Dating for people who get up before dawn for a bird

Your life list, your patch and your notebook of 6am sightings are not a hobby. They are a map of where you go and what you notice. The algorithm reads the map.

Try the demo

How it works for birdwatchers

Import from eBird. Upload your "Download My Data" file and we read species seen, the hotspots you visit and how often you go out. Exact locations of sensitive species are never stored or shown. All opt-in, all revocable.

A sighting has a species, a place (patch or hotspot), a season, and the effort behind it
Matching happens at every level: shared species, shared patches, shared birding style
Checklists per month and time in the field provide engagement data
Rarity uses eBird frequency: the share of complete checklists in a region that report a species

Niche overlap > mainstream overlap

Both have Woodpigeon on your list? Everyone does: the BTO estimates 5.2 million breeding pairs in the UK. Both have seen a Hawfinch, a bird the BTO puts at around 500 to 1,000 pairs? That is shared patience.

Mainstream

Woodpigeon

On most checklists → NicheWeight 0.10

Niche

Hawfinch

Scarce resident → NicheWeight 0.95

eBird has passed 2 billion observations from 1.1 million birders, which is exactly the kind of base rate niche weighting needs. NicheWeights above are illustrative.

What gets scored

Shared species weighted by regional eBird frequency. A shared Bearded Tit beats a shared Robin every time

Shared patches and hotspots - the reserve you both haunt is a real-world overlap, matched at area level, never as precise coordinates

Birding style - patch birder, twitcher, garden watcher, seabird trips, nocturnal migration. The RSPB jargon guide has the vocabulary

Seasonality - spring passage people and winter wildfowl people get on differently

Effort - checklists per month and time in the field, log-normalised

Sound ID - birding by ear is a distinct skill, captured through Interest Q&A

Example match

"You share 41 species avg NicheWeight 0.62, including Hawfinch and Bearded Tit. Both patch-bird the same Mersey Valley reserve. Both log 12 to 15 checklists a month, mostly in autumn passage. Neither of you has twitched further than 50 miles this year."

Not "you both like birds." The actual species. The actual patch. The actual dawn starts.

Integrations

eBird

File import · Life list, checklists, hotspots, effort

BTO BirdTrack

File import · Personal records and patch lists

Interest Q&A

Style, optics, sound ID, favourite trips

All opt-in. All revocable. Sensitive-species locations are never stored, shown or inferred. Live links use an official API you authorise; file imports use the data export the service gives you; partner access needs the service's agreement; anything else you add by hand.

Keep reading: How Niche Weighting Actually Works · Privacy by Design

Affinity Atlas is in development

No real matching is live yet. If you want someone who will stand in a hide for three hours without complaint - get in touch.

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