Become an Amateur Ornithologist in Your Own Backyard With These Smart Bird Feeders

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Regardless of your expertise, seeing a bird land in your yard and perch near your porch is thrilling. This is especially the case if you own a bird feeder. With seeds and nuts bringing new species every day, bird feeders bring local nature right to your door. That is, if you actually see it happen. Smart bird feeders gives you a record every bird that comes to visit.

Smart Bird Feeders take the traditional design of a classic bird feeder and integrate technology that captures videos and images of birds as they land and eat. This provides you with a logged record of all the birds that visit your feeder throughout the day. Most smart bird feeders are usually connected to a mobile app that sends notifications when new birds land and shows you footage of the encounter.

For the ornithology expert and amateur enthusiast alike, we tested out and researched smart bird feeders that turn your yard, porch, and patio into the

Seeing a bird land in your yard and perch near your porch is thrilling—especially if you own a bird feeder filled with seeds and nuts that draw in new species every day. But in order to enjoy the benefits of your bird feeder, you need to wait, watch, and wait some more. Smart bird feeders notify you of every bird that comes to visit, recording highlights so you never miss the action, even when you’re working or out of the house.

Smart bird feeders take the traditional design of a classic bird feeder and integrates cameras to captures videos and images of birds as they land and eat, sort of like how a trail camera operates. This provides you with a logged record of all the birds that visit your feeder throughout the day. Most smart bird feeders are connected to a mobile app that sends notifications when new birds land and shows you footage of the encounter.

For the ornithology expert and amateur enthusiast alike, we tested out and researched smart bird feeders that turn your yard, porch, or patio into the biggest hotbed of local wildlife in your area.

The Best Smart Bird Feeders

• Best Overall: Bird Buddy Smart Bird Feeder

• Best Value: Netvue Birdfy Smart Bird Feeder

• Most Durable: Soliom Metal Bird Feeder with Camera

• Best for Hummingbirds: Netvue Birdfy Hummingbird Feeder

What to Consider

Camera Quality

Most smart bird feeders on our list come with built-in cameras. These cameras offer high definition videos and photographs of birds as they land on the feeder. Most smart bird feeder cameras shoot footage in 720p or 1080p resolution. During the daytime, this quality provides clear, crisp images of all birds as they fly by.

At night, many bird feeder cameras have built-in night vision features, so if any creatures visit in the dark, you’ll still have a clear view of them. Some cameras even have full-color night vision, so no birds must be captured in the muted black and white of a traditional night-vision camera.

What makes the cameras on smart bird feeders unique is that they function similarly to security cameras. With so much time in the day spent without birds at the feeder, most of the cameras switch off to conserve power. When a bird lands, the camera detects the motion and immediately begins taking photos and recording.

If you already own a security camera, you can use it with an option like this Wasserstein bird feeder, which has a cutout for your camera and rings in much cheaper—but you’ll miss out on AI features and app-based perks.

App Interface

Many smart bird feeders have apps that work in tandem with the camera. When the camera senses motion, it sends a notification to the app, so you can check in on the birds in real time. Beyond this, many apps store and log each bird landing throughout the day. You can watch footage you missed from earlier in the week or save photos and videos to your phone.

Some apps even have community features where you can share notable footage from your own backyard or follow along with popular public feeders around the world.

Feeder Design

Smart bird feeder design has an effect on the amount of food it can store. Some come with large internal storage areas while others just have a small reservoir on the bottom that birds can pick through. Most bird feeders also come with bars or branches that serve as perches. Feeder design also protects the food from other animals. many have small fences over the bird seed that keep squirrels or chipmunks from taking handfuls.

Some bird feeders have perches and food storage specific to hummingbirds. These have fake flower blooms with small holes for hummingbird beaks. They also have large cylinders for nectar or sugar water.

Identification Features

Some smart bird feeders offer more than just photos and videos. Through artificial intelligence or specific recognition software, the feeder cameras can identify the species of bird and provide you with the species name and information about them. While for many smart bird feeders this feature is included, others require a fee or monthly subscription to access it.

Power Source

Smart bird feeders are typically powered by solar panels or batteries. Some bird feeders, like our top pick Bird Buddy, have integrated solar panels on the roof, while others have panels that must be set up separately from the feeder and connected through a power cord.

