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Customer Ratings & Reviews

Your price for this item is $299.99

Customer reviews

Rating 4.3 out of 5 stars with 161 reviews

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    Rating 4.0 out of 5 stars

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    Rating 4.4 out of 5 stars

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    Rating 4.3 out of 5 stars

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88%would recommend to a friend

Customers are saying

Customers are delighted by the solar roof, easy setup, camera, bird identification, app, educational value, image quality, and weatherproof design of the Smart Bird Feeder with Solar Roof. They appreciate the convenience of the solar panel, the high-quality images and videos captured by the camera, and the educational aspect of the app that helps them learn more about the birds visiting their feeders. While some customers find the product to be a bit expensive, many feel that the value it offers justifies the cost. Overall, customers are highly satisfied with the Smart Bird Feeder with Solar Roof and would recommend it to others.

This summary was generated by AI based on customer reviews.

The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.
Page 2 Showing 21-40 of 161 reviews
  • Rated 3 out of 5 stars

    Bird Buddy was awesome until a squirrel broke it.

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    Posted . Owned for 3 weeks when reviewed.
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    I loved the Bird Buddy I even paid a year for the pro account. But a squirrel got on it and caused it to fall and it broke the housing is beyond. I hope they do make a more adorable model. I don’t know what I’m gonna do see the photos below on how it broke I can’t snap it back together and tape it. I guess back together, but just really disappointed.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Battery life, Camera quality, Solar roof
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    This Inspired Something NEW!

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    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    The Bird Buddy is an amazing piece of technology. So fun and easy to use for the whole family. Even if you were never into “birding” this might inspire something new in anyone and it certainly did for me! Setup was easy, essentially out of the box all you need to do is charge the camera, click the camera in (magnetic), load up the seeds, and find a spot to hang your feeder. Then get the app rolling with account setup, connect your camera via the app, update and you will be rolling in the snapshots! I also have the model with the solar panel roof so I plugged this into the camera as well. Really easy and actually does help keep the camera charged. The only part I found difficult in the setup process is how to put the hanger on. Its so simple that I defiantly was overthinking it. The included directions were great to help me setup everything except how to put the hanger on! However, the Bird Buddy website showed me how to do it in less than a minute. I should also state I could not figure out what I wanted. I didn’t know how to find the right spot and spent too much time deciding where I would get the most amount of birds and where the best shots would be… To be honest I found a great spot but I don’t like that it faces the rear of my house. I want picture with trees and wildlife so I will be moving the camera again. I did put it on a wood post at first using the included mounting attachment but decided in a tree would be best after 2-3 days of no birds wanting to touch it while it was on the post. The camera is what really makes everything great about this bird feeder. It is so on part with what it needs to do. Usually items like this can be a gimmick but there are no gimmicks here. It just works and it works well. The camera will only take pictures and videos when their is a bird or animal in front of its lens. It will not take a picture of a person walking by or grill cover waiving in the wind. It knows when their is a bird or squirrel (you can turn the squirrel alert off) in front of it. Pretty amazing that it knows. In addition, after taking pictures of your visiting friends it will identify exactly what bird just visited you. I know the IOS software can do this when you select an image of a bird but wow is it cool. I even took the pictures from the Bird Buddy and had IOS identify the birds as well to see how accurate it was. Bird Buddy was very active. If it doesn’t know what Bird either due to the bird being quick or to much blur, it will state this and allow you to identify the bird. This only happened once with me and that was because one particular bird liked looking back through the camera lens as close as it could get, thus the camera couldn’t pickup what the bird looked like. The camera is like a bird! At night it goes into a deep sleeping mode to conserve its battery and it does it really well when paired with the solar panel for day charging. Once the sun rises with the birds so does your camera. The solar panel is awesome. I have never seen my battery go below the mid 80s with being charged with the solar panel. I have had it up for a few days now and it is currently at 94% and yesterday it was about 90%. This was after many pictures, videos, and live streams (for placing). I am hoping I won’t have to bring the camera inside often for a charge and think this will remain true. The pictures are of a few birds that visited me. To be honest I wanted to upload all the pictures I had. I only have had a few simple type of birds visit me including House and Purple Finches, Black-Capped Chickadees, and House Sparrows. I can’t wait to see who visits me next nor can my family! The app is a fun place to spend some time. Simple and it makes birding fun with your feed. The app sends you an alert after each time you have a visitor. I have all the alerts on because I can’t wait for my next visitor and I am typically a person who turns all alerts off! Its not annoying because it only gives you an alert for each total visit. If it takes 4 pictures and a video that doesn’t mean you get 5 alerts but one alert stating you had a visitor. Each time you have a visitor Bird Buddy calls it a Postcard which you can share within the Bird Buddy community. The first screen in the app is your inbox so you will always see your latest birds there. From there, all of your birds will be saved into your collection under its specific species. At first I thought it wasn’t saving my bird media but I was wrong as I had to go under the species which I do prefer for organization. In the Bird Buddy Explore section you can watch up to three other bird feeders and connect with them for 72 hours. I think its cool as you can see other birds feeders and birds from around the world and get an alert like its in your own back yard. Its like your visiting! You don’t have to use this section if you find it annoying to see other peoples birds but I think its cool and have seen some really cool birds! There is also tv looking icon (no name listed for the section) but its almost like a Tik Tok of bird buddy feeders from around the world scroll and watch (videos only) of peoples feeders. Again Cool! Finally the community section will let you browse birds buddy from around the world. Its like social media to watch birds. No comments allowed but you can give praise! I like the simplicity and not having to worry about comments but just focus on all the birds. The app is free and you can access everything you really need for free. An upgrade to Bird Buddy pro is a subscription which is very affordable yet not needed. It simply allows you to have more pictures when you have bird visitors (which uses more battery), increased video resolution to 1080p (I thought the lower resolution was fine, must be 720), ignore certain species from your inbox, share your camera with up to 10 guests (3 on free), and unlock all remote feeders. I say the upgrade could be worth it to see more birds in remote locations and if you want to share it with more friends. However, the free packs really everything you need. I think this is a must buy. It makes me smile every day to see a friendly little bird is stopping by at my home while I am away during the day. Its also an amazing gift idea! My family members love it and some can’t wait to get their own.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Battery life, Camera quality, Solar roof
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    BirdBuddy smart bird feeder w/camera/video/solar

