Review: Bird Buddy - Feed the birds and capture them on camera

Bird Buddy is a birdhouse made of plastic with a space for a camera module, so you can see the birds that come up close, but not only that, also have them identified by species.

It comes with a steel bracket so I can hang the birdhouse outside the window, but there is also the option to screw it in place. I am currently letting it hang, which means that the windy weather causes the birdhouse to sway significantly. Not an optimal feeding place for small birds that want to eat in peace.

Since the camera, once charged, needs wifi to connect with the outside world, you are somewhat limited in where you can place the birdhouse. It should not be too far from the house's wifi, and I notice that the coverage for my wifi quickly diminishes a short distance outside the outer wall. The app informs me to be patient and that it may take weeks before the birds find my new feeding spot, but after a few days and zero birds detected by the camera, I pack everything up and instead take it home to place on the balcony in a calmer environment. Then it only takes about an hour before I have the first visitor. However, there is not much of a rush to my feeding, and I start to wonder if the camera really reacts to every bird that is present. I try going out and waving in front of the camera myself to see if it detects it, but no.

Instead, I start inviting friends and family members so that they can also keep an eye on the birdhouse and its visitors. I get a few questions about how they can accept the invitation I sent, but eventually, it works. They can see birds that have visited, but they complain to me that they can't do much more. For example, they can't leave a comment in the app about a bird visit.

As the owner of the birdhouse and the account, I can invite three guests who see everything I can see, and if I pay for a premium account, I can invite up to ten people and also get higher resolution video, 1536 x 2048 pixels instead of 1020 x 1440. The still images are in five megapixels.

I can adjust the resolution and sensitivity, and I do. It's possible to balance battery life against sensitivity so that, I think, the camera can catch more birds. At the same time, I load the birdhouse with bread and cheese pieces so I can clearly see if any bird has been there. You can watch film and images from the camera either afterward when the camera has detected a visit, or by going into the app and watching live from the mobile. Just a quarter of an hour after I loaded with bread and cheese, I go in and watch live to see that everything is already gone. Without the camera detecting anything, even though it was set to the highest sensitivity and thus shorter battery life. Clearly, the camera misses birds, in other words. It also happens that I get daily reports at the end of the day saying that I had two bird visitors during the day, but the app didn't notify me about it during the day. Otherwise, the idea is that you should get a notification in the app as soon as a bird is recorded.

The first bird that visits my birdhouse cannot be identified by the app, but then both the “Eurasian Blue Tit” and “Great Tit” appear. The identification is entirely in English, and in Swedish, it is blåmes and talgoxe, respectively. Other times, the app completely fails to identify the species, even though I think it's quite clear from the pictures. These two are the only species I get to my birdhouse. At least, they are the ones the camera has managed to capture. One can conclude that it takes quite a long period of a bird in front of the camera before it actually starts recording and taking pictures.

Despite setting it to the highest sensitivity, birds are missed, but the battery life is impressive. As I write this, the sun is shining in a wintry landscape, and in the app, I see that the camera is charging. This is because the roof of my birdhouse consists of solar cells. During my test period of several weeks, a week's usage has never drained the battery more than about 80 percent. However, it is difficult to say with certainty how the battery life is over longer periods because it depends on many factors. Partly, during my test period, it has been the darkest time of the year, and the camera automatically goes into deep sleep mode as soon as it gets dark. It has therefore not worked many hours a day. Additionally, as a user, you can go in and watch live, and if you do that a lot, it obviously drains the battery. Furthermore, my model has a solar cell roof, but the birdhouses are also available without it. My birdhouse is called Bird Buddy Smart Bird Feeder Pro and has a solar cell roof and costs 240 euros at the time of writing. Cheaper models with lower video resolution and without a solar roof are available for 189 euros.