Mac users can support Project Kestrel's development while receiving automatic updates by purchasing Kestrel from the Mac App Store. This release also brings a more intuitive interface, new customizability for star ratings and the Culling Assistant, metadata writing for JPEGs, far more accurate Cloud Compute time estimates, and following on Perch — alongside a large round of bug fixes.
Desktop App — Major Changes
- Project Kestrel is on the Mac App Store — as a way to support development, not a better version. The listing costs $10, which buys automatic updates through the App Store and a direct way to support a solo developer — it does not buy any extra functionality. The direct download and Windows builds are unchanged, still free, and feature-identical; nothing has moved behind a paywall. Read why the App Store listing is paid →
- Friendlier Analysis Settings. The Analyze dialog now asks plain questions about your shoot — what subjects it contains, whether the birds are North American, and how many subjects to analyze per image — instead of exposing model settings directly. Fast/Accurate moved into More options and now defaults to Accurate.
- Set your own star thresholds, and cull by quality score. A new Custom rating profile lets you drag each star to the quality score it should require, on a 0.00–1.00 number line with the five star bands drawn on it. The Culling Assistant's accept cutoff is now a quality-score slider too, with your star thresholds marked on it for finer control than whole stars.
- Embed metadata directly into JPEG originals (opt-in). If you shoot JPEG-only, Lightroom and other editors ignore the
.xmpsidecar Kestrel writes. Write Photo Metadata can now embed ratings, labels, species, family, and quality score directly into each JPEG's own metadata — pixel data is untouched, RAW files are never modified, and the option is off by default since it edits your originals. - A new warning for unsupported RAW files. When Kestrel can open a RAW file but can't decompress its sensor data — most often Nikon High Efficiency NEFs — it now raises a dismissible banner explaining the fallback to the embedded JPEG preview, instead of silently giving worse results.
Desktop App — Bug Fixes
kestrel_database.csvis now written atomically, so a badly-timed refresh can no longer hit a half-written file or silently drop a save.- Rejecting or restoring a photo now moves its JPEG and sidecar companions regardless of filename case, and large batches process noticeably faster.
- Zooming into a RAW that fell back to its embedded preview is now labelled correctly instead of showing an EV value that was never applied.
- Fixed the Folder Actions menu being painted behind later folder rows, a configured custom editor sometimes failing to open, and the Support link occasionally pointing at the wrong destination right after launch.
- Fixed culling-cache cleanup reporting a failure on macOS when Finder or Spotlight pruned a stray file mid-cleanup.
Perch — Follow Other Birders
You can now follow other birders on Perch. Follow someone from their profile page and every perch they publish publicly lands in your Following feed, newest first. Profiles now show follower and following counts, and following needs no approval from the person you follow.
Cloud Compute — Much More Accurate Time Estimates
Cloud Compute now does a full job simulation to provide more accurate time estimates. A new chip tells you what's constraining your job: limited by your upload speed, balanced, or limited by Cloud Compute speed, with a live pill while the job runs showing whether it's on pace.
Feedback? Please visit projectkestrel.org/contact or use the in-app feedback feature!