We’re excited to introduce PUC ( puck ) – our easy-to-use, go-anywhere birdlistening platform. Packed with dual microphones, WiFi/BLE, GPS, environmental sensors, a microSD card, and a built-in neural engine, all in a weatherproof enclosure, PUC is ready to capture all that nature can throw at it!
 

With the BirdWeather PUC, we’ve removed the complexity and created a simple, easy-to-use (one-button) portable device that is equally at home in your backyard, out in the field, or tagging along on a hike, continuously listening and identifying over 6000 global species.

Why audio? Simple. For every bird you can see, there are dozens more you can hear! From owls to osprey, not every bird is interested in sticking around to have their photo taken.

What you’ll get …

Features …

Simple
With a one button interface, just turn PUC on, and it will do the rest, automatically switching modes based on WiFi and location. 

Automatic
Our cloud server will automatically process all of your PUC soundscapes. No sorting, no approving, it all happens 100% automatically!

Continuous
PUC is always listening.  If it’s on, it’s listening! No more near misses when you’re out on a hike and the bird decides to go quiet just as you pull out your mobile phone, or that lone owl that you’ve been hearing out your window late at night.

Cloud Processing
Our cloud server uses the BirdNET neural network (a joint project between the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Chemnitz University of Technology) to process all audio soundscapes from the PUC, featuring:

• Over 6000 global bird species!
• Man-made sources (e.g. fireworks, engine)
• Non-avian species (e.g. coyote, dog, fox, squirrel, frogs, insects)
• Automatic removal of any soundscapes with human vocal detections

Environment
In addition to its stereo microphones, PUC is also packed with environmental sensors, including (Temp, Humidity, Pressure, Air Quality, tVOC, CO2, and a Spectral Light Sensor) so you’re able to track local weather conditions.

BirdWeather on the Web

BirdWeather Mobile App

BirdWeather started out as a backyard pandemic project, learning more about the birds in our own backyard, by the sound of their vocalizations. We built a prototype that was able to listen 24×7 to our backyard soundscape, running them through the BirdNET neural net for identification, then sharing them to our BirdWeather library where everyone could see and listen. 

We now have a global community of active stations around the world, continuously listening in backyards, nature preserves, and remote installations. 

A huge shout-out to the nearly one thousand Raspberry-Pi enthusiasts who have shared data from their BirdNET-Pi setups around the globe. You’ve been instrumental in helping us scale and improve BirdWeather over the past 2yrs!

Using the BirdNET artificial neural network, BirdWeather is continuously listening to a growing number of citizen science stations around the globe.

Photo credit: @wpotrebka_photography

Testimonials

Wayne A.
“I have always wondered what birds are visiting my backyard and the local area. With the PUC I can leave it in the forest behind my house, return the next day and through BirdWeather be amazed at the visitors I never knew were here. I can’t wait to use it during the next migration. The PUC is now my constant companion during my hikes and when I am home i can leave it running in live mode and view all the discoveries on BirdWeather. So much fun!”

Rob F.
“I cannot sing the praises of Birdweather enough. Over the last 9 months it has given me previously hidden insights into the birdlife at home, on hikes, where I work and where friends and family live. I have be able to learn new songs, track the ebb and flow of the bird year, inspire those around me and gain a deeper connection to the natural world. I look forward to expanding this using the PUC and contributing further to global bird conservation.”

Birds live at the edge of our changing world, impacted by everything from habitat loss to global weather patterns. Within their ranks are a number of sentinel species – birds which researchers study, monitoring changes in their behavior that can signal a shift in the ecosystems that we all depend upon.

How are birds responding to the large scale wildfires that are now a yearly occurrence? How about our new-normal “100yr” storms?

With over 173 million bird vocalizations in the BirdWeather library, we’re able to pull all sorts of interesting data. Below we’ve generated animated graphs for 4 different species we heard between the fall of 2022 and summer of 2023. With your data, we’re able to see the migratory movement over the course of the year.
 

With your BirdWeather PUCs, we can continue to fill in the gaps, giving us an even more granular map of localized changes. And tracking bird vocalizations autonomously, and around the clock, means that we miss as little data as possible, enabling us to capture everything from changes in your backyard visitors to nocturnal flight calls.

The Power of Continuous Listening

Below we’ve plotted detection counts for a few of the common (and a couple less common) visitors to our backyard station in Moss Beach, CA, which has been active, almost continuously since the fall of 2021. These plots show not just how lucky we are to have such an active bird population, but also how we can spot change.

The Golden-crowned Sparrow has to be one of my favorite migratory species that we get on a yearly basis.  The easily distinguishing yellow/golden stripe, and their lovely song make them hard to miss! They show up in the fall and are on their way by spring.

Tune in to Nature

Seasoned birders the world over have known this for decades — birdwatching — or even simply listening — can lead to an array of mental-health benefits in humans, including long-lasting stress relief. 

New research from King’s College London has found that seeing or hearing birds is associated with an improvement in mental wellbeing. “Our main finding is that there is a time-lasting association between seeing or hearing birds and improved mental well-being,” said the study’s lead author.

“The mental-health benefits are profound,” says Strassmann, author of the new book Slow Birding: The Art and Science of Enjoying the Birds in Your Own Backyard.“ Sitting outside and listening to the birds and getting to know their songs is really calming. And to me, the special thing about birds is that they can leave—they don’t have to be there, but they have chosen to be where you are, and at some point, they’ll move on.”

About the Team

Scribe Labs launched its first product – RunScribe – as a successful  Kickstarter back in 2014. Today, RunScribe is used daily by over 1500 coaches, clinicians, shoe companies, and researchers to provide real-world gait analysis, collecting invaluable data both in the lab and out in the wild.

We’re a small team of technologists who spend our days building products that we love. We’re excited to launch BirdWeather, our living library of bird vocalizations and the BirdWeather PUC, our portable bioacoustics platform.

Where are we in Development?

We’re ready to produce BirdWeather PUCs in volume

[ ✓ ]  The BirdWeather Library has been live, since 2021! We encourage you to check out the global network of live stations on the BirdWeather Map.

[ ✓ ]  Our BirdWeather Mobile App is available for iOS and Android.

[ ✓ ]  The screen shots and screen recordings in both the main video and above of our web dashboard and mobile app are of real world use. And all of the PUCs are fully functional production units from our pilot build.

[ ✓ ]  We have selected our manufacturing partner, finished tooling and PCBAs for the PUC, sourced components, and completed a pilot build of BirdWeather PUCs (100 units), which are now in the hands of our early adopters and researchers, being used on a daily basis!

Here’s a quick demo of the BirdWeather PUC in action. With it’s simple one-button control, PUC automatically uploads data to the BirdWeather library. With our mobile app and web dashboard visualization tools, you can check on all the bird species your PUC heard and see environmental and light readings.

Already have a Bird Feeder Camera?

Us too! They are amazing!
BirdWeather PUC is the perfect companion, listening alongside 24×7.

Add-Ons

We’ll be offering a number of accessories to help you get the most out of your PUC.

Follow BirdWeather on Facebook, Instagram and our website.