The Best Smart Bird Feeders
You may not know the difference between a bunting and a bobolink yet, but you do know when something has swung by your bird feeder just from the carnage left behind: the drained seed bin, the mess of hulls, the unimaginable spread of poop.
Some people have time to camp out with a pair of binoculars to spy on their feathered friends, but for backyard birders, there’s the smart bird feeder. These devices entice the pretty birdies with the promise of food but also contain a small wireless camera that gives you an up-close view of live and recorded visits. Some even have bird-recognition technology that can tag the types of species that appear. It’s like having your own private on-demand nature channel.
We recommend the Netvue Birdfy Feeder because it alerts you to every visitor, provides a wide, clear image, and allows you to store recordings in the cloud or to a microSD card. It also comes with a perch and a solar panel, features that we consider to be essential but are often add-on purchases for other models.
Everything we recommend
Our pick
This bird feeder has a 1080p camera with a wide viewing angle, includes an easy-to-fill seed bin, and offers options for local and cloud video storage.
Runner-up
This bird feeder can identify who or what is coming to feast, provides fun and interesting trivia about your feathered friends, and has an active in-app community.
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Go solar
Pair your feeder with a solar panel so you’ll never have to worry about charging the camera. This is especially useful if it’s high up.
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Expect a mess
Birds are wild animals and leave the mess to prove it. Expect to clean the feeder often, which includes wiping the camera lens.
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Stay close to home
Smart bird feeders need strong Wi-Fi to work, so don’t install yours far away. Use your phone’s Wi-Fi reception to confirm signal strength.
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Squirrels happen
Squirrels can damage your feeder—or empty it. Consider investing in a baffle or using spicy seed or oil to keep those critters away.
Our pick
This bird feeder has a 1080p camera with a wide viewing angle, includes an easy-to-fill seed bin, and offers options for local and cloud video storage.
If you want to catch every visitor that flies by, get the Netvue Birdfy Feeder. It sends the most smartphone notifications of any smart feeder we tested and includes the species name of the bird spotted. From there, you can feed on a series of stunning 1080p videos and photos with a wide, 135-degree viewing angle, and you can also catch nocturnal creatures through the camera’s color night vision. Video remains stored in 20-second clips for up to 30 days in the cloud for free, or you can opt for local storage using a microSD card or upgrade to 30-second clips by subscribing to Birdfy Cloud for $2 per month or $20 per year. This model is also one of the easiest feeders to maintain, with a flip-up roof that can hold up to 1.5 liters of seed.
Runner-up
This bird feeder can identify who or what is coming to feast, provides fun and interesting trivia about your feathered friends, and has an active in-app community.
For the aspiring twitcher, the Bird Buddy Smart Bird Feeder with Solar Roof provides photos, videos, bird identification, and lively trivia tidbits—and not just about the birds in your backyard. The integrated camera isn’t as good as that of our top pick, as it records in 720p out of the box, but you can upgrade it to 1080p with a Bird Buddy Pro Subscription ($5 per month or $60 per year). Another drawback is that the image is narrower, with a fixed viewing angle of just 120 degrees. The Bird Buddy model also doesn’t deliver notifications as often—in fact, we noticed that it would miss many visitors. We specifically recommend investing in the version with the solar roof (or adding the solar roof later) because the battery life is a measly five to 15 days otherwise. Still, this smart bird feeder is a great choice for anyone who is looking to become a local bird aficionado, as well as to learn about other birds around the world.
