Birdy is AlbIT’s own app. AlbIT builds websites and apps for businesses, and Birdy is where I get to make the whole journey myself, from the first idea to a finished app on Google Play. This is the story of how the two met, how the app is built and where we are going.
It started with a fear
Birdy did not start with a birdwatcher. I was at my girlfriend’s place when birds came up, and it turned out she carried a real fear of them. Out of that conversation came a simple thought.
If you know which bird you are looking at, and can learn something about it, it becomes a little less strange.
On the night of 30 April 2026, at 00:54, the first commit went in. There was no code yet, only the idea and the plan. All of it was written after midnight.
Two brands that meet
AlbIT’s black and gold stand for the craft: websites and apps that have to work every day, for real businesses. Birdy’s paper, ink and rust stand for the field: the notes in a journal you carry outside. The flock in the picture above is the same flock as on Birdy’s home page. Here it flies over from AlbIT’s side and forms Birdy’s bird on the paper.
Birdy is built by AlbIT, but the app should never feel like a company trying to sell you something. It should feel like your own field journal.
From idea to Google Play in 48 days
Spring went fast. One plan at a time, and every plan ended with a new part: the foundation, the encyclopedia, the camera, the journal, the badges, a new design, the matching and the sound. On 8 May the phone recognised its first bird with real AI. On 23 May, 23 days after the first commit, version 1.0 was done. On 17 June, day 48, Birdy went live on Google Play.
In July the iPhone app started to be built from exactly the same code. The camera, photo ID, sound ID, the map, the notifications and the PDF export already work there. One night in August the commits went on until 05:59.
- 30 April, 00:54the first commit
- 23 daysto version 1.0
- 48 daysto Google Play
- 2,142commits on 87 days
- 839species in the encyclopedia
- 1 codebasefor Android and iPhone
How Birdy is built
Birdy is built by one person, me, together with AI agents in Claude Code. Every part starts as an idea and a plan, is built in small steps and is reviewed twice: first against the plan, then for quality. Nothing goes out before the tests are green.
The routine work is automated
The work that repeats every day is automated, with checks at every step. The decisions and the design choices are mine.
- The species pages on this site are written from sources such as Wikipedia and Artportalen. A second AI model checks every fact against its source, and a page is published only when all of the site’s tests are green.
- The bird of the day changes at midnight, in the app and here on the site.
- The videos in See the song are rendered from code and scheduled a month ahead.
- The pictures on Google Play are rendered from code, with screens captured straight from the app.
- Every night a security scanner goes through the code, and every morning a check makes sure the site answers.
- Every Monday several search engines are told which pages are new.
Where we are going
Next comes version 1.3.1 for Android, and then the iPhone app on the App Store. Within a year we want 1,000 species pages in Swedish and English, and more regions. The models already recognise birds from all over the world, so the work is in the content.
And the ultimate goal is a real Birdy forum: a place where people who love birds meet, talk, share their finds and discuss what they have seen. Where a beginner can ask a question and get an answer from someone who has watched birds for many years.
The forum will be something you choose to join. Your field journal stays on your phone until you decide to share a find. That promise holds from day one.
