Bird Buddy Review: Our 6-Month Test and Verdict

If you love watching backyard birds at the feeder, odds are you’ll LOVE having a smart bird feeder with a camera that captures close-ups portraits of every feathered friend visiting for a meal.

There are several nice models on the market, but one of the most popular by far is the Bird Buddy.

This smart bird feeder has taken the bird-loving world by storm.

But just how good is it? And is it worth the price tag?

We’ve done an in-depth test – spanning rainy cold winter months into hot, sunny summer months – and break down every detail for you.

With a user-friendly app that notifies you of winged visitors and captures stunning images and video, the Bird Buddy ensures that you never miss a moment of the avian action.

Let’s dive into the details and discover why the Bird Buddy smart bird feeder is ruffling feathers in the bird-watching community, earning an impressive overall rating of 4.75 out of 5 on our “bird-watcher’s delight” chart.

Contents

1. Build Quality
2. Set Up & App Experience
3. Getting Photos and Video
4. Identifying Bird Species with Bird Buddy’s AI
5. Image and Video Quality
6. Battery Life
7. Overall Impression

The Bird Buddy has a wonderfully simple, sleek design. There are two main components – the camera module and the feeder itself.

We’ll address the build quality one by one.

Camera Module

The camera module has a simple, solid build – a single unit with a charging port. 

It is removable, making it easy to bring inside to recharge when needed or to clean the feeder.

It pops into the feeder easily and holds in place with a magnet. We love that there’s no wrestling with screws or latches to deal with.

The camera also has a Gorilla Glass® casing, a tough, scratch-resistant glass that’s also non-toxic an antimicrobial. So, no fear of critters harming the camera nor of the camera housing harming curious critters that try to see if it’s edible.

There’s also little fear of the elements. The Bird Buddy is rated IP67, meaning the camera can handle exposure to dust, sand and heavy rain or snow.

In fact, it can withstand temperatures ranging from -5°F to 120°F (-20°C to 50°C).

This was good news since we started testing in mid-winter with plenty of rainstorms passing through.

We’ll get to the image and video quality in a moment, but the build of the module itself is fantastic.

The camera module pops in and out of the feeder with ease. A magnet keeps it secured in place and tells the camera it’s time to take photos. 

Feeder Module

The feeder module is a practical size for most homes, whether you’re in an apartment with a balcony or a house with a yard.

The feeder comes completely put together, so none of that DIY-Allen-wrench nonsense when it arrives.

Made of durable ASA plastic, it feels very solid and yet not overly bulky. And, with a 24-month warranty, we know they stand behind their build.

Plus, it comes in some adorably stylish colors. Many smart bird feeders seem to put style in second place. Bird Buddy, on the other hand, clearly cares about looks as much as function (Or, style and substance, as Paul Hollywood would say).

The roof covers the seed dispense tray well, so seeds stayed dry in drizzly weather during our testing (though we brought it inside during heavy rain so as not to risk any seed molding).

It holds a moderate amount of seed. Based on our level of bird activity, it needed to be refilled about twice a week. But, thankfully, it doesn’t dispense a lot of seed at once, which means less mess.

Bird Buddy includes two mounting options: a hanger and a pole mount.

You can separately purchase a swiveling wall mount as well.

We opted for hanging it on the hook we already have installed on our deck. The feeder is a bit weighty, and the hangar is pretty basic. So, we also added a twist tie to secure the hook to the feeder hook to ensure that rambunctious birds like our resident Steller’s jay can’t knock it down.

Beyond what’s included with the basic model, you can also upgrade to the model with a solar panel roof, or go for larger perches or several add-ons for nectar, suet, and fruit.

None of it is cheap. In fact, it frankly feels kinda overpriced. But if you’re REALLY into certain species of birds, like hummingbirds, it could be worth it.

We definitely recommend at least leveling up to the solar roof model. The solar panel roof plugs easily into the camera unit and – even in a Pacific Northwest winter with not a lot of sunlight – kept our test feeder charged up just fine.

