Exploring the World of Bird Detectors and Home Assistant Integration

General
1

Hi everyone! I’ve been diving into the fascinating world of bird detection and integrating it with Home Assistant. It’s been an exciting journey, and I wanted to share my experience and some tips for anyone looking to embark on a similar project.

I recently came across the Birdweather PUC, a self-contained microphone array that detects bird calls and connects to a cloud-based database. While it’s a bit pricey, the functionality it offers is truly impressive. The device uses APIs to send data to an iOS app, which then updates almost in real time. I decided to bring this data into Home Assistant to create a custom dashboard showcasing the latest bird detections.

Step 1: Getting Started
First, I reached out to Tim at Birdweather.com for an API token. After a quick email exchange, I was all set to start integrating the data. The next step was modifying my Home Assistant configuration to include the new sensors. I used the REST API for simplicity, as it seemed more straightforward than the GraphQL option.

Step 2: Configuring Sensors
I ended up creating two REST sensors: one to retrieve the top 50 bird species detected in the past day and another for the most recent detection. Here’s a snippet of the configuration:

yaml
sensor:

Step 3: Creating the Dashboard
After setting up the sensors, the real challenge was figuring out how to display the data on a dashboard. I wanted to create separate sensors for each of the top 10 detected species. While it was a bit tedious, I managed to do this by defining each sensor individually. Here’s an example of how I structured one of them:

yaml
template:

  • sensor:
    • name: “Top Bird Species 0”
      state: >
      {{ state_attr(‘sensor.top_50_bird_species’, ‘species’)[0][‘commonName’] if state_attr(‘sensor.top_50_bird_species’, ‘species’) is defined and state_attr(‘sensor.top_50_bird_species’, ‘species’)|length > 0 else ‘Unknown’ }}
      attributes:
      ImageURL: >
      {{ state_attr(‘sensor.top_50_bird_species’, ‘species’)[0][‘imageUrl’] if state_attr(‘sensor.top_50_bird_species’, ‘species’) is defined and state_attr(‘sensor.top_50_bird_species’, ‘species’)|length > 0 else ‘Unknown’ }}
      id: >
      {{ state_attr(‘sensor.top_50_bird_species’, ‘species’)[0][‘id’] if state_attr(‘sensor.top_50_bird_species’, ‘species’) is defined and state_attr(‘sensor.top_50_bird_species’, ‘species’)|length > 0 else ‘Unknown’ }}
      detections: >
      {{ state_attr(‘sensor.top_50_bird_species’, ‘species’)[0][‘detections’] if state_attr(‘sensor.top_50_bird_species’, ‘species’) is defined and state_attr(‘sensor.top_50_bird_species’, ‘species’)|length > 0 else ‘Unknown’ }}
      last_detection_time: >
      {{ state_attr(‘sensor.top_50_bird_species’, ‘species’)[0][‘latestDetectionAt’] if state_attr(‘sensor.top_50_bird_species’, ‘species’) is defined and state_attr(‘sensor.top_50_bird_species’, ‘species’)|length > 0 else ‘Unknown’ }}

Step 4: Designing the Dashboard
For the dashboard, I opted for a simple markdown card setup. I used a fresh page on my iPad Pro to display the information. Here’s a snippet of the dashboard configuration:

yaml

  • path: bird-dash
    type: sections
    sections:
    • type: grid
      cards:
      • type: markdown
        content: |+

        Latest Detection

        ![image]({{ state_attr(‘sensor.latest_bird_detection’, ‘detections’)[0][‘species’][‘imageUrl’] }})

        {{ states(‘sensor.latest_bird_detection’) }}

        {% set raw_timestamp = state_attr(‘sensor.latest_bird_detection’, ‘detections’)[0][‘timestamp’] %}
        {% set timestamp = strptime(raw_timestamp, ‘%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%f%z’) %}
        {{ timestamp.strftime(‘%B %d, %I:%M %p’) }}
        title: Today’s Top 10 Detected Birds

Final Thoughts
This project has been a great learning experience, and I’m excited to see how it evolves. While there’s definitely room for improvement, especially in making the sensor setup more dynamic, the current setup provides a solid foundation. I hope this guide inspires others to explore the intersection of nature and smart home technology!

Cheers! :bird: