I set up a backyard bird cam, and it captured things I'd never seen before

ZDNET's key takeaways

The Bird Buddy is available for $219.This bird feeder has a camera that takes beautiful pictures, is easy to set up, and features bird identification.It does require recharging once a week unless you have the solar option, needs to be within Wi-Fi range, and can miss some bird visitors.

The bird feeders in my yard have always been an attraction for those watching from the couch, especially during the pandemic a few years ago. Whether it's particularly crowded during a sunny afternoon or a squirrel is performing acrobatics to access birdseed, watching our feeders is a fun activity for everyone in our home. The Bird Buddy, however, has taken it to the next level. 

The Bird Buddy is an adorable yet uncomplicated bird feeder. It is complete with a 2K-resolution camera module that sits in the perfect spot to record and photograph birds that visit for a snack. The Bird Buddy app will alert you on your smartphone when a new bird visitor arrives, and you can check the app to see the recorded footage, photos, and information about the species that visited your feeder.

Specifications

After launching on Kickstarter in late 2020, a prime time for bird-feeding sales during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bird Buddy quickly gained backers and rose to become the single most-funded project in the Gadgets category in the world.

Why get a smart bird feeder 

I'm a sucker for a bird feeder of any kind. I've had up to six set up simultaneously, with different kinds of wild bird seed, suet, or homemade blends, ranging from fancy little bird-sized houses to cute thrift store teacups and a hummingbird feeder.

If you scroll through my phone's camera roll, you'll find an assortment of highly zoomed-in, pixelated photos of birds gathered around my feeders -- with some squirrel shots sprinkled in for good measure.

The Bird Buddy not only takes the photos for me, but it also does it much better than my phone and from 30 feet away, as the camera is up close, capturing 2K video from mere inches away. And there's also the fact that the Bird Buddy is always watching, so it can save photos of birds that stopped by when I wasn't even home.

The Bird Buddy also IDs each bird that stops by for a meal. Aside from taking close-up photos and videos, it visually recognizes bird species and tells you about them, like their specific diet and favorite foods, information on lifestyle habits, geographic locations, audio recordings of their song, and more.

In an attempt to help birds, the Bird Buddy also tracks different species of birds to better understand migration patterns and bird populations through the Heartbeat project. This campaign takes a live look at the Bird Buddy feeders around the world and offers downloadable monthly data that could prove useful for conservationists and ornithologists looking for insights.

Setting things up

The Bird Buddy comes mostly assembled, so figuring out what goes where wasn't hard. The box includes the house-shaped feeder, camera module, USB-C charging cable and adapter, and appropriate hardware to mount the Bird Buddy on a pole or hang it with the included cord. 

I didn't have a spare pole in my house, so I used a hanging cord. Regarding bird food, I researched and decided to start with a mix of dry foods from my pantry, opting for an elaborate blend of dry oats, dried cranberries, raisins, and walnuts. 

The camera module was fully charged within a few hours, and it was secured to the bird feeder with a strong magnet and a small screw. 

For placement, I chose a holly bush right outside my home office window. This choice was mainly because I can see it from my desk, where I sit pretty much all day. I've seen many birds exploring those bushes, so I knew it was already a bird hotspot. 

The Bird Buddy uses Wi-Fi to connect to your account and send you the captured photos and videos, which means it must be within Wi-Fi range. This is an obvious challenge for a device designed to be placed outside, but it's something to keep in mind before buying. 

We had our first successful contact on the second day the bird feeder was out. A beautiful tufted titmouse approached warily, probably trying to determine if all the fancy food I put out was real or if there was a trap somewhere. 

I gave it a few minutes and then checked my Bird Buddy app to see the surely beautiful photos of my new best friend, but there was only an animation of a tiny bird bouncing a ball waiting, with the words "Nothing to see here" -- the camera didn't snap a single picture.

When the tufted titmouse returned that same day, the app had no photos, as if it had never happened. The tufted titmouse came by at least four times on the second day the Bird Buddy was up, but the camera never captured a snapshot of it.

The app lets you check the camera feed in the settings to ensure everything is set up and working properly. However, this can diminish battery life, and it takes up to two minutes to load up. 

The Bird Buddy didn't record or take pictures until the third day it was up, but once it got started, it rarely missed a visitor. The tufted titmouse -- now Walter -- has come by many times since then, with sporadic visits from others, like a yellow-rumped warbler and, you guessed it, at least one squirrel. 

How it stands up to everyday use

Having the Bird Buddy has been an amazing experience for all of us at home; seeing the birds up close and personal as the Bird Buddy captures them has been educational and highly entertaining. 

Each time a new visitor comes -- of the avian or rodent variety -- the Bird Buddy app sends you what it calls "postcards", which include a bit of information about the visitor, a video, and ten photos that you can pick and choose from to decide which to keep. After you've chosen your keepers, you can decide to share them publicly with the Bird Buddy community within the app or save them to your private collection.

The battery lasted about a week, as did my fancy mix of dry foods. Taking down the Bird Buddy to recharge the camera module is a great opportunity to clean the feeder and refill the reservoir using the included birdseed cup. The Bird Buddy has a little door on the back of the seed reservoir that you can open to drop in the bird food and then close it when done.

Extra additions

Though the Bird Buddy has some drawbacks, most can be solved with the different add-ons the company offers its customers. For example, a detachable solar panel can be added to the unit's roof for $70, which helps reduce the frequency of charging the camera module.

ZDNET's buying advice

The youngsters in my home love seeing what comes through in the Bird Buddy app and have never seen such closeup, high-quality photos of the birds that visit our backyard, so it's blowing them away. They get excited about trying different types of bird seed to attract more different kinds of birds, as do I, and we're trying it in different places around the yard.

The app is definitely slow, as there's a lot of room for improvement there. It has some bugs with loading photos and videos every now and then, and it could be more user-friendly. Personally, I'd skip the postcard format of delivering the bird visitor information and go for a simpler, straightforward approach, as it would make it more intuitive for new users.

Battery life isn't the greatest, but a 4000 mAh rechargeable battery is going out to face the avian world, so no more than a week or two of battery life is expected. This could be improved in future models or by simply adding the solar panel roof. 

After doing some hands-on testing for a few weeks, I love my Bird Buddy. It is on the expensive side, at $219, but I would get it for bird-loving relatives. It does an outstanding job of taking beautiful photos of bird visitors, and I particularly love the AI-powered species recognition feature.