BTO–UEA AUDIO CHECKER
BTO Acoustic Pipeline BTO UEA
Welcome to the UEA / BTO Audio Checker app!

This purpose-built tool is designed to assess the accuracy of automated bird sound identification tools in different places and times. Developed through a collaborative project between the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), the app enables you to listen to short audio clips, view spectrograms, and determine the presence or absence of bird species using your identification skills.

Your support and participation will provide valuable insights into how automated classifiers perform under different real-world conditions. The findings will help researchers optimise algorithm settings to improve the accuracy and reliability of automated bird species identification tools.

Thank you for contributing to this citizen science initiative and supporting the future of ecoacoustics research.

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1.Click the Start Button: To begin checking audio clips, expand the Verify section and click the Start button to see the first randomly selected clip.

2. View the Spectrogram: After clicking Start, a spectrogram will appear. This is a visual representation of the audio clip you are about to verify.

3. Focus on the central 3 seconds: There are two dashed vertical lines at 1 and 4 seconds, indicating the focus area where the bird vocalisation is expected. If the vocalisation extends outside this area, you can use this to inform your verdict, but please do not report any species or sounds solely located outside the lines.

4. Listen to the Audio: On the right, use the audio player widget to listen. You will also see a volume icon and a menu (three dots) where you can download the clip or adjust the playback speed.

5. Can you hear a bird species? First, tick Yes or No to indicate whether you can hear a bird species in the audio clip.

6. Identify the Bird Species: If you ticked Yes, use the search bar below the audio player to enter either the English name (e.g., Woodpigeon) or species code (e.g., WP). You can select multiple species if more than one is present.
Click the X button to clear your choices or use the search bar to click on a single species to remove.

7. Can you hear other sounds? Next, tick Yes or No to indicate whether you hear any other sounds besides bird vocalisations in the focal area.

8. Identify other sounds: If you ticked Yes, click one (or more) of the available categories that best fits your answer:

  • Human voice (e.g., laughter, speech, shouting)
  • Vehicle (e.g., horns, traffic, tractors)
  • Animal other (e.g. any other sound from other species including cats, dogs, and livestock)
  • Weather (e.g., wind, rain etc)
  • Unknown sound (cannot identify the sound present)

9. Submit Your Answer: When you've made your selection, click Submit. This will save your answers and load a new audio clip and spectrogram ready for verification.

10. Re-verify Audio Clip: If you think you made a mistake, you can click the red Undo last submission button to go back and re-verify the previous audio clip.