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    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    Living on the border of a river and across the river is a state forest here in New Hampshire. To say that we have some wildlife is perhaps an understatement. But we enjoy the birds, both those that are year-round like cardinals, and the returning migratory species passing through on their way to their seasonal quarters. But identifying the only occasionally viewed ones was a bit of a challenge. BirdBuddy is an amazing addition to our avocation. It will send us an alert when there is activity at the feeder, and via the app (iOS or Android) you can review very, very up close and personal pictures. Not just a single shot, but a series of snapshots, as well as a short video with sound (about 15 seconds). My biggest concern was the fact that local wildlife includes black bears, who are avid destructive poachers of bird feeders. And replacing bird feeders gets expensive! The black bear has a phenomenal sense of smell, and wonderful memory of which areas had snacks in the past. So bird feeders need to be taken indoors for the months the bears are not in hibernation. And with climate change, they may stop hibernating all together. I was reluctant to put an expensive bird feeder out that could be mauled by a hungry bear. Standard posts are easily mauled by a 300-400 pound bear. Wrought iron forced “shepherd hooks” are bent like it was a pipe cleaner. My conclusion was to mount the feeder out of reach. BirdBuddy has an optional “wall mount” for mounting it on the side of a building out of reach. Just up a tree trunk would not work, for bears are skilled tree climbers. And that height on the side of a shed or barn would require a ladder for adding feed as often as every day or two. The solution came to me with finding on an online auction site a “high reach hanger”, where you use a broom stick, or in my case, a telescoping extendable pole with a 12 foot reach (available from home supply/hardware stores or painting supply locales). With this I was easily able to find a branch in our maple tree that was about 10 feet (3 meters) off the ground. But far out the limb, so unreachable from the trunk. Well out of the reach of even the tallest black bear. After a visit from a squirrel, I coupled this with a clear plastic dome (feed store or pet shops, anywhere that sells bird seed) to keep the rodents from feasting on the Bird Buddy. This has been a very satisfactory solution to those that might live in bear country; everywhere is squirrel country. My experience with the AI coupled camera has been highly satisfactory. The process is that the camera takes still snapshots when it senses motion, and a short video with a soundtrack. The species is identified via the AI discussion with BirdBuddy mission control, and you are presented with an information card for the bird (or even for a squirrel, as I found out). These pictures and videos are saved to your on-line album, and can be, if you wish, shared with the BirdBuddy community, which is now over 100,000 strong worldwide. So you can view the activity in Australia, Europe, Central America, etc. The mobile app software that powers this is always evolving and maturing. After only a couple of weeks, I received a very nice update of the software that facilitated the viewing and choosing which images you wished to save or discard. Admittedly, there is a whole lot of repetition of which species frequent YOUR backyard. So cruising the worldwide photos from BB cameras is very interesting. The app is available in several languages, with more coming. Currently the app is available in English (US), English (UK), German, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, and Slovenian. The depth of field of the camera is pretty astounding, with the bird in sharp focus and excellent color rendition. But my house, which is 25’ distant and the neighbors back yard, about 75’ away, also are sharp. The battery that supplies the camera and the WiFi sending of your images would need recharging via a USP-C cable (supplied); a task that could be coupled with refilling the bird seed. However, my feeder came with the optional solar roof, and it has reliably kept the charge in the 90% or higher range, even with several cloudy days in a row. The charge level is easily checked via the mobile phone app. The company estimates from 5 - 15 days of battery life, depending on how many photos and live streaming you view. A 2.4 Ghz Wi-Fi connection is required. There might be some issue with Mesh router WiFi, so check before your buy with the company. I was concerned that the feeder might be out of range from our home WiFi, so I coupled a WiFi range extender as a precaution. My system had no difficulty in connecting at all. The extender may have been unnecessary, but BestBuy had a Deal of the Day for just such an item, so I picked it up as a possible necessity. I have not turned off the Range Extender to test out the connection without the WiFi extender. Your mileage may vary… The back of the feeder is translucent plastic, so you can easily visualize the level of the supply of birdseed, even when the feeder is 3 meters off the ground. The plastic is extremely durable, and cleans up nicely with a periodic hosing down when I have it off tree to refill the hopper. Accessories are available for the feeder, and more in development. The company offers a suet ball, which a squirrel promptly ripped apart after I only had it on for about a week, which prompted my squirrel dome baffle purchase. There are water stations, a jelly tray for certain species that like that sort of thing. Additionally, from the emails they send me, they have in development a hummingbird feeder and a “bird bath / shower” smart device. My experience with the BirdBuddy has been completely positive. The company seems fully dedicated to customer enjoyment and education. The collection of data from the increasing number of stations is being shared with the database of bird migrations and populations that will help experts better understand and protect our feathered friends worldwide. Not only would I recommend this to a friend, I have purchased one for my grandchildren (elementary and middle school ages) for their interest and education!

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Battery life, Camera quality, Solar roof
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    Never knew I needed a Smart Bird Feeder until this

