Beta · UK and Europe birding
Build a living collection from the birds you find.
Identify birds by sound or photo, save real sightings as collectible cards, and grow an Aviary filled with rarities, milestones, walks, and memories.
Catch common locals, chase legendary finds, and see what other birders are discovering nearby.
Hear it
Point your phone at any bird sound. Lifer listens offline, identifies likely species, and waits for you to say when.
Save it
When Lifer is confident, tap to save it. How good the recording was shapes the card you get.
Keep it
Every sighting you save lives in your Aviary as a card, with the right species guide for where you are birding.
Identify by sound
Tap the microphone. Lifer listens for birds nearby and matches them against its on-device audio model in real time. Five seconds of clean audio is usually enough. The better the recording, the better the card.
Camera Catch
Use your camera to turn bird photos into catch cards with Lifer AI species ID and photo quality scoring. Camera Catch works online and is reviewed before it joins your collection.
BetaOffline where it matters
Audio Catch runs locally on your phone, so you can still identify birds by sound when you are out with no signal. Camera Catch uses Lifer AI online for stronger photo identification when you are connected.
Audio offlineThe card system
Four tiers. Most you'll find easily enough. Some will take years.
Rarity sets the base points and adjusts for the species region. Quality - derived from your actual recording - multiplies it. A perfect record of a legendary bird is the best card Lifer can give you.
Robin
Erithacus rubecula
10 - 20 pts
Kingfisher
Alcedo atthis
25 - 50 pts
Peregrine
Falco peregrinus
75 - 150 pts
White-tailed Eagle
Haliaeetus albicilla
200 - 400 pts
Biomes
Where you found it is part of the card.
Lifer reads your location at the moment you save a sighting and records the biome with it. A Kingfisher found at a wetland feels different to the same species seen in a park.
The Catch screen changes with your surroundings, using hand-drawn watercolour artwork for each biome while you listen, look, and save the bird.
Your collection
Your Aviary, your way.
Every sighting you save lives in your Aviary as a card. Reorder them, change finishes, pick favourites to show off on your public profile, and browse either a UK or Europe field guide as your collection grows. Milestones and profile rings show how your birding story is developing.
- Custom frames and finishes for every saved bird
- Multiple effects unlock as recording quality improves
- Level up to unlock profile rings and richer showcase options
- Favourites pinned to your public profile
- View UK and European species in full with your records
- Cards tilt, catch the light, and behave like real 3D collectibles
Milestones & badges
Every birder has a story. Yours lives on your profile.
Catch enough of the right birds and you unlock milestone badges. Pin the ones you're proudest of to your public profile alongside your favourite cards.
Tap a badge to see what it means.
Milestones on your profile tell other birders what kind of birder you are.
Rare finds
Then there are Prismwings.
Very occasionally, a bird comes back as something different. A Prismwing. Nobody knows exactly how they happen, and that's the point. If you find one, you unlock an exclusive finish for that species that won't look like anyone else's.
Bird Walk
Log the whole outing, not just one sighting.
Bird Walk tracks your route, distance, and time - and adds every species you find along the way to a single session. Good for a morning walk, a longer trip, or anyone who covers ground.
Bird of the Day
A new featured bird, every day.
One species is featured each day with a point bonus shown up front. Find it before midnight and the bonus is yours. A good reason to go out even when you think you've already seen everything nearby.
The map
Every sighting you've saved, on one map.
Your map shows every sighting with a saved location, plotted with the rarity color of that record. Tap any marker to see the card, species, and details. Switch to Following mode and the map shows what people you follow are finding nearby.
Your sightings
All your saved sightings with a location shown as rarity-colored markers. Tap to open the full card.
Following mode
Flip to see what people you follow have found and where. Filter to a specific person or show everyone at once.
Filter by rarity or source
Narrow to a minimum rarity, a record source (audio, camera, or manual), or a minimum point threshold.
Imported locations
Sightings imported from eBird, Birda, and iNaturalist bring their coordinates with them, so your whole birding history shows up.
Weather overlay
Toggle a live weather layer to see what conditions look like across your area.
Map styles
Switch between standard, satellite, terrain, and buildings to get the view that helps most where you are.
Community
You're ranked. Among birders.
Leaderboards update as people log birds. Compare with friends, browse Discover highlights, or switch to local ranking based on the town or city on your profile. Your public profile shows your Aviary favourites, milestones, rings, and best records.
Leaderboards
See how you stack up by points, record count, and rarity against friends or birders in your local area.
Social feed
Saved birds, bird walks, milestone posts, Camera Catch photos, and rare finds from people you follow. React, comment, share your own.
Public profiles
Your Aviary favourites, milestone badges, profile rings, and recent records on a page other birders can actually visit.
Your birding history
Bring your past with you.
Years of sightings don't disappear when you start on Lifer. Import from eBird, Birda, BirdTrack, or iNaturalist and your Archive fills out with records from before Lifer existed.
Bird Alerts
Watch for the birds that matter.
Set an alert for a species or rarity level near you and Lifer will notify you when one shows up. Some sensitive birds go quiet during breeding season - that's not a bug. Rare breeding birds need the quiet.
Privacy
You control what's visible and where.
Birding involves real locations - where you live, where you go, what you've found. Lifer gives you fine-grained control over all of it.
Per-sighting location control
Each saved sighting has its own location toggle. Sharing the species is fine. The exact GPS coordinate is your call.
Bird Walk privacy
Each walk can be private, visible to followers only, or public. You set it per outing, and you can change it afterwards.
Start point obfuscation
Bird Walk routes can mask the first 250m to avoid showing where you set off from. Useful if you start from home.
Sensitive species are protected server-side
Rare breeding birds have their exact locations hidden on alerts and maps during sensitive periods. This is enforced at the database level, not just in the app.
Control your archive visibility
Imported birding history from eBird and other sources can be kept private or shared on your public profile. Your choice, changeable any time.
Encrypted Cloud Vault
New private catch audio, private catch photos, and private card photos are encrypted before they are stored in Cloud Vault. Public/shared photos are kept separate.
Early access
Lifer is free to use.
Full UK and Europe support. Worldwide support coming soon.
Join the waitlist.
Drop your email and we'll let you know when the next beta opens up.