diff --git a/birdnet-pi/rootfs/etc/cont-init.d/33-mqtt.sh b/birdnet-pi/rootfs/etc/cont-init.d/33-mqtt.sh
index 8f6f41342..4a8cffb0b 100755
--- a/birdnet-pi/rootfs/etc/cont-init.d/33-mqtt.sh
+++ b/birdnet-pi/rootfs/etc/cont-init.d/33-mqtt.sh
@@ -2,6 +2,17 @@
 # shellcheck shell=bash
 set -e
 
+common_steps () {
+
+    # Copy script
+    cp /helpers/birdnet_to_mqtt.py "$HOME"/BirdNET-Pi/scripts/birdnet_to_mqtt.py
+    chmod +x "$HOME"/BirdNET-Pi/scripts/birdnet_to_mqtt.py
+
+    # Add hook
+    sed -i "/import sendAppriseNotifications/a from .birdnet_to_mqtt import automatic_mqtt_publish" "$HOME"/BirdNET-Pi/scripts/utils/reporting.py
+
+}
+
 if bashio::services.available 'mqtt' && ! bashio::config.true 'MQTT_DISABLED' ; then
     bashio::log.green "---"
     bashio::log.blue "MQTT addon is active on your system! Birdnet-pi is now automatically configured to send its ouptut to MQTT"
@@ -19,11 +30,9 @@ if bashio::services.available 'mqtt' && ! bashio::config.true 'MQTT_DISABLED' ;
     sed -i "s|%%mqtt_user%%|$(bashio::services "mqtt" "username")|g" /helpers/birdnet_to_mqtt.py
     sed -i "s|%%mqtt_pass%%|$(bashio::services "mqtt" "password")|g" /helpers/birdnet_to_mqtt.py
 
-    # Copy script
-    cp /helpers/birdnet_to_mqtt.py /usr/bin/birdnet_to_mqtt.py
-    cp /helpers/birdnet_to_mqtt.sh /custom-services.d
-    chmod 777 /usr/bin/birdnet_to_mqtt.py
-    chmod 777 /custom-services.d/birdnet_to_mqtt.sh
+    # Common steps
+    common_steps
+
 elif bashio::config.has_value "MQTT_HOST_manual" && bashio::config.has_value "MQTT_PORT_manual"; then
     bashio::log.green "---"
     bashio::log.blue "MQTT is manually configured in the addon options"
@@ -39,9 +48,7 @@ elif bashio::config.has_value "MQTT_HOST_manual" && bashio::config.has_value "MQ
     sed -i "s|%%mqtt_user%%|$(bashio::config "MQTT_USER_manual")|g" /helpers/birdnet_to_mqtt.py
     sed -i "s|%%mqtt_pass%%|$(bashio::config "MQTT_PASSWORD_manual")|g" /helpers/birdnet_to_mqtt.py
 
-    # Copy script
-    cp /helpers/birdnet_to_mqtt.py /usr/bin/birdnet_to_mqtt.py
-    cp /helpers/birdnet_to_mqtt.sh /custom-services.d
-    chmod +x /usr/bin/birdnet_to_mqtt.py
-    chmod +x /custom-services.d/birdnet_to_mqtt.sh    
+    # Common steps
+    common_steps
+
 fi
diff --git a/birdnet-pi/rootfs/helpers/birdnet_to_mqtt.py b/birdnet-pi/rootfs/helpers/birdnet_to_mqtt.py
index a57c9ad21..cbeb36392 100644
--- a/birdnet-pi/rootfs/helpers/birdnet_to_mqtt.py
+++ b/birdnet-pi/rootfs/helpers/birdnet_to_mqtt.py
@@ -4,9 +4,6 @@
 # Adapted from : https://gist.github.com/deepcoder/c309087c456fc733435b47d83f4113ff
 # Adapted from : https://gist.github.com/JuanMeeske/08b839246a62ff38778f701fc1da5554
 #
-# monitor the records in the syslog file for info from the birdnet system on birds that it detects
-# publish this data to mqtt
-#
 
 import time
 import re
@@ -26,19 +23,6 @@ flickr_images = {}
 conf = get_settings()
 settings_dict = dict(conf)
 
