Comparison

Learn Bird Watching vs BirdNET

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Learn Bird Watching

Learn to identify birds by sound and sight with a game-based system. This app offers audio and visual courses created by experts to improve your birding skills, suitable for beginners and advanced enthusiasts alike.

Highlights
  • Game-based learning system
  • Identify birds by sound
  • Identify birds by sight
  • Expert-created courses
  • Suitable for all skill levels
  • Master birding by ear
Features
Read full description

BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA Learn birds the fun way! Learn to identify the birds that you're seeing and hearing. Take birding and birdwatching to a new level! Larkwire is a complete, game-based system for learning. Great for beginners and still challenging for advanced birders. Audio courses teach you to identify bird sounds and visual courses teach plumage. All courses are created by world class experts in field identification. This is the app used by professionals to master birding by ear. ***** "Best thing I’ve ever bought on the App Store." (Shopetastic review, 04/16/2020) ***** "Uniformly excellent" (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) ***** "A Rosetta Stone for birdsong." (Birding Magazine) ***** "This is a really cool tool!" (BirdChick) ***** "Really fun!" (Wildlife South) ********************************************** "Larkwire is already helping immensely with my ability to bird in the field. And my 7-year-old daughter is asking for 'that bird song game on the computer.'—I guess you have THREE of us hooked!" (Courtenay Schurman, Mountaineering Trainer) ********************************************** ********************************************** "It's like having a personal teacher who can pinpoint my weaknesses and make me work on them as I play. By far the best value for your money when you think about buying an avian audio guide." (Alain Clavette, aka @Acadian_Birder) ********************************************** ********************************************** "A fantastic tool for learning and reviewing birdsong. ... What I can vouch for, as a teacher, is the solid learning theory behind the software—this program is sure to improve the speed and accuracy with which you identify birds by ear." (David Pugh, Calgary Birder) ********************************************** SUPPORT For questions or support, email: support@larkwire.com EULA - Apple standard End User License Agreement: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

BirdNET

Identify bird species by their sounds using AI. Record audio with your device and discover the birds around you. Contribute to conservation research by submitting your recordings.

Highlights
  • AI-powered bird sound recognition
  • Identify common North American and European species
  • Record audio with internal microphone
  • View probable bird species identification
  • Contribute to conservation research
  • Learn about local birds
Features
Read full description

How can computers learn to recognize birds from sounds? The BirdNET research project uses artificial intelligence and neural networks to train computers to identify nearly 3,000 of the most common species of North America and Europe. You can record a file using the internal microphone of your iOS device and see if BirdNET correctly identifies the probable bird species present in your recording. Get to know the birds around you and help us to collect observations by submitting your recordings. BirdNET is a joint project of the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and Chemnitz University of Technology.

Screenshots

Learn Bird Watching4 screens
BirdNET4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Learn Bird Watching at 4.8 against BirdNET's 4.0. Learn Bird Watching also leads on update cadence (every 9 days vs every 3 months) and review sentiment (91% vs 67%). BirdNET's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.6). On price, ads and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Learn Bird Watching sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $24.99 per year. BirdNET asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Learn Bird Watching holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Learn Bird Watching has 1.3K ratings behind it against 212, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 91% of Learn Bird Watching's written reviews are positive against 67% of BirdNET's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Learn Bird Watching ships an update every 9 days, BirdNET every 3 months. Both last shipped on September 25, 2026.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Learn Bird Watching versus BirdNET: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLearn Bird WatchingBirdNET
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (1.3K ratings) — better4.0 (212 ratings)
Positive reviews90.7% of reviews — better66.6% of reviews
Number of ratings1.3K — better212
Update frequencyEvery 9 days — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.613.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size66 MB98 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLarkwireStefan Kahl

Customer experience

Learn Bird Watching

All ratings1,284 ratings
Positive97.1%
Neutral1.4%
Negative1.5%
Written reviews107 reviews
Positive90.7%
Neutral4.7%
Negative4.7%

BirdNET

All ratings212 ratings
Positive71.2%
Neutral10.4%
Negative18.4%
Written reviews371 reviews
Positive66.6%
Neutral10.0%
Negative23.5%

User reviews

Learn Bird Watching

From 1.3K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Helpful for learning bird songs
  • 🚀 Efficient learning process
  • 💡 Customizable playlists and settings
  • 🎮 Fun and engaging game-like format
  • 🌟 Comprehensive coverage of bird species

Room to improve

  • 🔍 Difficulty finding specific birds in the app
  • 🐛 Occasional bugs and crashes
  • 💰 Expensive subscription model
  • 📱 Not optimized for smaller screens

BirdNET

From 212 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 💚 Excellent bird identification accuracy
  • 👍 Simple and intuitive interface
  • 🔍 Helpful links to Wikipedia and other resources
  • 🎉 Enjoyable and educational for bird enthusiasts
  • 🗺️ Leverages location data to improve identification

Room to improve

  • 🐛 App crashes or freezes on some devices
  • 🔍 Struggles to identify multiple birds singing simultaneously
  • 🔇 Unable to play back previous recordings in some cases
  • 🗺️ Inaccurate or incomplete regional bird data
  • 🤔 Questionable identification results in some cases

Bugs and requests

Learn Bird Watching

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Unable to download sample content
  • Repeating the same bird songs in succession
  • Inconsistent progress tracking

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add bird song playback when selecting bird images
  • Implement voice recognition for answering questions
  • Include spectrograms for better visual learning
  • Expand coverage to birds in other regions

BirdNET

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Crashes when trying to access observation history
  • Recordings disappearing after app updates
  • Inability to start a new recording without exiting the app
  • Microphone not working on certain devices
  • Incorrect or missing bird species in regional databases

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to manually select frequency ranges for analysis
  • Option to delete individual observations or recordings
  • Import/export functionality for recordings and observations
  • Improved handling of background noise and interference
  • More detailed feedback when multiple birds are detected

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Learn Bird Watching

Subscriptions3
  • Single Course Annual7 Days trial$24.991 Year
  • All Courses Annual7 Days trial$44.991 Year
  • All Courses Annual (Family)7 Days trial$64.991 Year
One-time7
  • Bird Songs Core West (N. Am)$9.99
  • Bird Songs Core East (N. Am)$9.99
  • Waterbirds Core (N. Am)$9.99
Show 4 more
  • Bird Songs Pro East (N. Am)$24.99
  • Bird Songs Pro West (N. Am)$24.99
  • Waterbirds songs/calls (N. Am)$24.99
  • Breeding Plumage East (N.Am.)$24.99
None

BirdNET

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Learn Bird Watching free?
Learn Bird Watching is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is BirdNET free?
BirdNET is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Learn Bird Watching or BirdNET?
Learn Bird Watching is rated higher. Learn Bird Watching averages 4.8 out of 5 from 1.3K ratings, while BirdNET averages 4.0 from 212 ratings.
Do Learn Bird Watching or BirdNET have ads?
Neither Learn Bird Watching nor BirdNET shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Learn Bird Watching or BirdNET?
Learn Bird Watching ships an update every 9 days, and BirdNET every 3 months. Most recently, Learn Bird Watching was updated on September 25, 2026 and BirdNET on September 25, 2026.

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