# Song Sleuth Bird Song Analyzer — user reviews > 52 indexed App Store user reviews of Song Sleuth Bird Song Analyzer by Wildlife Acoustics Inc., rated 3.26/5 from 316 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/song-sleuth-bird-song-analyzer/id968399159/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/song-sleuth-bird-song-analyzer/id968399159.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 108 · 4★ 58 · 3★ 32 · 2★ 44 · 1★ 74 ## What do users think of Song Sleuth Bird Song Analyzer? Overall sentiment: mixed **Pros** - ✨ Auto-analyzer isolates bird calls - 👍 Intuitive and easy to use - 💡 Spectrograms visualize sound patterns - 🪄 Identifies non-bird sounds (frogs) - 📚 Extensive information provided - 🚀 Quick to open and use - 🎧 Great for recording bird songs - 🗺️ Geotags recordings - 🎶 Visualizations help memorize songs - 🔄 Records in a loop (includes previous seconds) - 🔊 Ability to reduce background noise - 🤩 Calls in birds when played back - 🎨 Beautifully laid out database - ✅ Works well for songs, not simple chirps **Cons** - 😞 ID accuracy is inconsistent - ❓ Suggestions are often incorrect - 🤷🏽‍♀️ Recent update made it unusable for some - 📉 Functionality issues after updates - 🪲 Buggy with changing settings - ❌ Does not work for simple chirps/vague sounds - ⚠️ Rarity of birds is inaccurate - 💸 Paid twice for iPad/iPhone - 🚫 FAQ not found error - 👎 Cropping tool not intuitive - 🤔 Predictive function confusing - 😵‍💫 Inconsistent screen opening **Commonly reported bugs** - Recent update makes app unusable - App wants user to select bird first - App not picking up loud, clear bird calls - Crashes when changing settings - FAQ not found error - Black search bar with black text - App requests rating upon opening, missing recordings - Cropping tool not intuitive - Predictive function confusing - Does not open consistently to the same screen **Most requested features** - Add hummingbirds to the catalog - Add purple Martins to the catalog - Organize favorite recordings into custom folders - Organize own recordings into groups or folders - Ability to add local recordings to species information pages - Option to play audio on Bluetooth speaker - Fix black search bar bug ## Newest reviews (15 of 52) ### 4/5 — Great app, but please… *2022-06-04, version 2.2.9* Love this app so much and use it all the time to identify birds! But please please please consider adding hummingbirds to the catalogue of options!! They def have a song and they sing in my yard all the time! ### 4/5 — Very much appreciated *2021-05-07, version 2.2.9* I begin painting watercolors of birds about a year ago and because of that I became an avid birderand I’m learning all I can about birds and now I’m learning to identify birds by their songs. I’ve only tried the half out for one day so far but within the first four times of using it I got two correct birds from their songs. I really appreciate having the spectra grams to look at and compare with other bird songs. It helps me remember the songs because I am very visual. From my experience using other apps to record Birdsong‘s this is by far the best one. The bird songs are more clear and concise and you have the option of clarifying them further. If I think it’s a different bird then the three birds suggested I would like to be able to input that and keep the recording but I don’t know how to do that yet or if it’s even possible. I also appreciate that you can change the state that you’re in and thereby receive indications of the most common birds in that area. I’m going on vacation soon to several different states and I will be using this to help me identify Birdsong‘s. Nothing is perfect but I tend to disregard the negative impressions I read about regarding this app because to me it’s a godsend! ### 4/5 — Can we pls organize our favs *2021-04-26, version 2.2.9* I like this app—it took only about 5 mins to figure out. I like being able to work with the recordings and isolate them and see them in comparison to others in the database. I love how beautifully the database is laid out, and I love browsing it. Can we please be able to save favorites to our own custom folder from the database so we don’t have to browse all of them all the time? Would stop me from having to use other apps. Would also be great if we can organize our own recordings into groups or folders. ### 4/5 — Imperfect but still useful *2021-04-10, version 2.2.9* The ID feature gets lucky on occasion, but is very inconsistent: I wouldn’t trust an ID I couldn’t confirm visually or from other recordings. Twice now I’ve had the app make a correct suggestion (that I was able to verify later) on the first attempt, but then it wouldn’t produce the same result again. It’s still a useful tool, you just really have to do your own sleuthing. So far, it’s been a helpful and engaging companion to my birding. ### 4/5 — Black search bar *2021-02-05, version 2.2.9* I love the app but I can’t see what I’m searching for cause the search bar is black and the letters are black on top of it. It didn’t used to be this way, but now I