Featherframe

An e-paper frame for bird lovers, that shows the birds in your backyard as Audubon and Gould prints.

How it works

A detector identifies the birds in your backyard by their calls. Featherframe finds the matching illustration in Audubon's The Birds of America or one of John Gould's books, and shows it on an e-paper frame, in grayscale or color.

 BirdNET-Pi, BirdNET-Go   ──▶  Featherframe server  ──▶  E-paper frame
 or BirdWeather                (finds and renders        (shows the picture)
 (identifies the bird)          the illustration)

It works with BirdNET-Pi, BirdNET-Go, or a BirdWeather station.

• Human-drawn illustrations. Audubon's The Birds of America, and John Gould's The Birds of Europe, The Birds of Australia and The Birds of Asia, matted like prints. Your Region picks which book comes first; the others fill in the species it doesn't have.
• Generate missing species. With an OpenAI key, Featherframe can generate a new illustration in Audubon's style instead (optional).
• A daily collage. One sheet shows every species heard that day.
• Other screens. A TRMNL, a Kobo, a Kindle, or an iPad can also show the pictures.

Shopping list

• Seeed XIAO ePaper DIY Kit EE03: 10.3", grayscale. Or the EE02 kit: 13.3", color.
• A frame
• A USB-C power supply

You don't need the kit if you have a TRMNL, an e-reader, or a tablet. See Other screens.

Get started

1. Set up the server

Choose one:

• Featherframe Cloud. Join the waitlist at featherframe.app, and confirm your address from the email it sends. You'll get an invitation by email. There's nothing to install.

• On your BirdNET device. Run these commands on the device that runs BirdNET-Pi or BirdNET-Go:

  git clone https://github.com/wr/featherframe ~/featherframe
  cd ~/featherframe/server
  ./install.sh

  When it finishes, it prints the address of your Featherframe webapp, for example http://birdnet.local:8181. Open it and connect your detection source.

• On a NAS or home server. Download docker-compose.yml, set TZ in it to your time zone, and run docker compose up -d. Open http://<your server>:8181. See On a NAS or home server.

2. Install the firmware

1. Connect the frame to your computer with a USB-C cable.
2. Open your Featherframe webapp in Chrome or Edge.
3. In the Frames section, click ⋯, then USB firmware update, and choose your kit. On a self-hosted server, click Open the flasher: it opens the installer at wr.github.io/featherframe/flash.
4. Click Connect, then follow the steps. You'll enter your Wi-Fi details at the end.

3. Add the frame

• Featherframe Cloud: The frame shows a QR code. Scan it with your phone to set the frame up, or, signed in to the Featherframe webapp, click ⋯, then Pair a frame, and enter the six-letter code.
• Self-hosted: In your Featherframe webapp, click Add next to the new frame. If the frame shows a six-letter code instead, connect it to your server.

The frame shows a picture the next time your detector identifies a bird.

Learn more

See the wiki for:

• Installing the server
• Building, flashing, and adding a frame
• Settings
• Running on a battery
• Other screens
• AI illustrations
• Troubleshooting
• Previewing without hardware and porting to another panel

Credits

Plates: John James Audubon, The Birds of America, public domain, via nathanbuchar/audubon-bird-plates. Courtesy of the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove, Montgomery County Audubon Collection, and Zebra Publishing.

John Gould, The Birds of Europe, The Birds of Australia, The Birds of Asia and The Birds of Great Britain, public domain. Scans: Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, via the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

The species identifications and the cleaned Gould plates are published separately, CC0: wr/historical-bird-plates. Fonts and libraries are listed in THIRD_PARTY.md.

Donate

Featherframe is free and open source. Donations pay for its development and support: Buy me a coffee.

License

Apache License 2.0. The bundled fonts use the SIL Open Font License. Audubon's and Gould's plates are in the public domain. See THIRD_PARTY.md.