Dawn Chorus vs BirdNET Live
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Dawn Chorus
Record and upload bird songs to a global database for scientific and artistic research. Explore bird songs and create art from sound and movement. The app works offline, storing data locally for later upload.
- Record bird songs
- Upload to global database
- Learn about bird songs
- Create art from sound
- Offline recording
- Biodiversity insights
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Dawn Chorus is a project that combines conservation, science, and art. Under the motto Stop and Listen, it creatively brings humans and nature back together: People around the world take a minute in the morning to listen to the bird concert around them, record it, and upload it to a global database. This data is made available to art and science in order to gain insights into the conservation of biodiversity, for example. With the Dawn Chorus app, users can easily and quickly make their recordings. They can also learn more about bird songs and give free rein to their creativity – for example, with the media art feature "Sonic Feather," which transforms movement and sound into art. The app's data is only used in anonymous form and solely for scientific and artistic purposes. The app also works offline; in this case, the data is stored locally on the smartphone and can be uploaded later. Dawn Chorus was launched in 2020 as a citizen science and arts project by BIOTOPIA – Nature Museum Bavaria (Munich) and the Art and Nature Foundation (Nantesbuch), in collaboration with the Max Planck Society. The Bavarian State Association for Bird Conservation (LBV) is also a partner. More information at https://dawn-chorus.org/.
BirdNET Live
Identify bird species by their songs and calls using advanced on-device sound recognition. Analyze audio files, conduct structured surveys, and manage your sound library without an internet connection.
- On-device sound identification
- Live scrolling spectrogram
- Real-time species detections
- Structured survey modes
- Audio file analysis
- Manage sound library
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BirdNET Live runs our most sophisticated sound ID model directly on your device — no internet connection required. Watch a live scrolling spectrogram, view species detections in real time, and manage your growing library of animal sounds right from your phone. BirdNET Live supports bioacoustic research and structured acoustic surveys across multiple workflows: - Live Mode — Real-time species detections with a live spectrogram - Point Counts — Structured timed sessions with live detections - Surveys — Record longer transects while tracking detections along your route - File Analysis — Analyze audio files from local storage - Batch Analysis — Process multiple audio files in bulk - ARU Mode — Schedule longer acoustic recording deployments BirdNET Live is designed for researchers and citizen scientists alike and offers extensive configuration and detection review options. This app is a joint effort by the Cornell K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics and Chemnitz University of Technology, in partnership with the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. Development of this app is supported by the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt. For more information, consult our online user guide: https://birdnet-team.github.io/birdnet-live-app/user/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Dawn Chorus at 4.5 against BirdNET Live's 4.1. Dawn Chorus also leads on iOS requirement (14.0 vs 16.6). BirdNET Live's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 5 weeks) and review sentiment (65% vs 50%). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Dawn Chorus holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 8 and 15 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 50% of Dawn Chorus's written reviews are positive against 65% of BirdNET Live's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Dawn Chorus ships an update every 5 weeks, BirdNET Live weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Dawn Chorus | BirdNET Live |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (8 ratings) — better | 4.1 (15 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | 65.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 8 | 15 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 16.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 142 MB | 352 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Natural Apptitude | Stefan Kahl |
Customer experience
Dawn Chorus
BirdNET Live
In-app purchases
Dawn Chorus
No in-app purchases
BirdNET Live
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Dawn Chorus free?
Is BirdNET Live free?
Which has better reviews, Dawn Chorus or BirdNET Live?
Do Dawn Chorus or BirdNET Live have ads?
Which is updated more often, Dawn Chorus or BirdNET Live?
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