The solar roof charges the battery slowly, so if you’re plowing through battery power without much sunlight – like in winter – it might not necessarily 100% replace charging it up every so often via an outlet.

But, in our testing in the Pacific Northwest, even the dim light on winter days was enough to keep it charged. And during summer, we tried putting it out with only 5% battery power, and the solar roof recharged it to full capacity by the next day – even while taking tons of photos in “frenzy mode”. Impressive!

The Bird Buddy app is easy to install, intuitive to use, and packed with fun features. 

Setting up the Bird Buddy is quick and easy.

Since there aren’t any parts to put together, it’s just a matter of charging up the camera, connecting it to your wifi network and your mobile device, popping it in the feeder and voila! You’re ready for feathered guests.

It might take a little bit of time to get the Bird Budy ready for go time – about 15-20 minutes between downloading the app, updating firmware if needed (which, it was for us), and connecting the camera to your account.

Turning on the live stream feature and recording my phone’s screen to test the camera for the very first time! 

You’re also walked through how to place the feeder in your yard, which is important not only for bird accessibility but also for privacy.

Privacy is a big priority for Bird Buddy. They won’t allow images or video of people, or recognizable things like cars or houses. So, there’s no chance of a Bird Buddy making an appearance as a stealth spy tool in the next James Bond movie.

Once you find the just-right spot, fill up the feeder (a fancy scoop is provided) and you’re ready to welcome visitors.

Using the Bird Buddy App

The app itself is a joy to use.

The company has really gone all out to ensure that it’s an easy-as-pie experience to get started, keeps things streamlined and intuitive, and it’s actually fun to use thanks to the designers coming up with an adorable bird mascot that entertains you while you wait for things like updates.

On top of that, the app sends helpful alerts about things like cleaning your feeder or tips on charging your battery to maximize battery life.

Once birds start visiting your feeder, you’ll receive “postcards” – images and video of the birds including bird identification.

Bird Buddy’s artificial intelligence helps identify species, and it has options for you to correct the species identification if it gets it wrong.

And, if you have a common species visiting your feeder and you’re so over getting more photos of it, you can customize an “ignore” list for species to skip getting photos of, or even set it to only send you photos of new species.

And here’s the best part…

Bird Buddy Community

The app connects you with the Bird Buddy community. You can share your feeder with friends, family, and fellow Bird Buddy users to let them see who’s visiting, or pop in on other users’ bird feeder cameras to check out the action.

Bird Buddy does a lot to make using this gadget so much more than just a bird feeder camera.

It really does feel like you’re part of a global community of bird lovers, and are an insider in a fun-loving crew of nature nerds.

There’s even Bird Buddy TV – a feature inside the app that features bird videos curated from those publically shared to the Bird Buddy community.

It’s like the bird-lover’s version of the YouTube scroll.

They’ve pulled out all the stops to make using the Bird Buddy feel like a full community bird-watching experience.

We’re impressed with Bird Buddy’s crisp detail in both the photos and videos! 

Once your feeder is set up, the camera will start snapping bird photos and video, and sends them to your Bird Buddy app as “postcards”.

You can review the postcards – which are a set of images and video clips that range from a few seconds to a minute – and decide to save them, share them, or ignore them.

Now, you won’t get a postcard every time a bird visits.

Instead of photographing every movement at the feeder, Bird Buddy uses AI to sort through the gads of images and send you only the best.

So, no need to filter through gads of bird photos to find keepers.

(One day, within the same 10-hour testing period, the Bird Buddy provided 8 postcards while the Netvue Birdfy, a competing smart bird feeder, sent 76 video clips. It’s super fun at first, but can get old going through SO MUCH content.)

You also don’t have to deal with transferring files, reformatting SD card, or keeping hard drive of images.

Plus, it’s pretty cute how Bird Buddy adds layers of excitement for seeing new species show up at the feeder.

