Customer Ratings & Reviews

Love this bird feeder. Its so fun getting updates on whos at the feeder. Only reason its not 5 stars is a subscription is required if you want multiple people to stream. Other than that, super easy to set up. Video quality is great. Easy to clean. Love the solar panel for recharging the camera

I live on some land outside of town and have fed birds year-round for many years. I was pretty excited to try out the Bird Buddy and get some close-up pictures. I’ve been using it for about a week now and I’m really enjoying it. We have raccoons that clean out our feeders after dark, so I need to bring the more delicate Bird Buddy in each night. Because of that, I elected to just use the hanger bar which I slip over a branch on a tree. That works pretty well, but after the leaves come out it’ll defeat the solar charging. However, since I have to bring it in every night anyway, I can easily top off the charge. The Bird Buddy is all plastic (except the metal hanger), but it’s pretty sturdy plastic—like the Fisher Price toys I remember. Time will tell, but I’m hoping that it’ll hold up to the elements for years to come. It doesn’t hold too much bird feed, but again that’s not a huge problem since I bring it in every night and can refill it. Getting the app installed and the Bird Buddy setup on my WiFi was pretty simple. The only minor issue was I never got a notification about the software update until after I had installed the feeder outside. I had to bring it back in, plug it into the charger and run the update, but that was only a minor setback. Then, once the birds figured out there was tasty stuff in the feeder, I started getting alerts on the app. After a couple of days, the word was out, and dozens of birds started using the feeder. The notifications were entertaining: “You’ve got birds!” “Rush hour at the feeder!” “Rush hour at the feeder!” It was fun to start looking through all the videos and snapshot pictures that it took. It was really good at identifying all the different species that showed up. With all bird traffic, I’m not sure how/when it decides to take its “postcards” and send notifications. There have been times when I looked at the feeder and saw some redwing blackbirds on it, but it never sent a notification about them. I’m sure it must have some filtering or “cool down” period between notifications or my phone would just constantly blow up. It does have a feature to detect cats and warn you if it sees one near the feeder. I didn’t test this outside on the tree, but it did work unexpectedly inside. The first evening I brought it inside and my cat decided to check it out. I forgot the camera was still on until I got an alert on my phone, “Cat detected!” So, that feature definitely works. Overall, I’m happy with the feeder. It may not be perfect, but it makes me smile to see all the bird mugshots and videos. The slow-motion video feature has been a lot of fun. We’ve had a few days with wind gusts into the 40mph range and it’s fun to watch them fly in to land on the perch like they’re hotshot Navy pilots landing on a carrier. I probably won’t pay the $90/year subscription for the few extra features, but I’d say the price of the feeder is worth it for the entertainment.

Works great, easy to set up. Good for avid birders and casuals as well

Happy with the feeder but the birds haven"t found it yet. Was a little frustrated that there is a subscriptin fee to really take advantage of AI features and an additional fee to share with the family.

This was the best gift for my wife. Truly amazing, she loves it and we have the coolest birds coming by. Blue Jays, Cardinals and more! Highly recommend

Easy to setup… A.I. option is a wonderful way to find out more on each bird. Would recommend

Great for whole family to enjoy nature up close! Excellent picture quality!

Great product! Bought it as a gift and she loves it

I bought this for my dad and he loves it! Took great pics!!

Such fun to watch the birds eating! The app is a little difficult to navigate, but we’re still at it.

A great camera bird feeder. While many of the identification's are wrong. The pictures are great quality and it's nice to review at the end of each day.

My mother loves watching birds in the backyard. Bought as a gift for her as her vision is going. This will help her see the birds up close. She will be able to recognize and learn more about these beautiful birds with the app.

Fantastic bird feeder I had to buy an additional one for my parents house.

Got for a gift for my mom and she loves it!!! absolutely recommend.

Smart bird house is great for seeing wild life if you have a vacation home. My mother loved it.

