, Thiago; Silva, Wigna C. da; Calvente, Alice; Molin, Anamaria del; Antonelli, Alexandre; Gogoleva, Svetlana; Palko, Igo; Trong, Hiếu V.; Duarte, Marina H. L.; Saturnino, Natalia dos Santos; Silva, Samuel R.; Rainho, Ana; Schuchmann, Karl -L.; Marques, Marinez I.; Tissiani, Ana S. de Oliveira; Littlewood, Nick A.; Tuanmu, Mao-Ning; Cheng, Yi-Ru; Chao, Hsuan; Kepfer-Rojas, Sebastian; Aguilera, Andrea L.; Brotons, Lluís; Feldman, Mariano L.; Imbeau, Louis; Panwar, Pooja; Weed, Aaron S.; Dehwal, Anant; Attisano, Alfredo; Theuerkauf, Jörn; Oliveira-Junior, Dorgival D.; Lima-Santos, Cicero S.; Salustio-Gomes, Carlos; Paz, Raiane C. da; Pichorim, Mauro; Goodale, Eben; Sebsatián-González, Esther

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-6633549/v1

Optimisation of passive acoustic bird surveys: a global assessment of BirdNET settings

Pérez-Granados, Cristian; Funosas, David; Morant, Jon; Marín, Oscar H.; Mendoza, Irene; Mohedano-Muñoz, Miguel A.; Santamaría, Eduardo; Bastianelli, Giulia; Márquez-Rodríguez, Alba; Budka, Michał; Bota, Gerard; Peña-Rubio, José M. De la; Morena, Eladio García de la; Snata-Cruz, Manuel; Nava, Pablo de la; Fernández-Tizón, Mario; Sánchez.Mateos, Hugo; Barrero, Adrián; Traba, Juan; Osiejuk, Tomasz S.; Hart, Patrick J; Navine, Amanda K.; Muñoz, Andrés F. Montoya; de Araujo, Carlos B.; Rosa, Gabriel L. M.; Torres, Ingrid M.; Catalano, Ana L.; Simões, Cassio de Alameida; Llusia, Diego; Morales, Manuel B.; Acebes, Pablo; Medina, Juan A.; Brown, Nicholas; Astaras, Christos; Kamiris, Ilias; Navarrete, Eliza; Cauchoix, Maxime; Barbaro, Luc; Arend, Dominik; Müeller, Sandra; González-García, Fernando; González-Romero, Alberto; Mammides, Christos; Pontikis, Michaelangelo; Jacuzzi, Giordano; Olden, Julian D.; Bombaci, Sara P.; Marcacci, Gabriel; Jacot, Alain; Zurano, Juan P.; Gangenova, Elena; Varel...

Authors

Cristian Pérez-Granados

David Funosas

Jon Morant

Oscar H. Marín

Irene Mendoza

Miguel A. Mohedano-Muñoz

Eduardo Santamaría

Giulia Bastianelli

Alba Márquez-Rodríguez

Michał Budka

Gerard Bota

José M. De la Peña-Rubio

Eladio García de la Morena

Manuel Snata-Cruz

Pablo de la Nava

Mario Fernández-Tizón

Hugo Sánchez.Mateos

Adrián Barrero

Juan Traba

Tomasz S. Osiejuk

Patrick J Hart

Amanda K. Navine

Andrés F. Montoya Muñoz

Carlos B. de Araujo

Gabriel L. M. Rosa

Ingrid M. Torres

Ana L. Catalano

Cassio de Alameida Simões

Diego Llusia

Manuel B. Morales

Pablo Acebes

Juan A. Medina

Nicholas Brown

Christos Astaras

Ilias Kamiris

Eliza Navarrete

Maxime Cauchoix

Luc Barbaro

Dominik Arend

Sandra Müeller

Fernando González-García

Alberto González-Romero

Christos Mammides

Michaelangelo Pontikis

Giordano Jacuzzi

Julian D. Olden

Sara P. Bombaci

Gabriel Marcacci

Alain Jacot

Juan P. Zurano

Elena Gangenova

Diego Varela

Facundo di Sallo

Gustavo A. Zurita

Andrey Atemasov

Junior A. Tremblay

Anja Jutschrenteiter

Alan Monroy-Ojeda

Mauricio Díaz-Vallejo

Sergio Chaparro-Herrera

Prof Robert Briers R.Briers@napier.ac.uk
Professor

Renata Sousa-Lima

Thiago Pinheiro

Wigna C. da Silva

Alice Calvente

Anamaria del Molin

Alexandre Antonelli

Svetlana Gogoleva

Igo Palko

Hiếu V. Trong

Marina H. L. Duarte

Natalia dos Santos Saturnino

Samuel R. Silva

Ana Rainho

Karl -L. Schuchmann

Marinez I. Marques

Ana S. de Oliveira Tissiani

Nick A. Littlewood

Mao-Ning Tuanmu

Yi-Ru Cheng

Hsuan Chao

Sebastian Kepfer-Rojas

Andrea L. Aguilera

Lluís Brotons

Mariano L. Feldman

Louis Imbeau

Pooja Panwar

Aaron S. Weed

Anant Dehwal

Alfredo Attisano

Jörn Theuerkauf

Dorgival D. Oliveira-Junior

Cicero S. Lima-Santos

Carlos Salustio-Gomes

Raiane C. da Paz

Mauro Pichorim

Eben Goodale

Esther Sebsatián-González

Abstract

BirdNET is a popular machine learning tool for automated recognition of bird sounds. Here we evaluate how BirdNET settings affect the model performance both at vocalization and species levels, using 4,225 one-minute recordings from 67 recording locations worldwide.

Giving equal importance to recall and precision, a low confidence score threshold (0.1-0.3) appears optimal for detecting bird vocalisations, whereas higher thresholds (around 0.5) are more suitable for characterising bird communities.

Based on our findings, we recommend increasing the Overlap parameter from its default value of 0 seconds to 2 seconds, as this consistently improves BirdNET performance in detecting both individual vocalisations and species presence.

The effect of the Sensitivity parameter varied across regions. However, a value of 0.5 maximises global performance for community-level analyses across all confidence thresholds, while a value of 1.5 generally yields better results for vocalisation-level studies, particularly at low confidence thresholds.

Citation

Pérez-Granados, C., Funosas, D., Morant, J., Marín, O. H., Mendoza, I., Mohedano-Muñoz, M. A., Santamaría, E., Bastianelli, G., Márquez-Rodríguez, A., Budka, M., Bota, G., Peña-Rubio, J. M. D. L., Morena, E. G. D. L., Snata-Cruz, M., Nava, P. D. L., Fernández-Tizón, M., Sánchez.Mateos, H., Barrero, A., Traba, J., Osiejuk, T. S., …Sebsatián-González, E. Optimisation of passive acoustic bird surveys: a global assessment of BirdNET settings

Working Paper Type	Preprint
Deposit Date	May 19, 2025
Publicly Available Date	May 19, 2025
DOI	https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6633549/v1
Public URL	http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/4294834