This feeder comes with extra plastic flowers and a small scrubbing brush, and the app sends reminders when it’s time to clean. You’ll find fun, seasonal touches in the app, like the ability to send digital bird holiday cards and photos taken by your feed, and a tool that makes hats, clothes, and accessories for birds, which are actually funnier than they sound. However, as with the Birdbuddy Pro seed feeder, below, the downside is that the feeder sensor doesn’t always pick up every bird that visits, which can be nice if you see something interesting through the window but it doesn’t show up in the app.
The best Smart Birdhouse
After experiencing another round of connection problems with the Birdfy Polygon (see below), I switched to the new Birdfy Duo and had no problems. The sleek, modern Duo is a fir box equipped with two cameras—one facing the hole and the other cleverly tucked inside the feeder, for a full view of what’s going on. Both cameras have night vision (infrared). Like the Polygon, the Duo sports a remote for restarting and recharging the camera (though a separate, pole-mountable solar panel keeps the cameras reliably charged), as well as different sized ports, each with its own predator guard. There is a metal grate with drainage holes that you can insert into the cracks in the bottom third of the Nest to make the hole bigger or smaller. The chickadees interested in my yard seemed to be removed from the grate, so I covered it with a layer of moss. The Birdfy app will collect photos and put them together in a sharable “story”, but I have never been a bird photographer, so all my photos are in the “Nesting” category. So far, the Duo has been rained on a lot and survived the cooler temperatures, but I can tell that the wood will need to be refinished after this season.
Smart Bird Feeder With the Best App
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Screenshot courtesy of Kat Merck
Birdbuddy
Smart Bird Feeder Pro
DETAILS
- A fun and rich app
- The built-in solar panel works well
YOU ARE TIRED
- The camera does not always capture all the birds
Birdbuddy’s Pro model sports a stunning new HDR camera that can also shoot 2K video with slow-motion capabilities. In addition to having a larger and more advanced optical lens, the camera now has a larger focal length, a 122-degree field of view, and a high-fidelity microphone. (Subscribing to Birdbuddy Premium for $70 a year unlocks 2K Ultra with a higher video bitrate, allowing for richer colors, sharper images, and less background noise—and the ability to set alerts for sick or injured birds, among other things—but it’s pretty usable otherwise.)
The images aren’t nearly as impressive as those of competitors like the Birdfy Pro Duo, Camojojo Hibird, or Kiwibit, and the camera, frustratingly, captures only a fraction of the birds that actually visit. However, the Birdbuddy app is brilliant, with an easy-to-use design and lots of helpful alerts, such as when a cat is found nearby, or when it’s time to clean the feeder.
It also gives you information collected over time, such as what time certain species like to visit. (Finches apparently like to visit my yard at 10 a.m. every day.) Birdbuddy also “sleeps” at night and doesn’t seem to stress about taking pictures of people, so it wouldn’t make a good choice to double as a security camera, and there are unique seasonal features like the ability to send holiday cards or “dress up” visiting birds in hats, glasses, and hats. (It’s funnier than it sounds, really!) Both Birdbuddys only work with 2.4-GHz Wi-Fi.
Another downside to the Birdbuddy is the annoyingly small, hanging opening for filling 4 cups worth of seeds. The feeder comes with its own stained cup, but I will still fill the feeder without doing too much damage. I also tested the 3-in-1 Nutrition Set ($39), which includes a screw-in tray that can be a water source, gel container, or fruit stack for fruit-loving species like orioles. I’ve used it as a jelly dish and water source and found that it blocks enough of the perch area that birds tend to move out of the camera’s view to avoid it. However, this server is still suitable for those who want to experience a simpler app or want to take advantage of some of its unique sharing features, especially the Premium ability to share your live server with others.
If You Want to Use an Existing Bird Feeder
DETAILS
- The flexible design allows you to use an existing bird feeder
- High quality photo and video
- It works with 5-GHz Wi-Fi
YOU ARE TIRED
- It only has a 90-degree field of view
- Comes with wall mount only
- The solar panel must be installed separately
If you have a fancy bird feeder that you already love, or you’re interested in building your own and want a camera, the Hibird DIY stand-alone camera is what you’re looking for. It’s compatible with both the 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz Wi-Fi bands—a rarity for bird feeder cameras—and the cute owl face streams the same high-quality 4K video and 32 MP photos as the larger Hibird feeder, above. There is a subscription tier with features like extra storage, but the camera is still usable without it. There’s an included solar panel accessory for charging, and you can mount it with its 1-inch nut on the bendable arm and marker, or judge-rig a custom solution. It pairs seamlessly with the Hibird app, with access to AI (correct), live streaming, and a feature like Dr. Bird ChatGPT, where you can ask questions related to birds. (The answers are corny and not as granular as they could be, but the work may still be useful to some.)