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    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    The Bird Buddy started it all with their viral kick starter campaign a few years back and still remains to be a top choice when it comes to smart bird feeders. Out of the box, this kit comes with a pre-installed solar panel roof. You do need to charge it before first use and it’s probably best for an overnight charge because it took over 4 hours via USB-C to get to 100%. The software update also warns you that it can take 30 minutes to complete too so keep that in mind if you’re impatient like me to start bird watching. I opted to use the provided metal hanging loop and used a garden shepherd’s hook to install the feeder. Just make sure the feeder is away from nearby trees or be prepared to have squirrels raiding your bird seeds. The app is nicely designed and does walk you through on Wi-Fi signal strength to ensure you’re placing your feeder in a location in your yard that gets signal. For it to properly work, make sure your current Wi-Fi does reach your desired spot. After setting up your feeder in your desired location with sun access for the solar panels to work, waiting for birds to show up will test your patience. The app says it will take a few days for birds to find your feeder. It took me nearly 24 hours before I got my first hit and it was a black capped chickadee. I’ve never been more excited about birds before in my life than at that moment. The battery life appears to be good and will only get worse when gloomy winters hit my region. I’m losing about 5% of battery a day and my solar panel only get’s 1-2 hours a day of direct light due to the low sun in November. I expect these numbers to improve come spring/summer so only time will tell on how often I will need to bring in the camera to charge. Nearly a week has passed after installing the Bird Buddy smart feeder and the app has already identified all the birds that has stopped by to eat. Very neat to see and learn about your local bird population. The camera is nice and sharp and the recorded videos are nice to watch. One caveat that you must realize is that the Bird Buddy was never intended for you to watch the camera live. It does have a “livestream” feature, which takes 2 minutes to load, to see if your feeder placement works but ultimately, the AI automatically curates and pushes out images and videos later to your app and not in real time. You may notice action at your feeder but to only see updates a few hours later or no updates at all. The AI needs to identify and curate by deleting what it thinks are out of focus birds, or species that you can filter out via the app (with subscription). There is a subscription model to unlock additional features but not needed for AI bird identification. The $2.99 per month subscription lets you ignore certain species, more photos per feeding, higher resolution video and 7 more guest slots that lets you add a total of 10 people to have access to the bird photos you capture with the feeder. In summary, super fun bird feeder for the whole family or as a gift for the bird enthusiast. Just don’t expect to drop in live-steam like a video doorbell to view the birds at your feeder. There are other smart bird feeders in the market that’s more of a security camera retrofit. This Bird Buddy was designed from the ground up and with that, the AI needs to send the captured images to the cloud for bird identification, curate the best photos and videos it took while the bird was eating, and then push them to your phone to view.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Rated 2 out of 5 stars

    App not worth the hype

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    Posted . Owned for 1 month when reviewed.
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    OK camera feeder but didn't really live up to the pre-holiday hype. Main disappointment is with the cumbersome, overly designed app. Instead of just collecting video and image files it confuses with nonsensical jargon like "collected" and "uncollected postcards." And the AI identifier really does no more than a Google image search will do. You'll be better off (and save money) by just hanging an outdoor motion camera near your feeder

    No, I would not recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Battery life, Solar roof
    Cons mentioned:
    Setup
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    A Bird Watcher's Fantasy

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    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    If you enjoy watching birds, maybe have a feeder already, but wish you could get a closer look at the birds at your feeder, you will LOVE this one. Once set up, you just place it: 1) Anywhere where Wi-Fi is available. 2) Where sun can hit the roof to keep the battery charged 3) A location where squirrels can’t easily get to it It was so cool, when after setup the feeder started sending ‘postcards’ to the Bird Buddy app on my phone, with several different views of each bird and even a short video of my dining visitor. The AI feature correctly identified the bird on the ‘postcard.’ It also identified the “squirrels’ which invaded the feeder at my first test location. It would send postcards with the furry creature all close up. which I immediately deleted. I then found a less ‘squirrely’ location. Set up however was definitely not intuitive. You need to have a Bluetooth connection to the device and your phone, just for set-up, after that, your Wi-Fi will take over. The instructions tell you to watch the color of the indicator light on the camera as you were setting it up. Not only was the light very difficult to see, but the colors of the light never matched the colors that I was supposed to be seeing. They don’t offer any immediate assistance, so I spent an hour or so, looking at different YouTube videos other users have created and just did some plain trial and error experimenting and suddenly everything started working. You first charge the unit fully with a standard USB-C connection, put the camera in the feeder, fill it with bird seed, and you are off and running. At first I was going to downgrade a star on my review for the frustration I was getting setting up my Bird Buddy, but the fun I was having seeing the birds close up on my phone made it all worth it, so the star came back You can not only see ‘postcards’ from your feeder, but also beautiful pictures from other feeders around the world in real time. It’s a little ‘community.’ If you sign up for “pro” membership you’ll have access to more feeders. As far as the effectiveness of the solar roof, I’ve had the unit up and running for a couple of days, and the unit’s battery has remained at 94 per cent the whole time so it seems to be working just fine. If I get a string of cloudy days, the camera just pops out of the feeder (it’s held in with a magnet) and would be easily charged up inside. The feeder will continue to send “postcards” to you for free as long as you own the feeder. For $3 a month or $30 a year for the “pro” features, you get higher res pictures, more connection to other feeders, you can let more family members and friends see your feeder pictures, (without membership you are limited to three other people) and your feeder will start sending you more postcards, with the risk of higher battery usage, but with the solar roof, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem Bottom line, after finally getting it set up, I love my Bird Buddy feeder, and always look forward to seeing more ‘postcards’ and AI identification of close up views of my feeder visitors. I think any backyard bird enthusiast would really enjoy this thing.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Camera quality, Solar roof
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 4 out of 5 stars