-# Setup basic configuration for logging
-logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)
-
-# this generator function monitors the requested file handle for new lines added at its end
-# the newly added line is returned by the function
-def file_row_generator(s):
-    while True :
-        line = s.readline()
-        if not line:
-            time.sleep(0.1)
-            continue
-        yield line
-
 # mqtt server
 mqtt_server = "%%mqtt_server%%" # server for mqtt
 mqtt_user = "%%mqtt_user%%"  # Replace with your MQTT username
@@ -51,11 +35,6 @@ mqtt_topic_confident_birds = 'birdnet'
 # url base for website that will be used to look up info about bird
 bird_lookup_url_base = 'http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/'
 
-# regular expression patters used to decode the records from birdnet
-re_high_clean = re.compile(r'(?<=^\[birdnet_analysis\]\[INFO\] ).*?(?=\.mp3$)')
-
-syslog = open('/proc/1/fd/1', 'r')
-
 def on_connect(client, userdata, flags, rc, properties=None):
     """ Callback for when the client receives a CONNACK response from the server. """
     if rc == 0:
@@ -91,16 +70,11 @@ mqttc.connect(mqtt_server, mqtt_port)  # Connect to (broker, port, keepalive-tim
 mqttc.on_connect = on_connect
 mqttc.loop_start()
 
-# call the generator function and process each line that is returned
-for row in file_row_generator(syslog):
-    # bird found above confidence level found, process it
-    if re_high_clean.search(row) :
 
-        # this slacker regular expression work, extracts the data about the bird found from the log line
-        # I do the parse in two passes, because I did not know the re to do it in one!
-
-        raw_high_bird = re.search(re_high_clean, row)
-        raw_high_bird = raw_high_bird.group(0)
+# Call function
+def automatic_mqtt_publish(species, confidence, confidencepct, path,
+                             date, time, week, latitude, longitude, cutoff,
+                             sens, overlap, settings_dict, db_path=DB_PATH):
 
         # the fields we want are separated by semicolons, so split
         high_bird_fields = raw_high_bird.split(';')
@@ -108,22 +82,17 @@ for row in file_row_generator(syslog):
         # build a structure in python that will be converted to json
         bird = {}
 
-        # human time in this record is in two fields, date and time. They are human format
-        # combine them together separated by a space and they turn the human data into a python
-        # timestamp
-        raw_ts = high_bird_fields[0] + ' ' + high_bird_fields[1]
-
         #bird['ts'] = str(datetime.datetime.timestamp(dateparser.parse(raw_ts)))
-        bird['Date'] = high_bird_fields[0]
-        bird['Time'] = high_bird_fields[1]
-        bird['ScientificName'] = high_bird_fields[2]
-        bird['CommonName'] = high_bird_fields[3]
-        bird['Confidence'] = high_bird_fields[4]
-        bird['SpeciesCode'] = get_bird_code(high_bird_fields[2])
-        bird['ClipName'] = high_bird_fields[11]
+        bird['Date'] = date
+        bird['Time'] = time
+        bird['ScientificName'] = sciName
+        bird['CommonName'] = comName
+        bird['Confidence'] = confidence
+        bird['SpeciesCode'] = get_bird_code(sciName)
+        bird['ClipName'] = path
 
         # build a url from scientific name of bird that can be used to lookup info about bird
-        bird['url'] = bird_lookup_url_base + high_bird_fields[2].replace(' ', '_')
+        bird['url'] = bird_lookup_url_base + sciName.replace(' ', '_')
 
         # Flickimage
         image_url = ""
diff --git a/birdnet-pi/rootfs/helpers/birdnet_to_mqtt.sh b/birdnet-pi/rootfs/helpers/birdnet_to_mqtt.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 54045d508..000000000
--- a/birdnet-pi/rootfs/helpers/birdnet_to_mqtt.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/with-contenv bashio
-# shellcheck shell=bash
-
-echo "Starting service: mqtt automated publish"
-"$PYTHON_VIRTUAL_ENV" /usr/bin/birdnet_to_mqtt.py &>/proc/1/fd/1