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
The macOS app is signed and notarized by Apple.
Apple Silicon Macs only. Yearbirder runs on Macs with an Apple M-series chip (M1 and later, sold from late 2020 onward). It will not open on an older Intel Mac. To check which you have, choose Apple menu → About This Mac: if Chip reads "Apple M1", "Apple M2" or similar, you are all set. If it reads Processor with an Intel name, this download will not run — you can still run Yearbirder from source (see the Linux tab for the general approach), or let us know, as demand is what would justify building an Intel version.
Click the Download for macOS button above. Your browser will download Yearbirder_v2.14.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.
Windows 10 or 11 · 64-bit (x64)
Download Yearbirder_Setup.exe and run it. Yearbirder adds itself to your Program Files folder and the Start Menu.
Built for x64 processors — the Intel and AMD chips in almost every Windows PC. To check, open Settings → System → About and look at System type.
On the newer ARM-based Windows PCs (Snapdragon and Copilot+ machines), Yearbirder still installs and runs — Windows translates it automatically — but everything is slower, and the community sightings reports in particular scroll sluggishly. A native ARM version is on the list; tell us if you are on an ARM PC, as that is what would move it up.
Click Download for Windows above. Your browser will download Yearbirder_Setup.exe.
Double-click Yearbirder_Setup.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:
libxcb, install the Qt platform dependencies for your distro. On Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install libxcb-cursor0
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.