    Feed, Identify, Learn, Collect, Share! Fun Feeder

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    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    I’ve enjoyed watching birds my whole life and one of the first things I did when I finally got my own home was to put a bird feeder outside of my kitchen window, so that I can watch the birds in the mornings and evenings. I’ve loved watching birds as far back as I can remember. My grandmother always had a few bird feeders and we would watch the birds together from time to time. I’m certainly no expert, and I’ve never taken the time to learn to identify anything beyond my local birds which are typically Finch’s, Bluebirds, Cardinals, Doves, and Woodpeckers. That being said, I do have a book that I occasionally use to identify anything new that visits my feeder. I love when my hobbies are innovated with new technology, especially something as classic as bird watching, so when I saw this new Smart Bird Feeder with a Solar Roof by Bird Buddy, I knew I had to have it! At first glance this is just a bird feeder with a camera, which alone is really cool, but once you see all the neat features available in the app, you quickly realize that it's much more than that. The Bird Buddy comes in fully recyclable packaging; arriving in a sturdy cardboard box with formed cardboard inserts to keep it stabilized and secured. Everything you need to get started is in the box, except for a pole, shepherds hook, or something else to hold Bird Buddy. This kit does include a metal hanger and a “Universal Mount”, but you’ll need a branch to hang it from, or the correct size pole for the, not-so-universal mount. I bought an adjustable bird feeder pole that screws into place, at my local department store, for a low price. I mounted this to my second story deck and the bird feeder hangs from it using the included metal hanger. Included in the box is a three step quick start guide. The first thing it has you do is charge the camera module. The instructions say that a LED will blink red when charging, but it never did. This confused me at first, I tried multiple chargers and outlets and couldn’t get the light to appear so I thought it might be broken. I went ahead and left it plugged in for about an hour or so, hoping it was charging. The quick start guide instructs you to download the app, create an account and proceed with the app instructions, once the camera is finished charging, to complete setup. After I had the camera connected to the app, which took about three minutes, there was also a firmware update which took another five or so minutes to download and install. Once everything was connected I could see the battery level and noticed that it had only charged to about 87%, so I plugged the camera module in for a little while longer. This time the red light appeared, and blinked while charging. I think the firmware update corrected whatever issue was preventing the red light from appearing the first time I charged it. Positioning the bird feeder is a little tricky when you live in a neighborhood setting. I don’t want to bother any neighbors by having the camera face their homes, so I’ve opted to have the camera face my home. This actually gives me a good view of the action on the bird feeder from my kitchen window, but unfortunately this puts the birds in the shadow of the feeder for a good part of the day, but I’m okay with that for now. Even in the shadows the photos and video quality come out well and are great to see when I get Postcards from the app. Postcards are a group of photos and a video, taken by your Bird Buddy when birds visit. The app will send you a notification when a new Postcard is created and is ready to be reviewed. It’s not clear to me what exactly triggers a Postcard to be sent. I can tell you that it’s not every time a bird visits, because I’ve watched numerous birds visit my feeder that have not produced postcards. I think certain conditions have to be met for a postcard to be created, such as the length of the bird's visit, the bird's positioning relative to the camera’s view, and possibly other conditions, but I’m just guessing. There is an option to pay a monthly fee for the “Bird Buddy Pro” service, allowing you to receive more Postcards. This makes me believe Postcards are withheld and/or there is a Postcard limit for non-pro accounts. This brings other questions to mind such as; What if a rare bird visits and I’ve reached my Postcard limit with common birds, do I just miss out on that visit? If so, that’s a big disappointment. It should at least send a movement notification, without recording or taking photos. It would be nice if I was alerted to movement, every time I had a visitor, and I had the option to stream the visit live, rather than create a Postcard. And speaking of streaming live, you cannot do that if the bird feeder is actively collecting a Postcard. This is another feature that I don’t like. It won’t allow you to override Postcard collection and just go live. Also, there are many times where the app says that the Bird Buddy is collecting a Postcard, yet I look out the window and see no birds. The overall design of the Bird Buddy bird feeder is very cute to look at but I wish they had put more thought into the perch design, to allow larger birds, and better photos, without needing to purchase an add-on perch at an additional cost. I’ve noticed that many birds like to sit on the side of the feeder, which isn’t in the view of the camera and doesn’t seem to activate the AI for Postcard collection. Honestly, I feel like the sides should be wide, like the front and the front should be narrow, like the sides. But that’s just my non bird expert, six day observation. As I mentioned earlier, there is a larger perch you can buy, but IMO that inexpensive piece of plastic should come free with all new purchases, since it improves and/or corrects a flaw to the original design. Filling the bird feeder with feed isn’t as clean of a process as filling my tube feeder. The Bird Buddy opening is small and a little awkward to pour food into. You have to tip it forward while filling it which causes some of the food to fall out of the front perch area. I store my bird food in a five gallon food safe container with a lid and I held the Bird Buddy over the bucket as I filled it to keep the spillage from going everywhere. The included seed scoop is a great help though and I’m glad they included that with the kit. The solar panel rooftop came preinstalled to the bird feeder and connecting the wire to the camera module is very simple. Only about half of the days have been sunny, since I put up the feeder, but overall, I can tell that the solar panel roof works pretty well. My feeder is in a very active location, right next to another feeder that has been hung for over three years now, so it gets a lot of birds. The battery has lost about 20% since hanging the bird house six days ago. I could do a better job of positioning the solar panel to get more sunlight, but it seems to be working okay for now. The Bird Buddy app really is the star of the show, driven by an A.I. capable of identifying any species of bird that will ever visit my feeder. I love the Postcards, I just wish I received more of them. I really love building my own collection of birds, that groups the photos and visitors by species so that I can quickly and easily see how many different types of birds have visited my home. The collection section of the Bird buddy app also provides more info about the species of bird in each photo. It’s quite educational and it includes a summary of traits, notes about the birds habits, favorite foods, size and weight, samples of bird songs and calls by that species, location maps to show where the species is found and more! There is even a count for each species, that tells you how many birds of that species have visited your feeder and have been collected. I also like that I can browse Bird Buddy feeders from around the world and connect to them to receive Postcards from far away! There is a really neat community of videos and photos shared by people just like me that shows the species, area it was taken and gives users the ability to react to each other's shared content. I really like the Bird Buddy bird feeder and I’ve been enjoying receiving the Postcards with images of my favorite feathered friends when they visit. I love the educational features in the app and I enjoy being able to view feeders from all around the world. Bird Buddy gives you the opportunity to collect photos & videos while having the options to share them with the Bird Buddy community, download them or easily share them on your other social media pages via the Bird Buddy app. Being a newer product, there are areas for improvement, but I think all the benefits far outweigh my minor critiques. In my opinion this is a great gift for anyone who enjoys nature and can navigate a user-friendly app from their mobile device.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Camera quality, Solar roof
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    So much fun!