can’t find a way to fix it. It used to be white with black writing so I could see it really well. Please fix this bug. ### 3/5 — Recordings *2020-11-14, version 2.2.4* Best bird recording app I’ve found but has limitations. I love the three second delay so that I can wait before I start recording. But it often requests me to rate the app when I first open it, so I miss getting the recording. It doesn’t open consistently to the same screen so that is frustrating also. I have a hard time with cropping songs, the crop tool isn’t intuitive. I also would like a way to crop and save a new version rather than writing over the first one. I don’t use the predictive function often and it’s confusing that I have to cancel to save the song and return to record again. ### 4/5 — Great I’d! *2020-10-29, version 2.2.4* Enjoying this app quite a bit. I’ve identified at least 25 birds so far and the app has been a perfect help! Was wondering why I can’t Bluetooth the birds singing. I can only hear the bird sounds on my iPhone ? All music apps on my iphone Bluetooth perfect. ### 4/5 — Solid *2020-09-06, version 2.2.4* One challenge I’ve been having is trying to get the audio to play on a Bluetooth speaker instead of my phone. An external speaker would be so much better to call the birds with than an iPhone. ### 4/5 — Just started using *2020-09-02, version 2.2.4* I just downloaded and went thru the app and am happy with the various settings offered. I can see myself using this quite often as I enjoy the outdoors. More on Homo sapiens please. 😂 ### 4/5 — Quality Time well spent *2020-07-17, version 2.2.4* I ve learned so much about birds in my community. I agree w others some songs u recorded may not sound like the bird the app identifies,But then again when I do listen to numerous songs a specie may produce, I am baffled that they sound nothing like each other.I’ve spent many hours watching the birds taking pictures of them with my zoom lens. I am now reading books about birds and still using this app to identify birds. Especially in other neighborhoods when I see nee species helps me ID them. It’s great for learning or a first step into Birding. I Purchased a four prong birdfeeder for my backyard which is squirrel proof. I’ve gotten anywhere from the common Cardinals, Blue Jays to numerous finches, Orioles and unfortunately several hawks. I live on Long Island NY..I will be visiting Caumsett park with its 1700 species of birds and spend the day w Song Sleuth. Another great feature is if you do play a certain song there’s a good chance that if that bird is near by they to respond and most of them come very near to listen. Enjoy!! ### 3/5 — Needs more work. *2020-07-15, version 2.2.4* It appears the song catalog the app uses might be biased towards recordings made in the eastern US. Even when I isolate the part of the recording to the relevant phrases, it more often than not suggests nonsensical species. Species with large repertoires, like Bewick’s wren, are especially problematic. I do like the sonograms created. Wish I could control, or even knew, what file format is used by the app. ### 5/5 — Wow! Impressive *2020-07-15, version 2.2.4* Sitting out back we heard a sound that we hadn’t heard before I downloaded this app and within three minutes you had identified this really uncommon Birdsong good work! ### 3/5 — Some perks worth having *2020-06-29, version 2.2.4* Best part of the app is that the recorded songs actually call in the birds for you! I put out a sunflower feeder and a thistle feeder. The first day I got 2 pairs of cardinals flying around my area and sitting within 15 feet of me. I now have at least 4 goldfinches at a time. One day I was just playing all the bird songs and a red bellies woodpecker came flying in like he was late to supper! The ID is spotty but at least now I can see the birds that I’ve been hearing in the woods! And they’re enjoying my feeders. So much fun! ### 5/5 — Great for beginner birdwatcher *2020-06-29, version 2.2.4* Love this app! The hardest part for me as a bird watcher is hearing a bird call and not seeing the bird to identify it. Knowing the specific call is an important part of identification. This app helps bridge that gap for those who need it. ### 5/5 — Life Like Recordings *2020-06-17, version 2.2.4* I used the app to identify a bird by its song and it came back with the best match. I played the recording to confirm and the bird I was recording came over and sat right by me. Seems the app found the correct bird and the recordings are very true. I wonder what my phone was saying to it? ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Used to be excellent *2023-07-06* This used to be my go-to app to identify bird songs/calls. It was, for the most part, quite accurate. Apparently, a recent update makes it unusable in that it wants you to select the bird first. The whole point is to figure out what sounds I am hearing from which bird(s). If I can’t search for that sound, I won’t know which bird it is. Deleting the app. It doesn’t work the way it used to. Update: I was told the app glitch had been fixed. So I decided to give it another chance. We are sitting in our back porch listening g to all the birds. There is a mockingbird in one of our trees. We turned on sing sleuth to identify the other birds around. The mockingbird is loud and clear to use. The app is picking up every other bird but the mockingbird. So, we wonder why we should continue with this app at all, again. 