Comparison

eBird Alert! vs Haikubox

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

Head to head
About

eBird Alert!

Discover rare bird sightings in your vicinity based on community-submitted checklists. Customize your search by distance, recency, and location. Access identification details and photos to aid your bird spotting.

Highlights
  • Find nearby rare bird sightings
  • Customize sighting proximity and recency
  • Filter by county or view all local birds
  • Open sighting locations in maps
  • View sighting comments
  • Access bird identification details and photos
Features
Read full description

eBird Alert! shows rare bird sightings in your area, found from the checklists your fellow birders have submitted to eBird -- a global online database of bird records used by hundreds of thousands of birders around the world. Features - Select how nearby and how recent the sightings can be. - Select which nearby county in which to find birds. - See rarities or all local birds. - Open a sighting location in Apple or Google Maps. - See all sighting comments for a particular location. - Get identification details and photos to help you spot the bird,. - If you spot it, add it to your checklist in the eBird app. Privacy - eBird Alert! requires your location to find nearby birds. It will never upload your location, or any other data, to any server.

About

Haikubox

Identify bird and bat species by their calls in real-time using your phone's microphone. This app utilizes advanced AI models and contributes your detections to scientific research. Extend functionality with an optional dedicated listening device for continuous monitoring.

Highlights
  • Real-time bird and bat call identification
  • Dual AI model verification
  • Scrolling spectrogram with call markers
  • Offline functionality
  • Community science contributions
  • Optional 24/7 listening device
Features
Read full description

Every Haikubox listens around the clock — birds, and bats on select models — building the world's largest nature monitoring network. Haikubox listening stations around the world contribute bird detections to real scientific research at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and to bat monitoring programs at Bat Conservation International. When you join, your backyard becomes part of a continent-spanning acoustic network. VERIFIED BY TWO AI MODELS Most bird ID apps rely on a single model. Haikubox runs two independent neural networks — HaikuNet and BirdNET from Cornell University — and gives you insight into how detections are made. Filter by Low, Med, or High confidence. FREE ON YOUR PHONE • Live Detect — real-time bird ID using your phone's microphone • Silky-smooth scrolling spectrogram with a chip marker on every call • Region and confidence filters so you focus on the species that matter • Dual-model verification built in — every detection is cross-checked • Works offline — no account required to start listening • Help improve the AI: flag any detection as right or wrong, and your feedback trains the next generation of models EXTEND TO 24/7 WITH A HAIKUBOX DEVICE Set a Haikubox in your yard (available at haikubox.com) and let it listen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Every bird call — the dawn chorus, midday jays, night owls — is captured and identified while you're at work, asleep, or away. WITH BATS TOO The Haikubox Birds and Bats device also detects ultrasonic bat calls, which are inaudible to human ears. Recordings are pitch-shifted to a range you can hear, so you can identify the species that hunt your yard at night — something no phone-only app can do. COMMUNITY SCIENCE Your Haikubox doesn't just tell you what's in your yard — it contributes anonymized detections to bird conservation research at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and bat research with NABat. Explore the community map to see and listen to Haikuboxes shared publicly around the world, follow migration as it sweeps through other members' yards, and share your own station so others can discover your birds. With a Haikubox connected, the app also lets you: • See every bird detected today, this week, or across the entire year • Play back the exact audio clip that triggered each detection from the past month • Get push notifications the moment a favorite species arrives • Star recordings to save your best moments forever • Share clips as audio or short spectrogram videos to messaging, email, and social apps • Explore and listen to Haikuboxes shared publicly around the world on the map • Become a citizen scientist — contribute your detections to real conservation research Haikubox is developed by Loggerhead Instruments and is powered by HaikuNet and BirdNET from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. Terms of Use: https://listen.haikubox.com/#/terms Privacy Policy: https://listen.haikubox.com/#/privacy

Screenshots

eBird Alert!4 screens
Haikubox4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: eBird Alert! at none against Haikubox's 1. eBird Alert! also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 67%). Haikubox's advantage is update cadence (every 6 days vs every 3 weeks) and ratings volume (53 vs 8). On price, rating, 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. Haikubox sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $69.99 per year. eBird Alert! asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Haikubox holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Haikubox has 53 ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 100% of eBird Alert!'s written reviews are positive against 67% of Haikubox's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

eBird Alert! ships an update every 3 weeks, Haikubox every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
eBird Alert! versus Haikubox: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParametereBird Alert!Haikubox
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (8 ratings)4.9 (53 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better66.7% of reviews
Number of ratings853 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 6 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.218.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size12 MB216 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperColin RaffertyHaikubox

Customer experience

eBird Alert!

All ratings8 ratings
Positive87.5%
Neutral12.5%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Haikubox

All ratings39 ratings
Positive97.4%
Neutral2.6%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral33.3%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

eBird Alert!

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Haikubox

Subscriptions1
  • Annual$69.991 Year

Questions

Is eBird Alert! free?
eBird Alert! is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Haikubox free?
Haikubox is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, eBird Alert! or Haikubox?
Haikubox is rated higher. eBird Alert! averages 4.8 out of 5 from 8 ratings, while Haikubox averages 4.9 from 53 ratings.
Do eBird Alert! or Haikubox have ads?
Neither eBird Alert! nor Haikubox shows ads.
Which is updated more often, eBird Alert! or Haikubox?
eBird Alert! ships an update every 3 weeks, and Haikubox every 6 days. Most recently, eBird Alert! was updated on November 5, 2026 and Haikubox on November 10, 2026.

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