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    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    Review for Bird Buddy with Solar Roof I don’t think of myself as a “birder.” I don’t keep diaries or go on “birding” expeditions, but I love to watch and feed the birds. I know a good number of the types of birds we see in my area but certainly not all of them. I also am a practiced photographer. Recently, I set up my camera with a long lens and tripod to try and capture the cute yellow birds that were visiting our sunflowers over the summer. I had to wait for them to show up and took over 100 stills. Of these, I think I got three that I considered good enough to share. Well, enter the Bird Buddy! It not only feeds the birds, but uses AI to take only the best pictures. It can even identify the birds, which I found amazingly accurate as well as informative. The feeder comes in eco-friendly packaging, is simple to set up, and with the solar roof, pretty much maintenance free. Of course, you do have to fill it with seed. When I set up my Bird Buddy, I kept checking the app, but saw nothing for two or three days. That’s when the birds found it and I started getting pings that they were posing for photos. I’m very impressed with both the quality of the feeder and the quality of the photos and video it produces. So often, the birds literally look like they’re posing for the camera! The AI features really do take excellent photos, with a much better success ratio than I had with my yellow bird efforts! I figured feeding the birds and taking pictures of them was more than sufficient for this product, but it clearly has higher aims! You can share your pictures, of course, but you can also see pictures from other Bird Buddies across the globe. It was such a nice surprise to be able to check out birds from places like Hawaii and Europe. I would highly recommend getting the solar roof, as it allows continuous usage without the need to remove the camera and recharge it — something I wouldn’t love in the wintertime. The only (small) issue I’d mention is the fill door on the back is a little difficult to open. This would also be a problem in the cold, but my workaround was to just add a little loop using an electrical tie and that took care of it. You can also just fill the tray directly but you’ll need to do that more often.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Camera quality
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 4 out of 5 stars

    Best Way To Give The Bird!

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    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    I’m not a true bird watcher, but I do love the life birds bring and the differences in the species and know the basics. My backyard is teaming with birds as I have a lot of wooded area and also pasture land. However, I didn’t realize that birds don’t attack bird feeders that are new and are creatures of habit, so it will take some time before I start getting “postcards” from the app. This is disappointing as I was really looking forward to giving the bird to some people. Update: As I was writing this review I got my first postcard and immediately gave the bird to all of my family! Took about 4 days from setup (Friday 11am to Tues 8:30am) to see the first bird. It is definitely a pretty neat concept to add to a traditional bird feeder. As for out-of-the-box setup it is pretty seamless and easy to get up and going. If you are looking for a live feed, constant streaming, then this is not the device you would want. For the Bird Buddy you are paying for simplicity and the community element built into the App. You could actually get setup a little cheaper to have a constant feed, but it will take about 1000% more setup and know how to do that and it won’t be a battery operated system. Even a battery system combined with solar is not enough to do a constant feed, so you are looking at wired solutions. With this system you can place it anywhere, solar does require some placement stipulations, but definitely near instant gratification once the birds find your feeder! Out Of The Box Initially the LED would not show it was charging and I actually thought my unit was a different model as I could even see a spot for an LED as the schematic showed its location. It is under the plastic so it is very faint, but even still the red charging light would not come on. Checking the web page there’s an FAQ that addresses this. The problem though is the instructions say to charge fully first before setting up, but this is not possible since you wouldn’t know it was fully charged. I went ahead with the setup and it was 83% charge. It dropped 3% while doing setup and firmware update. The firmware took about 15 minutes. After the setup the LED indicator began working. Livestream/Sharing Testing the Livestream feature, the quality looks to be maybe Standard definition (640p). This has given me a lot of time to look into how the “Postcard” feature works and the unit uses a lot of AI to determine what shots are worthy of sending. It also states that after each postcard is sent there is a 10 minute waiting period before the next is sent. This is both to not spam you and to keep the device cool. It is definitely a sophisticated system in this regard. There is a paywall that lets you unlock 1080P quality and “Feeding Frenzy” Mode that will send more postcards and but states it will consume more battery. It also unlocks other sharing features like raising the limit from 3 to 10 on sharing your bird feeder and some other content in the Birdy TV.. There is a free 7 Day trial and then $30/yr or $3/mo currently. The video compression is quite heavy, but it still looks good; at 51 seconds length it is 5.7MB @720x960 resolution in MP4. Solar I haven’t had a ton of action yet so can’t say how well the solar unit works, but it doesn’t charge it more than 95% according to the app status. When it is charging in the settings menu, where it shows battery status, the indicator will show a charging icon next the battery percentage. Currently my camera is at 93% and not charging…well never mind, now it just went to 94%, but no charging status indicated. I think this has more to do with battery temp showing charge percentage. But it is keeping it charged. I can definitely recommend this add-on, but it will limit your placement since the solar panel is only on one side. Which also means you may have to point the camera in a direction you didn’t intend to. A double sided solar roof or the ability to move the solar to either side would be a great option too. Moving into Fall this is more of an issue as the sun is staying low now, come summer I won’t have issue with overhead sun. Wifi So far the signal seems to be intermittent. In its current location I have had it register has High, Medium, and Low, but most of the time when I check it indicates Medium. When I was unboxing and downloading the firmware update it was fluctuating between high and medium, the wifi modem was only 6 feet away. Accessories They are definitely proud of their products and I think their accessories are priced pretty high for what they are…plastic. These other add-ons are attached via screws, so essentially you could create and an add your own extended perches or mounting solutions, so that’s a plus. I can recommend this device and as of writing Bird Buddy had some good discounts going!

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Battery life, Camera quality
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    For the bird lover

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    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    Having two cats that love to watch birds and squirrels, having another bird feeder was a no brainer! Having a bird feeder that can tell you all sorts of info about those birds, take pics and videos, now that’s cool! The Bird Buddy is just that, a modern bird feeder that can entertain your cats and educate you! Setting up the Bird Buddy is straightforward and simple, charge the camera before installing it, pick a location and you’re up and running. The solar panel is only on one side of the roof, but you can remove it and put it on the other side. The feeder comes with a hanger, universal pole mount and a seed scoop. The camera is only 720p unless you sign up for the Pro version which unlocks 1080p and other features for either $2.99 a month or $29.99 for a year. I usually don’t like subscriptions but don’t feel like $30 a year is a bad deal for what you get. Even at the standard 720p the camera is very clear. One nice feature is at night the camera goes to sleep to save battery. Even if you put this in an area without good sunlight, the camera is easy to remove to charge inside. The AI camera and the ability to show all sorts of information about the different types of birds is really cool and honestly makes it worth it alone. We’ve had a couple of bird feeders for a couple of years for the cats, we now have a bird feeder for the humans! If you’re a bird lover and want to watch and learn about the birds who visit, the Bird Buddy is worth the money and more!

