Birds at the dock

August 14, 2026: 24 species identified by BirdNET listening to the dock microphone. Ruby-throated Hummingbird was the most active with 2h 13m 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.

☀ SUNRISE 6:56 AMSUNSET ☾ 8:28 PM025507510012 AM4 AM8 AMNOON4 PM8 PM

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

Earliest riser
Eastern Screech-Owl
First heard at 2:53 AM.
Last call
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Still calling at 11:33 AM.
Busiest minute
5 species at once
At 7:56 AM: Belted Kingfisher, Carolina Chickadee, Osprey, Red-headed Woodpecker, Tufted Titmouse.

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
Belted Kingfisher
100% of its active minutes came during calm air.

Character and company

The regular
Carolina Wren
Heard every day for 76 days running.
Duet partners
Osprey and Purple Martin
Calling in the same minute 76% of the time this week.
Rising star
Red-headed Woodpecker
Up 1h 49m 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
76 days
Carolina Wren, ending 2026-08-14.

Species heard

Ruby-throated Hummingbird
2h 13m active
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Carolina Wren
57 minutes active
Carolina Wren
American Crow
52 minutes active
American Crow
Red-headed Woodpecker
40 minutes active
Red-headed Woodpecker
Tufted Titmouse
32 minutes active
Tufted Titmouse
Blue Jay
30 minutes active
Blue Jay
Northern Cardinal
28 minutes active
Northern Cardinal
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
14 minutes active
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Eastern Bluebird
11 minutes active
Eastern Bluebird
Mourning Dove
11 minutes active
Mourning Dove
Osprey
9 minutes active
Osprey
Pileated Woodpecker
9 minutes active
Pileated Woodpecker
Belted Kingfisher
6 minutes active
Belted Kingfisher
Eastern Screech-Owl
4 minutes active
Eastern Screech-Owl
Carolina Chickadee
4 minutes active
Carolina Chickadee
House Finch
4 minutes active
House Finch
American Goldfinch
4 minutes active
American Goldfinch
Cedar Waxwing
4 minutes active
Cedar Waxwing
Downy Woodpecker
3 minutes active
Downy Woodpecker
Chimney Swift
3 minutes active
Chimney Swift
Great Blue Heron
2 minutes active
Great Blue Heron
White-breasted Nuthatch
2 minutes active
White-breasted Nuthatch
Northern Mockingbird
2 minutes active
Northern Mockingbird
Eastern Kingbird
2 minutes active · 8,200 mi round trip
Eastern Kingbird

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.