Optimization of passive acoustic bird surveys: a global assessment of BirdNET settings

BirdNET is a popular machine learning tool for automated recognition of bird sounds. However, evidence on how to optimize its settings for accurate bird monitoring remains limited. Here, we evaluate how BirdNET settings influence model performance in identifying bird vocalizations and characterizing bird communities, using 4224 1-min recordings from 67 recording locations worldwide. Giving equal importance to recall and precision, a low confidence score threshold (0.1–0.3) appears optimal for detecting bird vocalizations, whereas higher thresholds (around 0.5) are more suitable for characterizing bird communities. Based on our findings, we recommend increasing the Overlap parameter from its default value of 0 to 2 s, as this consistently improves BirdNET performance in detecting both bird vocalizations and species presence. The effect of the Sensitivity parameter varied across regions. However, a value of 0.5 maximizes global performance for community-level analyses across all confidence thresholds, and a value of 1.5 generally yields better results for vocalization-level studies, particularly at low confidence thresholds. Our findings offer practical guidance for selecting BirdNET settings in passive acoustic bird surveys, enhancing both the identification of bird vocalizations and the characterization of bird communities.