I’ve had the Bird Buddy for most of a week now, and, overall, I’m pleased with it, but it isn’t everything. First, set up was OK but not without some ambiguity. The first thing the instructions say is to charge the camera battery for at least two hours using the included cable, which has USB-C ports on each end. But no power brick is included, so it needs to be attached to a computer or perhaps your cell phone charger. I have several, so it was no problem charging it up, expect for one minor annoyance. The instructions give a full list of what the different possible flashing light combinations mean regarding being charged, fully charged, connected or not, doing a firmware update, etc., but I didn’t see any lights at all initially, and I was wondering if it was actually charging. It wasn’t until I had dug a little further into the instructions that I discovered that the camera has to be turned on for the indicator light to function. It would have been nice if this had been noted right at the top of the Quick Start Guide. Once charged, the camera fits easily and snugly in the holder on the feeder, and there is a short USB-C cable coming from the roof of the feeder, on which is mounted on one side a solar panel, that is to be connected to the camera. Presumably the idea here is that the solar panel keeps the battery charged so you don’t have to remove it periodically to recharge it. This is a great feature. But, oddly, the instructions are silent about this. The instructions just talk about periodically removing the battery to recharge it. The instructions do mention the solar panel, but nowhere does it explicitly say that the panel keeps the camera battery charged. Whatever. The kit comes with two mounting plates, one meant for a side-wall mount and the other for use at the top of a one-inch diameter pole. We wanted the feeder well away from the house (but not too far away!), so I bought a separate bird-feeder pole, drove it into the ground perhaps 20 feet off our house, and mounted the feeder. The feeder also comes with a bracket that connects to the top of the feeder with which you can hang it if you want to mount it on a pole that way. The reason you can’t have the feeder too far away is because it has to connect to your home wireless network, and that likely extends only so far from the house. My signal drops off by about one-third at the distance of the feeder, but it works OK overall. Also note that, during the setup process after you download the app, your phone makes a brief Bluetooth connection to the feeder. But during operation, connection is by your home network. Once everything was set up, it all worked quite nicely. The livestream is easy and quick to initiate, and you get a great view of whatever birds are on the perch having something to eat. The clarity of the image is really quite good. It can be quite entertaining. You can snap a photo any time, and any photo you snap is sent to the Bird Buddy site where the bird is identified by an AI feature, and the result returned to you. The camera and app also note any arrivals automatically and notify you of them. One major annoyance is how the feeder is filled with seed. There is a small “door” at the top of the rear of the feeder that pulls down on a hinge, and you’re supposed to pour the feed through that. The feeder comes with a small container with an almost-but-not-quite-good-enough spout with which to pour in the feed. But the spout on the container doesn’t reach far enough, so the feeder has to be tilted forward in order to get the feed in without spilling some on the ground. Either tilt it or, as I do, slide it off the top of the pole, tilt it any way I need to to fill it, and then reinstall on top of the pole. It’s not that big a deal, but a container with a longer spout would have beem nice. Alternatively, one can go to a hardware store or someplace and buy a funnel with an angled spout. I plan to do this. If the feeder is merely hung from a pole, tilting it to add the feed is not an issue. But if the feeder is rigidly mounted and can't be tilted, which is how I have it, the issue of filling it will arise. One other thing that slightly diminishes our enjoyment of the feeder is that the larger birds don’t seem interested in it. We had a larger, conventional feeder in our yard, and we’d get everything. Sparrows, bluejays, cardinals, red-wing blackbirds, and more. The Bird Buddy has a relatively smaller perch, and it only attracts the smaller birds like the sparrows, at least in our experience. After most of a week, we’ve yet to see any of the larger birds there. My wife was unhappy that we’re not providing for those birds anymore, so we put our old feeder back in the yard. Now we have two feeders about 15 feet apart. The larger birds (and smaller ones, too) go to the older one, and the smaller birds have the Bird Buddy to themselves. Overall, the Bird Buddy is cool because of the great, up-close videos and images of the birds it provides, which is basically the whole reason for its existence. Children of most any age will absolutely love this, and adults will, too. Just keep in mind some of the issues and limitations described above.