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Rated 1 out of 5 stars

    Nothing detected/poor customer service

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    Posted . Owned for 2 weeks when reviewed.
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    We've had this set up for three weeks now and not ONE bird detected. Customer service is non existent

    No, I would not recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Camera quality, Solar roof
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 4 out of 5 stars

    Up Close and Fun

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    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    I’ve had various bird feeders in the backyard that attract Scrub jays and other types of birds. My cats always get excited when any of those birds land on the feeder while they are close by. When I heard about the Bird Buddy Smart Feeder, I figured it would be amazing to see a different and up-close perspective of these birds enjoying the food that I have been putting out all this time. Set-Up: The Bird Buddy comes with a mounted bottom that you can mount onto a pole or a fence. In my case, I used the hanger that was included. Once the camera is fully charged (using the USB-C cable provided), the camera easily fits into place of the housing unit. I chose to utilize the solar panel power so that I don’t have to be concerned with a low battery in the future. Activating the camera and syncing it with the Bird Buddy app is easy. Connect your feeder to the app and your Wi-Fi and you are ready to bird watch. I do suggest that you position the feeder so that your yard's privacy is not compromised. Watching Nature: I was eager to witness the birds that I had seen for several months in my yard to flock to the new Bird Buddy feeder with the fresh seed inside. However, they didn’t come. I can’t explain why, but I can only assume that they might be weary of the new feeder and will eventually trust it. Through the app, O can check on the status and see what the camera sees. The wi-fi range of the Bird Buddy is truly impressive and doesn’t have to be immediately close to your home. Despite my local birds not showing up, I can enjoy the streaming feeds of other Bird Buddy users across the country and overseas! The app allows me to connect to other feeders in the Netherlands, Florida, Ecuador, and many other areas. This opens up opportunities to see birds that aren’t even in your area or country. You also get notifications of what kind of birds have visited either your feeder or someone else’s feeder. The camera will identify the various types of Aves around the globe and the Bird Buddy will create “postcards” of these birds and allow you to download them to your device. Sturdy: The Bird Buddy is made to withstand rain, wind, and other reasonable challenges that nature may throw at it. This feeder is made to last. Enjoy Nature: Even though my local birds are temporarily shy with my Bird Buddy, I am anxious to see them up close when the time comes but, in the meantime, I will enjoy the offerings that are streamed through other Bird Buddy Smart Feeders around the world.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Camera quality, Solar roof
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    Super cool bird house!

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    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    The Bird Buddy feeder has been a really fun addition to our bunch of bird feeders in our yard. I was unaware of this product, but love to look at birds so why not see what bird species come to visit the feeders in my yard. (My husband and daughter knew what the Bird Buddy feeder was and couldn’t wait for it to arrive.) Setting up the feeder and starting an account with Bird Buddy was easy with the included instructions. Follow the app’s instructions when you get it paired, make sure it has a connection to your WiFi and your good to go! We have the feeder set up with the included wire hanger, on a shepherd’s hook (make sure you check the box and don’t throw it away!) It took a few days for the birds to try out the feeder and we are still waiting for more consistent visits, but it was so exciting to get that first notification we had a feathered visitor!! The image quality is great and seeing a video of the birds is a fun bonus. I’m sure I will upgrade to the pro subscription as soon as I see more birds regularly coming to the feeder, but for now we are just using the basic features of the app. I absolutely recommend the solar roof to keep the camera charged. The solar roof can be switched around to make sure to capitalize on the position of the sun at different times of the year. The Bird Buddy looks great and is well built for sure! We look forward to more bird species coming to visit soon! This would make a great gift for the bird lovers in your life.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Battery life, Solar roof
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    Bird Buddy is for the birds!

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    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    If you are an avid bird watcher, Bird Buddy offers a high tech option for capturing photo stills and video of all the birds in your yard. Of course, a smartphone loaded with the Bird Buddy app is required to view the photos and videos and to control many of the features of the camera. The app is really fun to use and setup was a breeze. I did run into the same issue another reviewer mentioned about the initial charging process. The instruction manual mentions that a faint red light will blink as the battery charges, but I saw no sign of this. I left the camera charging overnight anyway and woke up to a fully-charged battery. When it comes to the actual physical installation of the feeder, you might need an accessory sold by Bird Buddy to attach to a fence. It does come with a metal hanger so that you can hang it on a branch, but then the solar panels may be blocked. I found an aluminum flag pole that fit the included pipe flange for installing the bird feeder on pole, but I didn’t want to cut up my flag pole, so I headed to the local hardware store and bought a simple flag pole holder and a short 2-foot piece of schedule 40 PVC pipe. The pipe fit the holder but was just barely too large for the pole flange that came with the feeder. My solution was to use a sheet of sandpaper to reduce the diameter of the pipe just enough so that everything would fit and problem solved! It’s still a tight fit so I will probably need to sand it down just a little more at some point. The flag pole holder was probably overkill, but it works and my entire solution for mounting the Bird Buddy was a little over $10. The app on the smartphone adds a lot of artificial intelligence (AI) to determine the species of each bird that visits the feeder. So far, I have only seen house finches. What’s really a nice feature is that you can tell the app to ignore house finches once you’ve seen enough of them. The AI also tries to get the best capture based on where the bird is standing in the frame and avoid excessive battery wear for less-than-ideal photo compositions. The quality of the photos/videos looks pretty decent, but certainly not worthy of entering a photo contest or blowing up into a poster-sized print. You can unlock higher resolution videos if you subscribe to their “Pro” plan for around $30/year. The feeder comes with a cup to make it a little easier to pour the seed into the feeder. The Bird Buddy website also sells add-on perches and suet ball feeders to enhance your feeder. I initially installed the camera aiming south, but later read online that Bird Buddy recommends aiming the feeder to the north for those of us in the northern hemisphere. I assume this is to keep direct sunlight from hitting the camera lens. The only downside facing north is that the birds will be in the direct shadow of the feeder from late morning to mid-afternoon. Since the birds are most active feeding in the morning hours, I would concur that aiming north is probably the best advice. I can’t help but think that direct sunlight hitting the lens for extended periods of time could damage the camera itself. Speaking of sunlight, the solar panel is only on one side of the roof. However, it can be -oriented to get the best exposure to sunlight by simply removing it and reinstalling the roof in the flipped 180-degree position. I think the Bird Buddy would make a perfect fun and educational gift for children of all ages and adults who enjoy bird watching from the comfort of your home. You get some fun photos and videos of your feathered friends and the birds get to enjoy a tasty snack. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Camera quality, Solar roof
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 3 out of 5 stars

    Good, but the experience could be better.

