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.
Please insert your details to proceed.
1. To begin checking audio clips, expand the Verify section and click the Start button to see the first randomly selected clip.
2. After clicking Start, a spectrogram will appear. This is a visual representation of the audio clip you are about to verify.
3. On the spectrogram there are two dashed vertical lines at 1 and 4 seconds, the area between indicates the focus area where the bird vocalisation is expected. If the vocalisation extends outside this area, you can use this to inform your verification, but please do not report any species or sounds solely located outside the lines.
4. Use the audio player below the spectrogram to listen to the audio clip.
5. Once you have listened to the audio clip please answer the first question. Tick Yes or No to indicate whether you can hear a bird species in the audio clip.
6. If you ticked Yes, use the search bar below to enter the English name (e.g., Woodpigeon). You can select multiple species if more than one is present. If you are unsure on what species is present then you can click Unknown. Click the X button to clear your choices or use the search bar to click on a single species to remove.
7. Next, tick Yes or No to indicate whether you hear any other sounds besides bird vocalisations in the focal area.
8. 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. When you've made your selection, click Submit. This will save your answers and load a new audio clip and spectrogram ready for your next verification.
10: 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.