Bird Buddy lets you see who is eating. We get both birds and squirrels.

Awesome bird feeder and camera for price. Very pleased with this purchase.

Was a gift for my father in law. He absolutely loves it very easy to use

I’ve had my eye on these smart bird feeders for awhile. I think they’re a super cool concept for birdwatching. So I was excited to try the BirdBuddy Smart Bird Feeder Pro with Solar Roof. In the box you’ll find the feeder, camera, usb c charging cable, the solar roof, hanger, a pole mount with hardware, instructions, and a scoop for birdseed. You’ll need the BirdBuddy app to setup the camera. Just create an account and follow the step by step instructions in the app. You need to attach the solar roof. The solar panel can be oriented to either side so it’s facing the sun depending on where you intend to mount the feeder. Setup was simple. Including the assembly steps I’d say I was up and running in 20 minutes. I was somewhat underwhelmed by the quality of the feeder. It’s plastic construction doesn’t seem particularly heavy duty. I hope it wears well. The solar roof attaches with plastic clips which seemed somewhat fragile. Once attached you need to snake the power cable down through a hole to plug into the camera. I found this design a bit awkward, particularly so when you need to disconnect and reconnect in order to charge with an adapter if solar charging is insufficient. The feeder comes with a pole mount or a hanger so you have 2 mounting options. I opted for the pole mount which attaches easily with the included screws to the bottom of the feeder. I ordered a 79 inch tall pole with a 1 inch diameter to mount the BirdBuddy on. Prior to mounting I filled it with seed using the included scoop. There a small door on the rear of the feeder. This is small and plastic. I’m concerned about how well it will hold up. Filling the seed compartment though this door while mounted is awkward. I found it easier to remove the feeder from the mount to refill. For positioning BirdBuddy suggests placement within 50 feet of your wifi router and preferably oriented so the solar panel gets maximum sunlight exposure. For privacy, you should also avoid the camera facing your home or the homes of your neighbors. I selected a spot in my yard about 40 feet from my router. It became quickly apparent that the 50 foot recommendation from BirdBuddy was optimistic since I had substantial connectivity issues at 40 feet. The camera operates on the 2.4ghz band so I would suggest creating a a guest 2.4ghz network to connect the BirdBuddy to. Mine was the only device on this network. To improve the connection, I also added a wifi extender to the exterior of my home. It was then only after moving the BirdBuddy within 20 feet of this extender did it improve my connection issues. However, I still find the live view somewhat hit or miss in terms of how long it takes to stream. One moment it streams quickly then 20 minutes later it can take forever to load. I frankly don’t think the wifi in the BirdBuddy camera is particularly strong. I have 2k WiFi security cams at a much greater distance than the BirdBuddy that stream flawlessly. I like the solar charging capabilities of the BirdBuddy which should reduce having to charge it using a power adapter. The cam has a 3800 mAh rechargeable lithium-ion battery and they claim it should last 30 days on a full charge. Even with solar charging I found this estimate very optimistic. I was at 100% on a sunny day and within 7 days I was at 18%. Disappointing. But let’s get to the birdwatching. Gone is the need for binoculars for birdwatching or the need to identify a bird species. The BirdBuddy smart feeder uses AI to automatically identify over 1,000 species. You get visitor notifications of bird and unexpected guests. The captured videos are great quality at 2k and still images are 5 megapixel. It’s fascinating watching various species of birds feeding up close and personal. So cool! I particularly love the ability to share these videos with friends and families. My brother already wants one. Also very cool is that within the app you can check out other BirdBuddy streams from around the world. The app is very nice and is a full featured software experience. This leads me to the unfortunate observation that the BirdBuddy software is far superior to the BirdBuddy hardware.