This is a review of the app, not the hardware. As of April ‘25, I found the app lacking in features and buggy. The IDs are truly exciting but I need to be able to verify them: the sonogram is coming (has been for a while?), but at least the IDs should have their associated sound clips that are uploaded to the database. (This would also allow me to check whether human speech is really obscured in the uploaded clips, because it’s loud and clear on the app.) Filtering the ID list is buggy (species appear and disappear!) and crashes the app sometimes. It’s impossible not to compare this app to Merlin—wasn’t collaboration possible?? Most of the missing features seem to be wheel reinvention.

The device was easy to set up following the instructions in the app. And it works great! It actually picks up more birds than Merlin does on my phone. Mine is hearing ducks from a pond that is about 1/2 mile from my house. The device came with multiple ways to mount which was great. My house doesn’t have any external outlets currently, so I ended up putting it between the window and screen and that worked quite well. It picked up a barred owl within 5 minutes of turning it on, and I was actually able to spot the owl the next day! The app itself has a lovely interface and I love the way you can filter the ID history. I could not be happier!

I participated in the Kickstarter project for this device & ordered one for my yard and another as a gift. Set up was very iffy & took over an hour, but finally the Terra station started transmitting.The ID’s are correct only about 75-80%—this is fairly bad. The app misidentifies a substantial number of birds as rarities but misses common species that are actively singing. Cornell’s free Merlin app, by contrast, is 90-95% accurate & includes the ability (lacking in Terra) to save audio recordings & spectrograms for verification. Sharing the full live feed of the station doesn’t seem to be fully supported. Without major improvements, I would not recommend Terra at this time.

We participated in the kickstarter for this project. After 4 years we received part of the initial orders. Bluetooth is not hard, everyone and everything does Bluetooth. A day trying to set it up and I am ready to chuck it in the garbage. Better to buy a used phone, install Merlin and stick in the yard.