Overview This dataset contains annotated avian acoustic recordings tailored for the BioDCASE 2026 TinyML Task 3 challenge. It is designed to facilitate the development and evaluation of lightweight machine learning models capable of identifying bird species from audio recordings in resource-constrained environments. The dataset includes recordings of several common European bird species as well as a dedicated background noise class representing urban/town environments. Original recordings were made at various sites in Germany using eciPi recording units by OekoFor, and all samples have been carefully annotated by Ralph Martin to ensure high-quality call centers. Technical Specifications Format: .wav Sample Rate: 24,000 Hz Channels: 1 (Mono) Bit Depth: 16-bit PCM Duration: 3.0 seconds per snippet Total Runtime (Development Set): ~2.29 hours Categories The dataset consists of 10 bird species plus 1 background class (11 classes in total). (Note: The exact list of 10 species depends on the specific source selection but generally includes typical garden/forest birds such as Common Chaffinch, Eurasian Blackbird, Great Tit, etc., as well as a 'Background' class). Dataset Structure The dataset provided here is the Development Set (for training and validation). A separate, balanced Test Set is held out and kept hidden for the final challenge evaluation. The distribution per class in the development set is: Development Set (BioDCASE2026_TinyML_Development_Dataset.zip) Train: 200 samples per class Validation: 50 samples per class (Note: A hidden/hold-out test set containing 50 samples per class is maintained separately for scoring challenge submissions). Each split contains subfolders corresponding to the species/class name. Folder Structure Example Development_Set/├── Train/│ ├── Background/│ ├── Common_Chaffinch/│ ├── ...├── Validation/│ ├── Background/│ ├── Common_Chaffinch/│ ├── ... File Naming Convention Files are systematically named to easily identify their split and ground-truth species: BioDCASE2026_TinyML_[SPLIT]_[ID]_[Species].wav [SPLIT]: TRAIN, VAL, or TEST [ID]: A 4-digit sequential identifier (e.g., 0001) [Species]: The formatted species name (e.g., Common_Chaffinch) Example: BioDCASE2026_TinyML_TRAIN_0042_Common_Chaffinch.wav License This dataset is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.