Under the heading of “why didn’t someone think of this sooner?” comes the “Bird Buddy.”
Essentially it’s a smart bird feeder that alerts you that there’s a visitor to your fancy bird restaurant.
But, it’s actually much more sophisticated than just a feeder with a camera. The weatherproof feeder also captures video and still images during the day, has Wi-Fi capability that will notify you of low seed levels and is even available with a solar panel roof. One of the really innovative items is that it recognizes over 1000 species and organizes them, according to the inventor, in a “Pokemon Go” like arrangement. The picture quality is surprisingly good as is the live streaming.
Of course, there’s the ubiquitous phone app to control it. You can also choose to have it immediately post the picture to the Bird Buddy Live page and many do. On this page there are constant fresh images to excite any birder.
Impressively, at the 2023 CES, it won Innovation Awards in three categories: Software and Mobile, Digital imaging and Smart Home.
Initially funded on Kickstarter, and it’s worth noting, unlike many, many projects on crowdfunding sites that are purely scams, this project is genuine and there are almost 40,000 users currently. After speaking to the inventors in person, they’re not through with more add-on options and models. Most models, even with the solar roof is under $300.
I don’t see how this can miss as this is a win-win product, the winged visitors get groceries at times when there may not be much to eat, and we get to smile.
(Update 5/31/23 – as of today, there are now over 100,000,000 pictures uploaded and over 62,00 users)