🤷🏽‍♀️ ### 1/5 — No Sleuthing *2021-06-20, version 2.2.9* I was very excited to be able to learn to ID birds from their song but have been disappointed in the apps performance. The process is straightforward and clever but the birds it IDs based on recording their song are way off. I have tried it about a half dozen times and it hasn’t come close. It seems to just suggest the most common bird in the area (like a robin) even if the song recorded isn’t at all like a robin’s song. Too bad. ### 1/5 — Great idea, but *2021-06-03, version 2.2.9* While I have been a fan Sibley’s products in print and electronic , this app simply does not produce accurate results in my experience. I’m pretty knowledgeable about birdsong and have tried it on easy ones such as spotted towhees and chickadees, but it rarely offers a correct i.d. Also the fact that it appears to isolate such a small fragment of the soundscape perplexes me. I’ve tried expanding the analysis frame to no avail. ### 1/5 — Fails to ID correctly way too often *2020-06-05, version 2.2.4* I live in the woods where there is a lot of birdsong, making it difficult to isolate one song, (I DO NOT blame this app for not isolating the song I want), but when when I am able to get just one bird song recorded it still fails to ID correctly almost every time. Bummer because I really would love this to work! ### 1/5 — Disappointing *2020-05-09, version 2.2.4* I thought I had read good things about this app, but that has not been my experience. Sitting right under a chickadee making one of its two most identifiable calls, the app did not even give me chickadee as a choice. Similarly with a white crowned sparrow. Over a few weeks of trying to use it, I’m tired of repeatedly getting the choice of marsh wren or kestrel as two of the three options for a pretty wide variety of calls. In all that time I think I have successfully identified one bird reliably. ### 1/5 — More miss than hit *2020-05-07, version 2.2.4* 8 out of 10 calls are misidentified. I’ve recorded birds while looking at them, and the app doesn’t even have them in top three suggestions. In field it has identified calls as birds that migrated months before and as species that would be incredibly rare for this area. Being able to record and save calls is nice as is ability to see and edit spectrographs. ### 1/5 — poor support - has only ID'd 2 birds correctly in the hundreds of recordings I have made *2019-12-07, version 2.2* first the app functionality- if your purchasing this to ID birds by song save your $. In the hundreds of recordings Ive made since 2017 the app has ID'd two birds correctly. As such this app is only used to record songs and upload to eBird for my birdsong life list. second- app support. there is none. i purchased this app in 2017 for 9.99. when i purchased my new phone the app didn't come across and showed that I had to purchase it again. i contacted Wildlife Acoustics who referred me back to the app store. after two hours on the phone and repeating the issue multiple times to multiple representatives at Apple Support I was told to just purchase and download it again. When I did this it said you already own a copy and would I like to download it for free (tell me something I don't know). So if you make this purchase realize you will be wasting time trying to maintain your 9$ purchase on an app that doesn't do what it says it does. Once you realize that good luck with support! ### 1/5 — Don’t remove features that work! *2018-05-20, version 2.0* I like this app better without the “improvements”. The new selection box makes me select the particular bird song I’m interested in and then makes me select one of the possible matches. If I knew which bird is singing, I wouldn’t need the app in the first place!! We have a wooded area in our backyard which is home to lots of local bird. It’s very rarely that we can actually see the bird that is singing. And that is exactly why I need the app. Making me select the bird species that I think is singing based on short-listed suggestions defeats the purpose. I don’t see a way to turn off the selection box. I’m okay with the app making close guesses as to which bird species it might be based on my location like it did before but now it seems useless to me. **Developer response:** I am sorry that you are not satisfied. No features have been removed, but we did add the ability to better isolate the song of interest. This greatly improves ID because the app will not be confused with other songs or extraneous noises. The app then shows three matches as it always did. The intention is that you play back your recording and the example recordings and make the final determination. If