While we’ve did have some bummer moments during testing when we saw cool species hit the feeder but no postcard arrived on the phone, the selective nature of Bird Buddy is a good thing in the long run for at least three reasons:

1. Easier image curation over time,
2. Maintains the novelty around receiving new postcards
3. Keeps you watching the actual feeder with your own two eyes and connecting with nature off the screen, with special moments arriving as an extra treat on your phone.

Plus, if someone is at the feeder you want a closer look at, you can always turn on a livestream and watch in real time. 

Along with the postcard, Bird Buddy’s AI tech suggests the bird species that just visited.

It’s correct a fair amount of the time, but certainly not always. It’s gotten a few similar species wrong during testing.

That said, there’s a great feature that allows you to suggest the correct species, mark it as a “mystery visitor”, or ask the community to help identify it.

And, if you’re getting tons of individuals of the same species and you want to tune those out, you can add the species to your “ignore” list and Bird Buddy won’t snap shots of these particular guests.

Once a bird species is IDed, you can head to the species profile to learn a little more about it. It’s very light-weight info – you’ll definitely still want to crack open a field guide – but it’s a cute intro to new species if you’re just mildly curious about it.

The Bird Buddy features an image resolution of 5 megapixels for photos and 720p HD for videos (which can be upped to 1080 with the Pro subscription).

All in all, not too bad when it comes to image size.

The Bird Buddy has great image quality compared to other bird feeder cameras.

The shallow depth of field keeps attention on the birds. And the field of view isn’t as fisheye as other cameras, so there’s less distortion at the edges.

However, the downside of that is that often the smaller visitors are just out of frame, especially when they’ve perched on the side of the feeder tray, or jump down into the tray itself for seeds.

You might only capture part of them unless they land in the correct spot. Luckily, Bird Buddy is good at knowing to take the photo only when birds are in the right part of the frame.

(Sidenote: That’s one thing the Netvue Birdfy has on the Bird Buddy – with the Birdfy, you can adjust the camera angle to suit the best view of your most common visitors. And with a wider field of view, you see a lot more of the action.)

But in terms of resolution, file size, dynamic range, and sharpness, the image and video quality get two thumbs up.

The Bird Buddy’s battery is quick to charge and slow to drain.

The battery can last between 5 days and 2 weeks depending on:

• how active your feeder is
• if you’ve set your app to send just a few postcards or went full “Frenzy mode”
• or if you’re frequently live-streaming

The battery maximizes its charge by going into a battery saver mode every sunset, and turning back on at sunrise. It’s helpful since you won’t see feeder friends visiting at night anyway.

The solar panel roof can help keep the battery charged for quite awhile.

Our solar panel kept the feeder consistently charged even in overcast and rainy weather, eliminating the need to bring it in for charging.

Luckily, the camera only records when it’s mounted to the feeder, so no worries that you’re accidently recording yourself going about your day…

You can monitor the battery level from the app. When it needs a refill, plug it into the USB-C cable that comes with it in the box, and it charges up quickly. During our test, it took under an hour to go from empty to a full charge.

The solar panel plugs into the top of the camera, and keeps it charging even in overcast and rainy conditions. 

Of course, other feeders have excellent features, too. We’ve mentioned a couple of ways the Netvue Birdfy has a bit of an edge on Bird Buddy. You can peruse our full list of recommended smart bird feeders with cameras here.

But, if you want to get photos of backyard birds with practically zero tech fuss and lots of happy energy around the whole experience, the Bird Buddy is the feeder for you.

On top of the gadget itself, we love so much that the Bird Buddy blog delves into things like increasing biodiversity in backyards, the importance of pollinators, and other things that bird lovers might not already know and may get on board with.

It’s an ethos we can fully get behind.

We also love that the company continuously works to improve its existing products and expand its line-up of goodies.

From making it easy to submit product requests, to their upcoming line of hummingbird feeders, we know Bird Buddy will be around for the long haul.