Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

birdnetR (development version)

birdnetR 0.3.2

CRAN release: 2025-04-30

• Removes defunct and deprected functions init_model() and install_birdnet().
• Includes some minor changes to take CRAN Reviewer comments into account.

birdnetR 0.3.1

Major changes

• use recticulate::py_require() to resolve python dependencies in an ephemeral virtual environment
• refactors tests to use a hybrid approach of unit tests and mocking without the birdnet python package, and full integration tests that depend on the birdnet python package. See tests/TEST_PLAN.md for more details.
• initial CRAN release preparations

Defunctions

• install_birdnet() is now a defunctioned. It is no longer needed to install the birdnet python package manually. The package will be installed automatically when you use it for the first time.

birdnetR 0.2.2

• updates birdnet Python package to 0.1.7.
• Fixes #21: unable to initialize model
• Added a check if audio file is mono

birdnetR 0.2.1

• install the TensorFlow Metal Plugin for GPU support on Apple devices #25
• optionally use Apache Arrow to improve performance by reducing memory usage during data conversion and minimizing data copying between R and Python. #26

birdnetR 0.2.0

This update brings significant changes and improvements, including support for loading pre-existing and custom-trained models, aligning the package with birdnet 0.1.6.

breaking changes:

• The init_model() function is now deprecated and will be removed in the next version. Please use the birdnet_model_* function family for model initialization.
• available_languages() update: A new argument has been added to available_languages() to specify the BirdNET version, making it more flexible for different model versions.
• Renaming get_labels_path to labels_path(). It now requires a model object as its first argument.
• predict_species() was renamed to predict_species_from_audio_file()
• predict_species_at_location_and_time() was changed to requirer a model object as first argument.

New features:

• Support for Custom Models: You can now load custom-trained models
• A new set of functions (birdnet_model_*) to load pre-existing and custom-trained models. These functions offer a more flexible approach to model loading. See ?birdnet_model_load for more details.
• S3 Object-Oriented System: The models are now implemented as S3 classes, and most of the functionality related to these models is provided through methods. This update makes the API cleaner and more consistent, and allows for better extensibility in future versions.

birdnetR 0.1.2

Uses birdnet v0.1.6 under the hood to fix an issue when downloading models. No new functionality has yet been implemented.

birdnetR 0.1.1

The update of birdnet to 0.1.1 brings:
- Add parameter ‘chunk_overlap_s’ to define overlapping between chunks
- Remove parameter ‘file_splitting_duration_s’ instead load files in 3s chunks
- Remove ‘librosa’ dependency

Other:
- check of the correct version of birdnet is installed in the current virtual environment
- expand vignette on how to use virtual environments

birdnetR 0.1.0

• initial release