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    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    First thought - wow a smart bird house! Who would have thought!! Once the day dreaming is done, you open the box and find that inside it everything seems high quality. I got the bird buddy with the solar roof - which has a really nice texture to it, and you can feel that it will last really long, not like the cheap solar lights you get off Amazon. The setup itself is a bit hit and miss - because there are no instructions in the box. You have to download the app, which will guide you with some of the assembly, but is not detailed enough to explain what some of the other items are in the box - like the hanger. How to put the hanger on would seem straight forward, but this hanger is not equally aligned, so instead of the same main instruction telling you how. You've gotta search the website for a separate link around that. Then there is some sort of a groove at the bottom, which again there is no explanation for in the main instruction steps. You can take a guess, it must be for attachment to a pole, but it would be good to atleast have 1 simple diagram pointing to the parts in the box, and areas on the main structure to tell what they are. So you are not left scratching your head, figuring out if you've missed something. I could also not get the camera to charge, at all (apparently a small red led is meant to glow on the camera module, but that never happened, it remained lightish yellow). I am not sure if that was because the adapter I was using was not rated for the amps or the volts it requires, but the only thing in box was the USB cable, so again there was not much else I could do. I decided to just plug it into the solar roof and see what happens. Took it outside in the sun and hung it. In the app, you've got to create an account (ofcourse you have, nothing happens without that nowadays). Once you've gone through the steps to connect the system to your wifi, and measured the wifi strength in the area you've hung it. You are good to go. At this point in time I saw the battery in the app showed up as around 65%, but it was not showing any indication that it was charging. I put some crushed peanuts and a tiny cup of water in the BirdBuddy, and waited. Next morning low and behold, we got an alert - a house sparrow. I'll be honest it was an exciting moment, my kid watched that bird over and over again. The system automatically records a video and takes a few snaps, that you can then decide to save. You can also choose to share it with the community if you want. Since then though we have waited and waited, but alas, no birds. I can't fault the system for that, but can't review it further based on its capabilities either. Overall its been a mixed experience, but something I will definitely keep in the hope of taking more beautiful bird pics.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Bird identification, Camera quality

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    I can see birds in a new and beautiful way!

    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    I have a visual disability and while I can see birds, I was never able to appreciate their diversity and beauty. My Bird Buddy has been a game changer in this regard. It takes the most spectacular pictures of birds showing the color and pattern variation in their feathers and identifies the bird type by name, so I'm able to notice how one species can look dramatically different - just amazing! I love that the app collects all the different bird pictures and organizes them into postcards so I can go back and view all my buddies. As far as setup goes, I would not have been able to complete it without the videos on the Bird Buddy Website as the text on the provided directions was too small for me to see. Other than that, setup was smooth and I started enjoying my Bird Buddy immediately. Thank you

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Ease of use, Solar roof
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 3 out of 5 stars

    Fun when working Needs strong WiFi signal outside

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    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    This was surprisingly difficult to get setup. At first, all seemed to be going well. I charged the camera to 100%, I established Wi-Fi, I installed the latest firmware update and I could do a test and could see what the camera was seeing inside the house. The challenges began when I tried to put it in my yard. I have a shepherds hook with a bird feeder now located about 25 feet from my house. I hung bird buddy there and almost immediately received a postcard. (Carolina chickadee! Yay!) But I watched as dozens of birds came and went and did not receive any more postcards. I tried to view the live stream and got errors. (Side note, we have really good Wi-Fi and repeaters all over the house since my spouse and I both work from home.) I moved it about 10 feet closer to the house and still could not wake it up using the live stream. I put it on my 2nd story deck right outside my office and finally could see the live stream and Wi-Fi. However, I don’t want birds leaving droppings on my 2nd story deck so I had to go around the yard looking for a spot that would show Wi-Fi signal. Went through rebooting cable modem, rebooting WiFi, and resetting Bird Buddy. After about 4-5 locations, I found a spot that got a low signal but worked. I received another postcard this morning (another Carolina chickadee) and still have okay Wi-Fi signal. My recommendation is to be sure you have really strong Wi-Fi (outside your house, which can be a challenge) or if you can, put it right outside your house or the room where your router is. Looking at other feeders in the app, it looks like a lot of people do that on their shared bird pix. The feeder itself seems sturdy and easy to fill and clean and I do like that there is a solar panel on the roof for charging. Note that if you live stream it kills the battery very quickly. I was going to get one of these for my elderly mother, but need to make sure her WiFi signal will be strong enough. I don’t want to put her through frustratingly trying all kinds of installation locations. Maybe in version 2.0 they’ll update with stronger WiFi and bigger battery in the unit.

    No, I would not recommend this to a friend
  • Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 4 out of 5 stars

