Birda
Birda (Chirp Birding) is a London-based mobile birdwatching platform offering a freemium app with AI-powered bird identification, community features, and a global sightings database, serving individual birders worldwide and brands through sponsored challenges.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2017
- HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Birda does
Birda (legally Chirp Birding) is a London-based mobile birdwatching platform founded in 2017. Its core product is a free consumer mobile app distributed via Apple App Store and Google Play that enables users to identify birds from photos and natural language descriptions using AI, log sightings, maintain automated life lists, participate in challenges, and share observations with a global community of birders. Underlying technology includes AI-powered computer vision and NLP for species identification, a proprietary taxonomic engine that cross-references species across multiple authorities (now consolidated on AviList) and supports 19+ languages, an interactive map powered by over 1 billion community sightings, and automatic data sharing with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility for conservation research.
The company's revenue model is a hybrid freemium consumer-plus-B2B structure. Individual users access core features for free; Birda+ is a premium subscription offering enhanced features. Monetization also includes in-app advertising, sponsored challenges, ESG-aligned fundraising challenges, and a branded merchandise shop, all consolidated under the Birda for Business offering for brand and conservation clients. Distribution is product-led through the app stores, amplified by PR coverage in Fox News, ABC News, and BBC Radio, and Apple App of the Day recognition across 148 countries. Birda has raised approximately $5.4 million across three disclosed rounds from Kaltroco (2020-2023) and remains founder-owned under CEO John White.
Birda firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Birda
- Legal name
- Chirp Birding
- Website
- https://birda.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2017
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Birda (Chirp Birding) is a London-based mobile birdwatching platform offering a freemium app with AI-powered bird identification, community features, and a global sightings database, serving individual birders worldwide and brands through sponsored challenges.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Birda is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- London
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Markets served
Birda business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- Birda+ Premium Subscription: Premium subscription tier offering enhanced features beyond the free base app.
- In-App Advertising: Brands can advertise products through in-feed notices in Birda. Pricing varies according to frequency and other factors, contact team for details.
- Sponsored Challenges: Businesses can create branded challenges to engage birders. Birda team works with brands to design challenges meeting business goals while creating value for users.
- Fundraising Challenges: Birda matches corporate donors with conservation beneficiaries for ESG-aligned fundraising challenges where users reach goals to raise money for nature projects.
- Shop (Birda Gear): Merchandise store selling Birda-branded products like gear and apparel.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Free | Free tier with core birdwatching features |
| Subscription | Subscription | Birda+ premium subscription |
| Other | Pay-as-you-go | Business advertising and sponsored challenges |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels9 records
Birda product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Birda operates a mobile and web birdwatching application that helps users identify birds through AI photo and text recognition, log and track sightings via automated life lists, discover birding locations on an interactive map backed by over 1 billion community sightings, and engage with a global birder community through challenges, feeds, and identification help. The platform also publishes a 10,000+ species guide with sounds and distribution maps, and automatically contributes public sighting data to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) for conservation research.
Product overview
Birda is a birdwatching platform built around a core mobile app offering AI-powered bird identification (via photo and text), sighting logging, life list tracking, challenges, and a social community feed. The platform includes a free comprehensive Species Guide with over 10,000 bird species, and supports multiple taxonomies through a proprietary taxonomic engine. Birda+ is the premium subscription tier providing enhanced features. The Birda for Business platform enables brands to engage users through sponsored challenges and advertising. All public sightings contribute to conservation science via automatic GBIF data sharing.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Birda App Mobile birdwatching application available on iOS and Android (and via web at app.birda.org) for individual birders; provides AI photo and text bird identification, sighting logging, automated life lists, gamified challenges, a community feed, and an interactive map backed by 1B+ community sightings.
- Birda for Business B2B platform enabling brands, conservation organizations, and tourism companies to reach the Birda community through sponsored challenges, branded in-app advertising, and ESG-aligned fundraising challenges for nature projects.
- Birda Shop (Gear & Merchandise) Online merchandise store selling Birda-branded gear and apparel to consumers and the birding community as a supplementary revenue line.
