Project Kestrel can now identify bird species anywhere in the world, and you can search your library by describing a photo. v(Arctic Tern) introduces Analysis Pipeline v3.0, one of the most significant updates to date.
Desktop App — Major Changes
- Accurate, worldwide bird species identification. Kestrel now integrates BioCLIP 2, which supports all bird species around the world, replacing the North American species classifier and SpeciesNet. North American users will see a significant accuracy improvement, and global users will see their photos accurately tagged by species. This is the most requested feature since Kestrel's beginning.
- Smart Search. Kestrel now integrates SigLIP 2, so you can search your library by describing the photo, for example "roseate spoonbill in flight" or "herons in a marsh". One search box handles everything: a species name alone filters your timeline as before, and any other description runs Smart Search. Results show a % match score, and "Show in timeline" takes you to the scene.
- Improved quality scoring. A new scoring model based on SigLIP 2 is the first major improvement to quality scoring and sorting since Kestrel's first release. You can switch back to the legacy model in Settings without reanalyzing.
- Upgrade existing folders locally. Folders already analyzed with pipeline v2.0 or higher can be upgraded to v3.0 without resetting your culling decisions, much faster than a full reanalysis. Pipeline 3.0 analyzes images about 10% slower than Pipeline 2.x.
- Help improve quality scoring (optional). You can choose to send a few sorted thumbnails to help improve the ranking model; nothing is sent without your explicit consent. The sorting dialog now shows much larger crops, with a magnifier button to inspect one at full size.
- Cloud Compute is on pipeline 3. Result packs now carry species, quality scores and embeddings into your local folder.
Desktop App — Improvements & Fixes
- Regroup scenes: a new folder action regroups scenes using thresholds such as a mandatory break after a long gap between photos, or a similarity threshold. Suggested by a user.
- Culling assistant: typable thresholds for culling boundaries. Suggested by a user.
- Cloud pack merge no longer drops local rows after a UI save, and a missing folder no longer blocks other folders from loading.
- Crash diagnostics are more informative: each instance has its own log, and the previous session's unexpected end is explained.
- Memory caps for RAW previews and thumbnails, and safer atomic writes for settings and job files.
- Culling fixes: one assistant window, Ctrl+Z/X/C no longer trigger cull keys, and companion .xmp handling is improved.