Bird Buddy Pro Review: All Birds, No Bother

The location leafage consists of a database of “postcards” taken by the camera. Each postcard allows you to scroll done aggregate high-quality photos and a video with sound, which ranges successful magnitude from a fewer seconds to up to 2 minutes depending connected what a vertebrate mightiness beryllium doing. Sometimes the algorithm mightiness besides determine to nonstop a video successful slow-motion, but that lone happened once, erstwhile a Steller's jay spent an inordinate magnitude of clip rummaging for a sunflower seed.

The AI recognition runs on the apical (I've recovered it to lone beryllium incorrect occasionally, but my gait doesn't get an particularly immense assortment of birds), and the postcard's bottommost has options to send, save, oregon edit, on with the occasional information astir the identified bird. The app sends a recap of the extremity of each time including the fig of visits and fig of antithetic birds.

There's besides a tab for a postulation of your favourite saved photos, arsenic good arsenic a live-view fastener and “BB TV,” which shows prime clips from different Bird Buddy users' feeds. (I've recovered its enactment doesn't alteration often.) Cleaning reminders are besides a bonus, and possibly astir utile of all, the app has the quality to filter retired visitors you'd alternatively not person successful your postcard feed, specified arsenic squirrels oregon the aforesaid junco that shows up each 15 minutes.

Users tin besides take a “curated experience” option, which relies connected an AI algorithm to show lone the “most interesting” captured photos and videos. Somewhat disappointingly, however, I've recovered that careless of the settings, the sensor doesn't look to seizure each vertebrate that visits, adjacent erstwhile each filters are turned disconnected and the provender is acceptable to “show all.”

This occupation seems to person gotten worse implicit time—even connected mornings aft a caller effect refill, the camera often captures lone 1 postcard, portion I tin look retired the model and spot dozens of birds connected the feeder implicit the people of respective hours. Online comments bespeak this is simply a somewhat regular occurrence with the Bird Buddy, though angling it wherever there's much oregon little airy has helped successful immoderate cases (not mine).

Granted, I admit that I don't person to wade done 100 snapshots of 1 sparrow oregon a random squirrel butt, arsenic is the lawsuit with different feeders. But I would similar astatine slightest a grounds of each vertebrate that visited, not conscionable the ones the sensor oregon algorithm deems worthy. Hopefully this is an app-related contented Bird Buddy tin refine successful aboriginal updates.

Bright Ideas

The exemplary I person sports the optional built-in star roof, which I highly recommend. (If you person the archetypal Bird Buddy oregon the non-solar Pro version, you tin bargain the extortion separately for $79.) Not lone does this mean the feeder tin complaint extracurricular indefinitely and not necessitate 2 abstracted mounts attached by a cord (which is astatine hazard for rodents to chew), but this allows for it to beryllium placed connected a shepherd's hook oregon pole. These are the preferred mounting scenarios, arsenic they marque it easiest to abide by the 5-7-9 regularisation recommended by experts to deter squirrels and different nuisance animals: 5 feet disconnected the ground, 7 feet distant from structures, and 9 feet from overhanging branches.

Though I person not needed to bring the Bird Buddy successful to complaint successful its 4 months outdoors, its artillery has travel perilously adjacent to moving retired during particularly overcast weeks—closer than immoderate of my different feeders. The Pro volition nary longer instrumentality postcards erstwhile its complaint dwindles to 12 percent, an unfortunate milestone the feeder did deed connected 1 occasion.