Companies that use Birda
Customer profileNamed customers5 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Birda technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration1 record
AI capability6 records
Feature6 records
Birda partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- AviListcoreAviList is a unified global bird checklist launched in 2025 by ornithologists worldwide to create a single agreed-upon list of every bird species. Birda switched from supporting multiple taxonomies (IOC, Clements, BirdLife) to AviList, resolving hundreds of disagreements between previous checklists and providing simpler, consistent data for all users.
- GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility)coreBirda shares user sightings data with GBIF, an international network funded by governments providing open access to biodiversity data worldwide. This partnership enables bird sightings to contribute to global scientific research on migration patterns, species distributions, and conservation efforts. Sensitive species locations are obscured before submission to protect vulnerable birds.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Birda competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- eBird (Cornell Lab of Ornithology): The dominant global bird sighting database operated by the Cornell Lab; directly overlaps with Birda's sighting logging, life lists, and citizen-science mission. Birda differentiates on community and AI identification, but competes for the same birder time and data contribution.
- Merlin Bird ID (Cornell Lab of Ornithology): Free AI-powered bird identification app from Cornell Lab — the closest direct competitor to Birda's AI Photo ID. Both target the same hobbyist birder with computer-vision-based species identification and integrated species guides.
- Seek by iNaturalist: iNaturalist's real-time AI identification app covering wildlife broadly. Direct overlap on community-driven identification, AI species recognition, and gamified nature engagement.
- BirdsEye: Birding app focused on real-time sightings from eBird with location-based discovery. Competes for the same birder use case around finding birds nearby and planning trips.
- Audubon Bird Guide (National Audubon Society): Long-standing North American birding app offering ID, sightings, and conservation content. Competes for the same U.S. birding audience with the backing of a major conservation nonprofit.
- iNaturalist: Citizen-science platform covering all wildlife (not just birds) with AI identification (Seek). Competes for the same naturalist audience and overlaps on sighting logging, community identification, and GBIF data contribution.
Broad incumbents
- PictureThis: Glory Innovation's commercial AI plant identification app with similar freemium-plus-ads model and large consumer audience. Comparable as a monetized AI nature-identification consumer app, though focused on plants rather than birds.
- AllTrails: Largest outdoor-recreation app with global trail discovery and community features. Comparable as a freemium consumer outdoor app with subscription monetization and B2B partnerships with outdoor brands.
Emerging players
- Sibley Birds: David Sibley's birding field-guide app — overlaps with Birda's species guide content layer. Smaller commercial footprint but credible brand in the birding community.
- BirdNET: Cornell Lab and Chemnitz University of Technology's audio-based bird sound identification project. Overlaps with Birda's bird sounds library and AI audio identification roadmap, particularly relevant as Birda expands audio ID beyond Europe.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Birda social profiles
Digital presenceBirda financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Birda leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
Birda funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds5 records
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Birda M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Birda
What does Birda do?
Birda operates a mobile and web birdwatching application that helps users identify birds through AI photo and text recognition, log and track sightings via automated life lists, discover birding locations on an interactive map backed by over 1 billion community sightings, and engage with a global birder community through challenges, feeds, and identification help. The platform also publishes a 10,000+ species guide with sounds and distribution maps, and automatically contributes public sighting data to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) for conservation research.
Is Birda a public or private company?
Birda is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Birda founded?
Birda was founded in 2017. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Birda based?
Birda is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does Birda make money?
Five revenue lines are on record. Birda+ Premium Subscription is the primary driver. The others are in-App Advertising, sponsored Challenges, fundraising Challenges and shop (Birda Gear).
Who are Birda's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are eBird (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), Merlin Bird ID (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), Seek by iNaturalist, BirdsEye, Audubon Bird Guide (National Audubon Society) and iNaturalist. Broad incumbents are PictureThis and AllTrails. Emerging players are Sibley Birds and BirdNET.
Does Birda have an API?
No public API is recorded for Birda.