---
license: cc-by-nc-4.0
task_categories:
  - audio-classification
language:
  - id
tags:
  - bioacoustics
  - bird-sounds
  - few-shot-learning
  - xeno-canto
  - indonesia
  - wildlife
pretty_name: Indonesian Bird Sounds (Few-Shot)
size_categories:
  - 1K<n<10K
---

# Indonesian Bird Sounds

## Dataset Description

A curated dataset of bird sound recordings from Indonesia, designed for audio classification research on under-represented tropical bird species.

### Dataset Summary

- **Source:** [Xeno-Canto](https://xeno-canto.org/) — a citizen-science repository of bird sounds worldwide
- **Task:** Few-shot bird species classification (audio)
- **Region:** Indonesia (Eastern Indonesia focus — Maluku, Papua, Sulawesi, Java, Sumatra, Borneo)
- **Format:** Raw MP3 audio files organized in `Species_name/xc_id.mp3` folders
- **Species:** 26 Indonesian bird species
- **Total Recordings:** 1,919 audio files
- **Recordings per Species:** 51–136 (mean: 73.8)
- **Metadata:** `metadata.csv` with 18 columns per recording (species, location, coordinates, quality, recordist, date, license, etc.)

### Supported Tasks

**Primary task:**
- **Audio classification**: Classifying bird species from audio recordings with limited labeled examples per class

**Secondary methodological tasks:**
- Bioacoustic representation learning in tropical ecosystems
- Transfer learning from pre-trained audio models (e.g., BirdNET, Perch, YAMNet) to low-resource species
- Active learning strategies for wildlife monitoring
- Cross-domain evaluation of general-purpose audio embeddings on tropical bird calls

**Note:** This dataset contains raw, unprocessed field recordings of varying length and quality. For general bird sound classification at scale, consider larger datasets such as BirdCLEF. This dataset specifically targets the few-shot regime for under-represented Indonesian species absent from most training corpora.

## Dataset Structure

### Data Files

```
indonesian_birds_fewshot/
├── README.md
├── metadata.csv
├── Brachypteryx_leucophris/
│   ├── 123456.mp3
│   └── ...
├── Cacomantis_sepulcralis/
│   └── ...
└── ... (26 species folders)
```

Each species folder is named using the scientific name with underscores (e.g., `Megapodius_freycinet/`). Audio files are named by their Xeno-Canto recording ID (e.g., `1059986.mp3`).

### Species List (26 species)

| # | Scientific Name | English Name | Recordings |
|---|----------------|-------------|------------|
| 1 | *Brachypteryx leucophris* | Lesser Shortwing | 66 |
| 2 | *Cacomantis sepulcralis* | Rusty-breasted Cuckoo | 85 |
| 3 | *Cinnyris jugularis* | Olive-backed Sunbird | 120 |
| 4 | *Corvus enca* | Slender-billed Crow | 58 |
| 5 | *Dicrurus bracteatus* | Spangled Drongo | 100 |
| 6 | *Dicrurus hottentottus* | Hair-crested Drongo | 90 |
| 7 | *Eclectus roratus* | Eclectus Parrot | 56 |
| 8 | *Geoffroyus geoffroyi* | Red-cheeked Parrot | 69 |
| 9 | *Locustella castanea* | Chestnut-backed Bush Warbler | 79 |
| 10 | *Lycocorax pyrrhopterus* | Paradise-crow | 52 |
| 11 | *Macropygia doreya* | Sultan's Cuckoo-Dove | 58 |
| 12 | *Malacocincla sepiaria* | Horsfield's Babbler | 67 |
| 13 | *Megapodius freycinet* | Dusky Megapode | 54 |
| 14 | *Origma murina* | Papuan Scrubwren | 56 |
| 15 | *Orthotomus sepium* | Olive-backed Tailorbird | 51 |
| 16 | *Otus magicus* | Moluccan Scops-Owl | 64 |
| 17 | *Phyllergates cucullatus* | Mountain Tailorbird | 136 |
| 18 | *Phylloscopus poliocephalus* | Island Leaf Warbler | 68 |
| 19 | *Pitta maxima* | Ivory-breasted Pitta | 77 |
| 20 | *Pitta sordida* | Hooded Pitta | 61 |
| 21 | *Pnoepyga pusilla* | Pygmy Cupwing | 103 |
| 22 | *Psilopogon armillaris* | Flame-fronted Barbet | 60 |
| 23 | *Rhipidura rufiventris* | Northern Fantail | 58 |
| 24 | *Rhyticeros plicatus* | Papuan Hornbill | 56 |
| 25 | *Tanysiptera galatea* | Common Paradise Kingfisher | 123 |
| 26 | *Tesia superciliaris* | Javan Tesia | 52 |