Battery-powered bird feeders set up easily and don’t need any separate mounting systems, though you’ll need to replace the batteries or recharge the entire feeder every few months. Most smart bird feeders rely on solar panels for power, including all the options on our list.

How We Tested

To make our final selections, we tested out multiple smart bird feeders, including our best overall, Bird Buddy. In order to properly test their functionality, we installed them, set up the apps, and filled them with bird seed. From there, we let nature take its course. We paid close attention to app functionality and user experience as well as camera quality. We compared photo and video quality between devices and how easy they were to mount on trees and poles. We also left them out in the rain, which gave us a chance to test durability and how well each protected the camera and seeds from the weather.

For selections we did not test ourselves, we read through customer reviews and looked through major key specs such as seed capacity, camera quality, and weather resistance. We made sure to include options at different price points as well as ones with different design styles meant for specific bird species. There are also multiple bird feeders without cameras, so you can slide in your own security camera, reducing the overall cost.

Smart Bird Feeder

With built-in AI software that recognizes over 1,000 species of birds, plus a weather resistant exterior, this smart bird feeder is the option that offers everything.

In our testing, senior manager Sean Abrams was most impressed by the camera and app interface. Abrams says, “As soon as I set it up I was peering out the window like a true birder waiting for the birds to come. While I waited for my own ‘postcards’ to appear in the app, I was able to check in on bird houses around the world. The app is user-friendly, modern, easy to navigate, and just fun.”

The perch provides a large opening for the birds to access the seeds, and most importantly, is close to the camera. The relative distance from the camera leads to close, detailed images and videos of the birds. It also masks the camera quality—in fact, it initially fooled us into thinking it had a superior picture resolution in comparison to other models we tested.

As for the AI recognition, each bird was identified accurately and logged properly in the app, creating a record of the species in our backyard.

Birdfy Smart Bird Feeder

Built with a powerful HD camera, this Birdfy smart bird feeder offers smooth functionality and crisp images. While the 1080p camera provides clear footage during the day, the most notable feature is the night vision. Unlike other bird cameras that swap to a grainy, black-and-white feed, the Birdfy offers color video for all your late night snackers.

During our testing, Abrams particularly liked the straightforward mounting design: “There were a bit more pieces to put together than the Bird Buddy, but what I did appreciate was all the mounting hardware it came with. I used the included strap to mount the Birdfy to a tree, so I could start using it immediately.”

A noticeable feature for this smart bird feeder is the porch. With long bars that stretch out on each side of the feeder, the porch can hold multiple birds at the same time. The size also attracts birds to rest on it, even when they aren’t eating. You can even expand it further with the Birdfy Pro Perch, which comes with extra length and a few unique toys.

The Birdfy solar panel must be mounted separately, unlike the Bird Buddy, which has its solar panel built directly onto the roof.

Metal Bird Feeder with Camera

Built with a metal exterior treated to prevent rust and corrosion, this is the smart bird house you can feel comfortable leaving out in the rain. The feeder has a whopping 2.7-liter seed capacity, which reduces the need to refill as often, plus drainage holes beneath the seed tray so rain or water doesn’t accumulate over time.

The camera itself shoots high definition footage and comes loaded with AI recognition software for species identification. The camera also comes with a light and speaker built in to its frame. These added features help ward off squirrels and chipmunks.

If one crawls up for food, the lights begin to flash and the speaker will sound an alarm to scare it off.

The bird feeder does require a monthly subscription to access the full suite of features on its app and camera, so keep that in mind when accounting for price.

Birdfy Hummingbird Feeder

Forget seed bags and common beaks. Grab this smart bird feeder and start attracting hummingbirds to your home. With a large cylinder for nectar and multiple flower-style openings, this feeder can support multiple hummingbirds at the same time.

It also notably comes with two cameras. One sits straight on and shows footage from a similar angle to most other options on our list. The other is on the side at a slight angle, providing you with a side profile of the birds as they feed.

The smart feeder also comes with a built-in speaker that plays out bird calls or, the more melodic chirps of bird “songs” to attract new flyers to the porch. These sounds can be played anytime you want through the Birdfy app. The calls and songs are even categorized based on which species of hummingbird they are specifically designed for.

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