the correct bird is not obvious, you can use Compare Mode to compare spectrograms, which can sometimes be more obvious with fast warbling songs. We are trying to provide all the tools necessary to help you home in on the correct bird, and being involved in the final determination, you are likely to learn the songs in the process. If the app just showed you some possible birds with no other tools, you would have no way to verify the ID. ### 2/5 — Just rarely correct *2021-05-18, version 2.2.9* I try and try to like this app, but it is so rarely accurate. I can point it right at a bird I know that is in song, and it was come back with chipmunk, squirrel, human, or some bird not common to the area. I keep it and try it because I hope it will work and improve. Once in awhile it does. I just think the technology is not there. I am surprised that it cannot ID more accurately from the sound map as many of these are cataloged. ### 2/5 — I’m forever hopeful, but... *2020-10-15, version 2.2.4* This app just doesn’t come up with identifications that match my recordings. It will generally offer three possibilities, with recordings of their songs. The recordings are far different than what I have just recorded. It’s as if the app is just taking a wild guess. It would be absolutely wonderful if the app were right on target with the IDs. It would be exactly what I need, and I would learn a lot. I keep trying. But even with the clearest recordings, I get no help at all. I do wish... ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Auto analyzer very helpful *2024-02-05* Appreciate the app and how it isolates the bird call for me, without needing to know how to use recording equipment. When you’re trying to ID the bird quickly, the last thing you need to try to figure out is how the app works, but this is intuitive and does it for you! Sad that it will not be continued, but thank you! ### 5/5 — Tech-No Geek *2023-01-15, version 2.3.2* One of the best programs I’ve ever used. Ok, I’m not getting 100% id or even close. I get that it’s a tool and I’m just learning. However, the functionality is superb, the operation flawless and the Help section has a clarity and thoroughness seldom seen anymore. But the best part- going Geek now - is ‘seeing’ sounds, any and all. Anything you can hear, or feel, you can also see. The spectrogram helps see the patterns, frequencies and overtones from any vibrating source, from running water to Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in Dm on a pipe organ (I was having issues with an extraneous note being played). Thanks for the tool guys! ### 5/5 — Works like magic! *2022-06-18, version 2.2.9* This app is terrific. It helped me automatically identify the “birds” that would sing for hours after dark in my backyard —and they turned out to be Grey Tree Frogs! Without this app, I would have never figured it out. ### 5/5 — Question about Birds not listed *2021-06-23, version 2.2.9* I just love this app!! But I have a question. I have purple Martin nesting near by and I noticed they are not listed on this app. How can they be added? ### 5/5 — Really powerful and useful *2021-06-15, version 2.2.9* Despite some odd UI this app is surprisingly capable , the spectrum analyzer tools are fantastic and I like that it gives you multiple suggestions in case you’re not really confident about your recordings. The audio sample Easter egg for recognizing humans won my heart. ### 5/5 — Best I’ve Found To Date! *2021-04-30, version 2.2.9* I love this app. I use it daily, right alongside the iNaturalist app. It’s a great tool for artists, educators, and nature enthusiasts alike. Extremely well designed and intuitive. ### 5/5 — Newbie *2021-04-24, version 2.2.9* Love, love, love this APP. We recently built our dream home in a lot surrounded by woodlands. I love sitting in our back deck surrounded by nature and lots of birds. I have enjoyed using the App to help me identify species by sound and characteristics. Love all the information. This homo sapien thanks you. ### 5/5 — Awesome *2021-04-08, version 2.2.9* I am an avid bird fan. I go bird watching, I feed them and have nursed them back to health. I love this app. When I’m alone and do not want to be with “people,” I find serenity going off on my on with my binoculars and my bird calls. Although I do find that some of birds on their list states they are uncommon or rare and they are actually here in my region of New Hampshire. ### 5/5 — Caveats *2021-04-03, version 2.2.9* The app description clearly says it does not works for simple chirps, repetitive calls and other vague sounds. I think ignoring this warning is a reason why many commenters think it doesn't work. I've used it only this morning and only with what i would call songs, and it has batted 1000 so far (NW USA). ### 5/5 — Good! *2020-08-15, version 2.2.4* Worked first time I tried it! Easy to understand and use. Opens super quick, which really matters when you hear that elusive bird call in your area. Thanks for the improvements as well. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*