Free and open-source. Available as a one-click install on macOS and Windows,
or run from source on Linux.
Signed & notarized · macOS 13+ · Apple Silicon
Click the Download for macOS button above. Your browser will download Yearbirder_v2.20.dmg.
Double-click the downloaded .dmg file. A window will appear showing the Yearbirder app and your Applications folder.
Drag the Yearbirder icon into the Applications folder. That's the installation complete.
Launch Yearbirder from your Applications folder or from Launchpad. The first time you open it, macOS may ask you to confirm — click Open.
Go to ebird.org/downloadMyData, click Request My Observations, and wait for the email with your download link. Once you have the .zip file, use File → Open in Yearbirder to load it.
Optimized for x64 processors — the Intel and AMD chips in most Windows PCs. On ARM-based Windows PCs (Snapdragon and Copilot+ machines), a few HTML-based features may scroll slowly.
.exe. They do not appear if you install from the Microsoft Store, which Microsoft signs. Both are normal for free, independent apps that are not commercially code-signed. Yearbirder is safe and open-source; its full source code is on GitHub.Installing from the Microsoft Store needs no instructions — open the
Store listing
and click Get. These steps are for the .exe.
Click Download the installer above. Your browser will download Yearbirder_Setup_v2.20.exe.
Double-click Yearbirder_Setup_v2.20.exe. If Windows shows a SmartScreen warning, click More info and then Run anyway. Follow the installer prompts — the defaults are fine.
Open Yearbirder from the Start Menu. You can also optionally create a desktop shortcut during installation.
Go to ebird.org/downloadMyData, click Request My Observations, and wait for the email with your download link. Once you have the .zip file, use File → Open in Yearbirder to load it.
Requires Python 3.10+
Yearbirder runs from Python source on Linux. Python 3.10 or later is required. Most modern Linux distributions include a suitable Python; check with python3 --version.
Open a terminal and run:
You need 3.10 or higher. If not, install it via your distribution's package manager (e.g. sudo apt install python3 on Debian/Ubuntu).
Many distros package pip separately. If pip3 --version fails, install it:
soundfile and soxr are what read and resample your recordings — without them the Recordings features will not work. Two further packages are optional: mutagen lets Yearbirder read the date out of ID3-tagged audio, and certifi supplies its own set of HTTPS certificates. Yearbirder works without either, falling back to the filename for dates and to your system's certificates.
libxcb, install the Qt platform dependencies. On Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install libxcb-cursor0
sudo apt install libgstreamer1.0-0 gstreamer1.0-plugins-base gstreamer1.0-plugins-good
sudo apt install libnss3
Click the Download Yearbirder button above and unzip the downloaded file. Or, if you prefer to use git:
Go to ebird.org/downloadMyData, click Request My Observations, and wait for the email with your download link. Once you have the .zip file, use File → Open in Yearbirder to load it.
These are installed in step 3 above. Listed here for reference.