**Total: 1,919 recordings**

### Data Fields

**`metadata.csv`** contains one row per recording with the following columns:

| Column | Type | Description |
|--------|------|-------------|
| `species` | string | Scientific name (e.g., "Megapodius freycinet") |
| `id` | int | Xeno-Canto recording ID |
| `genus` | string | Genus name |
| `specific_epithet` | string | Species epithet |
| `subspecies` | string | Subspecies name (if identified; may be empty) |
| `english_name` | string | Common English name |
| `country` | string | Country of recording (all "Indonesia") |
| `location` | string | Locality description (e.g., "Waisai, Raja Ampat Regency, Southwest Papua") |
| `latitude` | float | Recording latitude (may be empty) |
| `longitude` | float | Recording longitude (may be empty) |
| `quality` | string | Xeno-Canto quality rating: A (best) through E (worst); may be empty if not rated |
| `length` | string | Recording duration in `M:SS` or `H:MM:SS` format |
| `recordist` | string | Name of the person who made the recording |
| `date` | string | Recording date (`YYYY-MM-DD`) |
| `time` | string | Recording time (`HH:MM`); `?` if unknown |
| `file` | string | Direct MP3 download URL |
| `url` | string | Xeno-Canto recording page URL |
| `license` | string | Creative Commons license URL for the recording |

## Source Data

### Original Source

All recordings are sourced from [Xeno-Canto](https://xeno-canto.org/), a citizen-science platform where volunteer recordists contribute bird sound recordings from around the world.

> Xeno-canto Foundation and Naturalis Biodiversity Center (2005–2025). *xeno-canto — Bird sounds from around the world.* https://xeno-canto.org/

### Data Collection

- **Curation method:** Species were selected based on geographic range (Indonesian endemics and near-endemics) and data availability on Xeno-Canto, targeting species with 50–150 recordings to create a naturally few-shot scenario
- **Recording conditions:** Field recordings made by citizen-science contributors across Indonesia, varying in equipment, environment, and recording quality
- **Geographic coverage:** Recordings span major Indonesian biogeographic regions including Maluku, Papua, Sulawesi, Java, Sumatra, and Borneo
- **Temporal range:** Recordings collected across multiple decades by different recordists
- **Quality ratings:** Xeno-Canto community-assigned quality ratings (A–E) are preserved in the metadata; not all recordings have been rated
- **Licenses:** Individual recordings carry Creative Commons licenses as specified by each recordist (predominantly CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 and CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

## Usage Example

```python
import pandas as pd
import librosa
from pathlib import Path

# Load metadata
metadata = pd.read_csv("indonesian_birds_fewshot/metadata.csv")
print(f"{len(metadata)} recordings across {metadata['species'].nunique()} species")

# Load a single audio file
species = "Pitta maxima"
species_folder = species.replace(" ", "_")
sample_id = metadata[metadata['species'] == species]['id'].iloc[0]

y, sr = librosa.load(f"indonesian_birds_fewshot/{species_folder}/{sample_id}.mp3", sr=22050)
print(f"Loaded {species} recording {sample_id}: {len(y)/sr:.1f}s at {sr} Hz")

# Build few-shot episodes
from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split

species_list = metadata['species'].unique()
support_ids, query_ids = [], []

for sp in species_list:
    sp_ids = metadata[metadata['species'] == sp]['id'].values
    support, query = train_test_split(sp_ids, train_size=5, random_state=42)
    support_ids.extend([(sp, sid) for sid in support])
    query_ids.extend([(sp, qid) for qid in query])

print(f"Support set: {len(support_ids)} (5-shot), Query set: {len(query_ids)}")
```

## Citation

If you use this dataset in your research, please cite:

```bibtex
@dataset{ulm_indonesian_bird_sounds_2025,
  title     = {Indonesian Bird Sounds (Few-Shot)},
  author    = {{ULM Data Science Lab}},
  year      = {2025},
  publisher = {Hugging Face},
  url       = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/ULM-DS-Lab/indonesian-bird-sounds}
}
```

## License

All audio recordings are sourced from [Xeno-Canto](https://xeno-canto.org/) and are shared under individual Creative Commons licenses as specified by each recordist (see the `license` column in `metadata.csv`). The majority of recordings are shared under **CC BY-NC-ND 4.0** and **CC BY-NC-SA 4.0**. The dataset as a whole is distributed under **CC BY-NC 4.0**.

## Contact

F Indriani - f.indriani@ulm.ac.id
Lambung Mangkurat University

For questions about the original recordings, please contact the individual recordists via [Xeno-Canto](https://xeno-canto.org/).