    Bird Watching From Your Living Room

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    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    The Bird Buddy is a simple concept: what if a security camera was on a bird feeder? Then it takes that to the next level by incorporating things like AI detection and identification of birds for less false positives and blurred photos. Then it creates its own online community of fellow Bird Buddy owners so you can view so much more than just your own yard. And it’s all very easy to set up and use. Out of the box, it’s straightforward. You have the main unit itself, including a built-in solar panel on the roof of the feeder. There’s the camera unit itself, with a large camera, single button, and USB-C port with a cover for the port. Mounting hardware provided includes a pole mount and a wire hanger. There’s no pole, but it’s a standard size you should be able to find at a hardware store easily. Lastly, there’s a scoop for transferring birdseed into the feeder and a USB-C cable. All packing materials, apart from three plastic baggies, are completely recyclable. Included is also a small setup guide, meant to get you going with the basics of charging, what LED lights to look for on the unit, QR code for the app download and some feeding and cleaning guides. Initial setup was just as easy as you could hope for. While I did NOT get a lit-up LED light during my initial charging before first turning it on as the instructions indicated I would, I could feel the camera unit heating up a bit, so I just left it for a few hours to charge. The Bird Buddy website, which contains far more written detailed information and instructions than either the included documentation or app, does address this, although I was unaware at the time. That was the only issue I encountered. Once turned on and with the app ready to go, it found and connected seamlessly. If you’ve set up smart home devices anytime recently, the process is nearly the same amongst all. You create an account on your app, turn on Bluetooth to connect your app and the device, provide it your Wi-Fi network name and password, and then let it connect and run initial updates. I was downloading firmware updates in less than five minutes from initial launching of the app and the firmware updates took under 20 minutes. Once the camera is updated, you just need to mount the camera into the feeder, which is as simple as just fitting it into the slot. It is held in by strong magnets. With the solar panel roof, I did need to connect up the internal USB-C cable to the top of the unit. This is made easy by removing the back panel that holds the birdseed in, but it’s a bit of a tight squeeze and does require a little finesse – if you do have motor issues, this part may require assistance just for the minimal workspace. Filling it with seed is relatively easy. There’s a door that opens on the back panel and you can use the scoop to just fill it with seed – remember to make sure the seed flows fully into the base of the feeder. Do this outside though! The feeder base does have some holes to allow for drainage so some chaff will get on your floor if you do it inside! From there, you get it mounted. If using the pole-mount, it simply attaches to the feeder with four screws, and you place it right on top of your pole. The pole you buy and the installation of a pole into the ground is on you though. Since I have a few long branches and outdoor hooks that don’t require me standing on a ladder, I opted to use the hanging hook mount. That is as simple as just sliding the hanger ends into slots at the apex of the birdfeeder’s roofline. The app does remind you about the wifi connection need and this is important. You can’t place the feeder too far from your building as it does need a strong wifi connection. This is going to vary wildly depending on your home Wi-Fi set up and how far into your yard you get access. Most folks when setting up their home networking aren’t really considering network strength outside the walls of your home, so you may find you need to adjust your router location or bird feeder location. Luckily the Bird Buddy app does provide you with signal strength information. You can even opt to turn on a live video from the camera to see how it’s going. And then it’s the waiting game. If you’re an experienced birder you’re probably very used to sightings being on the whim of how nature decides it will be. If you’re new to this, well, you may have to wait. My Bird Buddy arrived at a time of seasonal weather changes, including rain, snow, and generally not the greatest time for birds to be highly active. Additionally, if you’ve not had feeders in your yard previously, birds may be timid with feeding out of something new. It’s also important to know that even if you DO see a bird near or even on your feeder it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get photographic evidence from the camera. Bird Buddy is designed to only record and notify you when it has a clear view. Some birds drop in, grab seeds, and leave so quickly it may not record. That’s okay – birding, even without binoculars and hiking, requires patience. The app itself is great. You can see your “postcards” of your bird visitors, then opt to save whichever photos and video you prefer. Postcards don’t stay forever unless you add them to your collection, but you may not want thousands of photos of the same bird taken over months either. Where I start to dislike the app is with some benign, but still scummy sales tactics. BB Explore is a section where you can connect and receive postcards from feeders around the world. Unfortunately, you’re limited to just 1 feeder (and two for only 72hours) from a selection of 3 feeders on the free plan. To gain more feeders you need to both refer friends to the app and purchase a Bird Buddy Pro subscription. The subscription lets you have 2 permanent slots (one additional 72 hour slot, as well) and a selection of other feeders. The Pro subscription also includes several features like being able to ignore bird species it detects, turn on a mode that utilizes more battery but takes more photos, high resolution video, and more guest slots to let friends and family view your postcards. I really do love nearly everything about the Bird Buddy. It’s easy to set up, has enough features to keep you poking around the app, and does get you some incredible photo shots. The battery life, with the solar panel has been great. Even with the bad weather after almost two weeks I’m still above 90 percent battery life – I’ve also had very little visitors though, which I’m sure affects battery life, too. However, I’m dismayed that high resolution video – something built into the camera by default, is only accessible via a paywall. Subscription services are obviously everywhere now a days and I wish Bird Buddy came up with better reasons for signing up for theirs instead of limiting what should be out of the box included features. Even with that, I still think Bird Buddy is a great concept and a great device. It’s a great way to start getting in touch with nature from within your home – and hopefully start planting the seeds of a new hobby!

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Ease of use

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    So cool — me and my kids love it

    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    Love the bird buddy!! Was straightforward to set up and is now a ton of fun. We always have birds in our yard and I never knew what kind. My sons and I love checking the apps for new pics and videos and learning what is coming to our new feeder.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 4 out of 5 stars

    Super neat idea!

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    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    My mother has always into bird feeders and watching the birds come and go. When I saw this it enticed me to get into them also. This bird feeder came with several useful accesories. This came packaged extremely well. It came with multiple ways to mount. One way is via a wire hanger that hookes to the front and back of the roof. Another way you can mount it is via the poll mount it comes with. It also comes with extra screws for the mount and extra rubber pieces to put in the charging port if you are not charging it or if you dont have it plugged into the included solar panel roof. It also came woth a nice scoop for birdseed. This scoop was helpful for filling the feeder. Filling the feeder was a hair complicated due to the way the hole in the back is set up however. Setup was easy. Once you download the app, it has great step by step instructions. A few of the steps took some tome to complete. It took about 30 minutes to get the camera set up, updated and paired. Most of this time was with the firmware updates. Something to keep on mind os that you have to have a place where you can set this up where it gets enougj direct sunlight on the solar panel, but is also close enough to your home to recieve a strong enough wifi signal to transmit the pictures and footage of birds. There are a ton of great app features. You can look at videos of birds from feeders all over the world! When a bird does approach your feeder it starts taking pictures and videos. It will send you these pictures and videos and it will prompt you to decide which ones youd like to keep. It dod accuratly identify our visiters. Its been rainy here in N TX lately, so we've only had 2 visiters since setting it up, both were house finch. It was super exciting getting our first notifications however! When playing with the app I also found that when you click the species, it twlls you tons of facts about the birds also which is a nice tough. The one drawback is that there are features to the app/camera that require an annual subscription service which wasn't mentioned beforehand. Should you decide to use these features- the subscription is fairly affordable. We choose not to do it for now however. The solar pannel seams to work ok. Even with it being overcast all week , it has only dropped less than 5%. Look forward to getting more visitors soon.

    I would recommend this to a friend
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