AI illustrations

A note on AI

AI image generation is polarizing. I know. Here's why it's in Featherframe, and what it asks of you.

It's off by default. Featherframe never asks you to turn it on, and nothing is missing if you don't. Species in Audubon's or Gould's books get their illustration. Other species get a name card: their name set in type.

It's there for the birds no book has. Some species you'll hear aren't in Audubon's or Gould's books. For those, I'd rather show something than nothing.

It's not slop. A lot of work goes into getting each bird right and keeping it true to Audubon's style. The model is shown Audubon's own illustrations of similar birds, given a written description of the species, and asked for a composition in the way he laid out his plates, the sheets of his book. The prompt is long and deliberate. How AI illustrations are made has the details.

If you use it, it's your key and your bill. Featherframe keeps costs low: it generates an illustration once per species and keeps it until you regenerate it, and it generates a new collage only when the collage is due to be redrawn and the day's species have changed since the last one. The estimates below are as honest as I can make them, but prices change and your use is your own. You use your API key at your own risk.

AI features

Add your image API key under Settings → AI image generation.

If your image provider lets you set a monthly budget, set one there too. Featherframe stops generating at its Monthly limit, and the provider's budget also covers anything else that uses the key.

Then you can turn on two features:

• AI illustrations for species no book has, generated in Audubon's style.
• AI collages that show the day's species together in one scene, instead of a grid.

When you pay

• AI illustration: once per species. Featherframe keeps it forever. It generates a new one only when you click Regenerate.
• AI collage: only when the collage is redrawn (once per collage interval, and overnight in quiet hours) and the day's species have changed since the last one, or when you ask for a new one. Otherwise Featherframe reuses the day's collage. A species heard again doesn't change the list; a new species, or one dropping out of the collage's species limit, does.
• Nothing when the switches are off or there's no key. Turning a switch off keeps the illustrations you already have.
• If generation fails (wrong key, timeout, outage), Featherframe waits 15 minutes before it tries again. Meanwhile, the species gets its name card, and the collage keeps its current picture.

Estimated cost

Note

Prices change. These are estimates from the providers' prices when this was written.

OpenAI, per image:

Quality	Cost
Low	$0.03
Medium (default)	$0.04
High	$0.07
Extra high	$0.10
Max	$0.20
Auto	The model chooses

Measured with gpt-image-2.5-sunburst and three of Audubon's illustrations as references. The references cost about $0.02 of every image, so Low saves little. In tests, Low blurred faces and small details. Medium to Max differed mostly in fine lines, which the grayscale screen mostly hides.

AI collages, per month:

How many collages you pay for depends on the collage interval and how often the day's species change. On a quiet day, it can be one. On a busy day with the default 6-hour interval, it can be up to about five: one at each redraw, plus the one overnight.

Provider	One a day	Five a day
OpenAI	$1–2, by quality	$5–10
Google Gemini	$0.30–1, by quality	$1.50–5
Replicate	$2–5, by model	$10–25
Your own server	Free	Free

A longer collage interval means fewer collages.

AI illustrations cost much less, because you pay once per species. Most homes add a few new species a month, which costs less than $1.

Providers

Provider	Model	Notes
OpenAI (default)	gpt-image-2.5-sunburst	Chosen over -flare, which often generated two birds when asked for one. Only the 2.5 models support Extra high and Max. Older models use High instead.
Google Gemini	gemini-2.5-flash-image
Replicate	black-forest-labs/flux-kontext-pro	One key works for many models. Can't write the species description (see How AI illustrations are made).
Your own server	AUTOMATIC1111 or ComfyUI	No key, no cost per image.

To write the species description with a different provider, open Advanced. You can choose OpenAI, Gemini, Anthropic, or a local server like Ollama or LM Studio. Without one, Featherframe still generates illustrations, but without a description of the species.

Privacy

Your API key is stored only in Featherframe's database on your server. It's sent only to the provider you choose, and the Featherframe webapp shows it hidden.

When Featherframe generates an image, it sends only:

• The species' common and Latin names.
• The species description.
• Up to three of Audubon's illustrations, at reduced size.

It doesn't send your detections, location, or settings. With the collage's Tree branch set to Daily weather, it also sends your station's location, rounded to about a kilometer, to OpenAI to look up the day's weather.

Manage AI illustrations

Generated illustrations lists every AI illustration, with its model, date, and estimated cost. This month shows the images bought since the 1st and their total cost.

• Regenerate: generates a new illustration with a new composition. If it fails, the old one stays.
• Remove: deletes the illustration. If AI illustrations are on, the next detection generates a new one.
• Download a backup: saves every AI illustration as a zip file. AI illustrations are stored only on your server, so back them up before you move or reinstall it.
• Restore from a backup…: restores AI illustrations. It never replaces an illustration with an older one.