Earliest riser
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
First heard at 5:13 AM.
Birds at the dock
July 19, 2026: 26 species identified by BirdNET listening to the dock microphone. Carolina Wren was the most active with 1h 42m active; Eastern Kingbird traveled farthest, a 8,200 mi round trip.
Minutes active by hour
Each bar counts the 1-minute windows in which BirdNET identified a species at high confidence (its minutes active), bucketed by Eastern Time hour. The dawn chorus typically peaks between 6 and 8 a.m.
Fun stats
A few things the microphone noticed. Every number below comes from high-confidence detections, and any stat that could not be measured cleanly is left off rather than guessed.
The day's rhythm
Last call
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Still calling at 10:42 AM.
Busiest minute
5 species at once
At 6:45 AM: Carolina Wren, Osprey, Red-headed Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, Yellow-billed Cuckoo.
Travel
Frequent-flyer miles
8,217 mi
Combined round-trip migration of 1 species heard today.
Farthest traveler
Eastern Kingbird
Makes a round trip of about 8,217 mi each year.
Weather watchers
Fair-weather singer
American Crow
100% of its active minutes came during calm air.
Fair-weather singer
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher
100% of its active minutes came during calm air.
Character and company
The regular
Carolina Wren
Heard every day for 50 days running.
Duet partners
Carolina Wren and White-eyed Vireo
Calling in the same minute 46% of the time this week.
Rising star
Eastern Bluebird
Up 4h 1m active on last week.
Records
Busiest day
14h 19m active
Set on 2026-07-06.
Most species in a day
51 species
Recorded on 2026-07-06.
Longest streak
50 days
Carolina Wren, ending 2026-07-19.
Species heard
1h 42m active
Carolina Wren
52 minutes active
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
41 minutes active
Red-headed Woodpecker
32 minutes active
Eastern Bluebird
31 minutes active
Northern Cardinal
31 minutes active
Northern Mockingbird
30 minutes active
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
30 minutes active
White-breasted Nuthatch
21 minutes active
Carolina Chickadee
19 minutes active
Chipping Sparrow
14 minutes active
House Finch
13 minutes active
Tufted Titmouse
11 minutes active
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher
9 minutes active
American Crow
9 minutes active
Red-bellied Woodpecker
9 minutes active
Indigo Bunting
9 minutes active
Osprey
5 minutes active
Brown Thrasher
4 minutes active
Yellow-throated Vireo
4 minutes active
Downy Woodpecker
4 minutes active
Blue Jay
3 minutes active
Northern Parula
3 minutes active · 8,200 mi round trip
Eastern Kingbird
3 minutes active
Cedar Waxwing
2 minutes active
Northern Flicker
2 minutes active
Black-crowned Night Heron
How this works
A microphone is mounted at the dock at Tennessee River Mile 559.5, listening to the lake 24/7. Audio runs through BirdNET from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, an open-source neural network that identifies bird species by sound. Detections at high confidence are tallied here.
Bird photos are pulled automatically from Wikipedia and cropped to the bird with YOLOv8 object detection. Individual photo credits are on each species' Wikipedia page.