Most teams fly the same locations again and again. Sites give each of those locations a permanent home in Birdi, so a quarry, a substation or a subdivision is one thing you return to — not a scattered list of maps named after dates.
A site holds:
an address and a map boundary that define where it is
a site image so you can recognise it at a glance
every map captured within that boundary, grouped automatically
the site's reference sets — your GCP and prism survey control — ready to add to any new map
Note: Sites are available on all paid Birdi plans. Reference sets such as GCP's and prism's require Growth or Ultimate plan access.
When to use sites
You survey the same location repeatedly — monthly quarry flights, quarterly progress captures, annual asset inspections.
You want survey history in one place — every capture of a location, in date order, without searching.
You reuse survey control — the same GCPs or prisms are picked up on every flight of that site.
Multiple people work on the same location — a shared site means everyone finds the same maps and the same control.
You're comparing surveys over time — earlier DEMs are one click away when you create the next map.
If you only fly a location once, you don't need a site. Maps work fine on their own.
Step-by-step: creating a site
1. Open Sites
Sites appear in two places:
the dashboard sidebar, alongside your maps
the Map Browser, where you can browse sites and the maps inside them
2. Create a new site
Select Create site and give it a name.
Use the name your team already uses for the location — Wallerawang Quarry, Substation 14.
3. Add the address
Enter the site's address. Birdi uses this to place the site and to help match maps to it.
Tip: If the location has no street address, search for the nearest one and adjust the boundary in the next step. The boundary is what actually matters.
4. Add a site image
Upload a site image. This is the thumbnail you'll see in the sidebar and Map Browser — an ortho snapshot or a recognisable photo of the site makes it much faster to find.
5. Check which maps have been grouped
Once the site exists, Birdi automatically groups maps into it based on their location. Open the site and check what's landed there.
Note: Grouping is based on where a map sits relative to the site boundary. A map flown outside the boundary won't be picked up automatically — you can assign it manually in the next step.
6. Assign or unassign maps
You stay in control of what belongs to a site:
+add map to a site when it wasn't grouped automatically — a capture that fell just outside the boundary, or an older map.
Unassign a map when it's been grouped incorrectly, or belongs to a neighbouring site.
Step-by-step: creating a new map inside a site
Creating your next survey from inside the site is the fastest path, because Birdi already knows what came before.
1. Open the site and create a map
From inside the site, select Create map.
2. Bring across data from earlier maps
During creation, you can carry forward data from earlier maps at that location:
Reference sets — the site's GCP and prism sets, so your survey control is on the map from the start - See how to create, manage and visualise reference sets
DEMs — an earlier survey's terrain surface, ready to use as a base surface for volume comparisons
3. Add reference sets to an existing map
You don't have to do this at creation time. From the Map Browser, you can add a site's reference sets to any map along with any older dataset from a prev map.
Best practice tips
Create the site before the second flight. Set it up once and every future capture groups itself.
Name sites the way your team talks. Site names are what people search — use the words they'd actually type.
Draw the boundary generously. A boundary slightly larger than your flight area catches offset captures automatically.
Use a real site image. A recognisable thumbnail saves more time than it takes to upload.
Check grouping after each upload. A quick look confirms the map landed where you expect.
Keep one site per physical location. Two sites for the same pit splits your history in half.