XenoPy

XenoPy is a python library that builds upon xeno-canto API 2.0.

Install

Install from pip.

pip install xenopy

Checkout the birdData branch to implement XenoPy from source. (ps: birdData is the former name of XenoPy)

Usage Snippet

You can directly search for bird data for a specific species. For instance, we retrieve data for African Silverbill whom's quality better than C since 2020-01-01.

from xenopy import Query

q = Query(name="African silverbill", q_gt="C", since="2020-01-01")

Retrieve Metafiles

# retrieve metadata
metafiles = q.retrieve_meta(verbose=True)

Retrieve Recordings

# retrieve recordings
q.retrieve_recordings(multiprocess=True, nproc=10, attempts=10, outdir="datasets/")

The retrieved recordings will be located in datasets/, organized by bird species names.

The default downloading mode is single-threaded. multiprocess flag controls the usage of multiple downloading processes. nproc is only applicable when the multiprocess flag is on. The saving directory can be specified at outDir.

Two files will be generated while running retrieve_recordings, kill_multiprocess.sh, and failed.txt. To interrupt multiprocess data retrieval, one can run bash kill_multiprocess.sh in the terminal. 'failed.txt' contains recordings that failed the retrieval, if any. The two files will be removed automatically removed after downloading finishes. failed.txt will preserve if not empty so that you can check the failed recordings out.

Define a Query

As you can tell from the Usage Snippet, defining a query is the most important step in communicating with the API. We determined the following interface to form a query based on the xeno-canto search tips.

name: Species Name. Specify the name of bird you intend to retrieve data from. Both English names and Latin names are acceptable.
gen: Genus. Genus is part of a species' latin name, so it is searched by default when performing a basic search (as mentioned above).
ssp: subspecies
rec: recordist. Search for all recordings from a particular recordist.
cnt: country. Search for all recordings from a particular country.
loc: location. Search for all recordings from a specific location.
rmk: remarks. Many recordists leave remarks about the recording,and this field can be searched using the rmk tag. For example, rmk:playback will return a list of recordings for which the recordist left a comment about the use of playback. This field accepts a 'matches' operator.
lat: latitude.
lon: longtitude
box: search for recordings that occur within a given rectangle. The general format of the box tag is as follows: box:LAT_MIN,LON_MIN,LAT_MAX,LON_MAX. Note that there must not be any spaces between the coordinates.
also: To search for recordings that have a given species in the background.
type: Search for recordings of a particular sound type, e.g., type='song'
nr: number. To search for a known recording number, use the nr tag: for example nr:76967. You can also search for a range of numbers as nr:88888-88890.
lc: license.
q: quality ratings. 
q_lt: quality ratings less than
q_gt: quality ratings better than
    Usage Examples:
          Recordings are rated by quality. Quality ratings range from A (highest quality) to E (lowest quality). To search for recordings that match a certain quality rating, use the q, q_lt, and q_gt tags. For example:
            - q:A will return recordings with a quality rating of A.
            - q:0 search explicitly for unrated recordings
            - q_lt:C will return recordings with a quality rating of D or E.
            - q_gt:C will return recordings with a quality rating of B or A.
len: recording length control parameter.
len_lt: recording length less than
len_gt: recording length greater than
    Usage Examples:
        len:10 will return recordings with a duration of 10 seconds (with a margin of 1%, so actually between 9.9 and 10.1 seconds)
        len:10-15 will return recordings lasting between 10 and 15 seconds.
        len_lt:30 will return recordings half a minute or shorter in length.
        len_gt:120 will return recordings longer than two minutes in length.
area: continents. Valid values for this tag: africa, america, asia, australia, europe.
since: 
    Usage Examples:
        - since=3, since the past three days
        - since=YYYY-MM-DD, since the particular date
year: year
month: month. year and month tags allow you to search for recordings that were recorded on a certain date. 

Update History

v0.0.4

• Support Query by bird name.
• Cut inessential processes in query traffic.
• Optimized query assignment strategy in recording retrieval.

todo

• create query object for single species, containing features like
  • retrieve metedata
  • retrieve bird songs
• add multiprocessing downloading feature

Open Source

The first generation of xenocanto package is hard to use also inefficient. Thus I wrapped the 2.0 API version in a more straightforward and efficient interface. Feel free to file an issue had you encountered any bugs, or prompt a PR to XenoPy to join me in maintenance and optimization.