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The squirrel parked itself in my bird feeder, greedily consuming every seed.
It started when I lost my job and returned to one of my passions: photography.
A smart product that lives up to the packaging.(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
I have a nice long 200mm lens and a solidSonyAlpha a6000 APS-C camera.
The goal of my bird photography is to get close.
I want to see bird eyes and the fine fibers of the multi-colored feathers.
A smart product that lives up to the packaging.(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
I have considered a 600mm lens, but keep balking at the price.
To be clear, getting close to birds without a long lens is difficult.
Then they sit motionless on a chair and wait for a bird, which usually arrives.
The setup is about as easy as possible(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
I have considered these extreme measures for getting close to birds, but fortunately there’s a better way.
I’ve wanted one for years but worried that spending over $200 for a bird feeder was excessive.
Meanwhile, I spend at least that much each year on birdseed.
I had it in my tree in no time.(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
There was another reason I never bought the gadget.
I worried I’d forget and soon have just a basic bird feeder hanging in my bird sanctuary.
Fortunately, my family paid $299 (299) for Bird Buddy with the solar roof.
Note that you want the solar panel facing the sun.(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
Sort of but more on that later.
Early bird
Setting up a Bird Buddy is easy.
Initially, I thought the camera wasn’t charging.
The app featured some important messaging about my data privacy and what to expect. Note the view from the camera. It looks like the roof blocks some of it but remember that the birds fly in under that canopy.
I kept looking for the power/connectivity light, which appeared to be a small hole in the camera body.
I hope future BirdBuddy smart feeders move that light to the surface of the camera chassis.
The only way to do this is to tilt the feeder forward.
See all those seeds? yes, the squirrel noticed them, too.
This causes some seed to slide out the front but not so much that it’s a problem.
It takes approximately two cup-fulls to fill Bird Buddy.
This is probably half the seed I can fit in my regular feeder.
The smart feeder is about 20 ft from my house, well within range of my WiFi signal.
It took a day for the birds to find my smart feeder.
Soon I got my first alert.
It was a Blue Jay who was almost too big for the little feeder.
A collage of my visitors.
Through the live video feed, I could see him (or her) struggle for a perch.
Eventually, he gave up.
The videos include audio, but you’re able to only hear it if you download the videos.
I can’t tell you how excited I was when this male Northern Cardinal showed up and posed.
I also got frequent warnings that constant live-streaming can drain the battery.
At one point my Bird Buddy reported just 8% battery life.
Let’s feed!
Best part of this capture is the pesky squirrel caught mid-flight as the curious sparrow looks on.
He then jumps and seeds go flying.
This is a fairly common problem in the Bird Buddy community and there is no good solution.
My regular feeder has a cage around it for this express reason.
Squirrels can’t get it.
There are no cages for Bird Buddy.
I’ve also tried spicing the feed.
Birds have no heat receptors, but squirrels do and don’t like spice.
My squirrels have developed a taste for the spicier things in life.
I need more
Despite these little glitches, I love my Biurdbuddy.
It’s a single-purpose smart home gadget that does what it promises with minimal fuss.
It’s willing to tell me as much or as little about my feathered visitors as I want.
I can share the exciting (“Look, a squirrel diving off the Bird Buddy!")
and entertaining photos and videos I get with the community or keep them to myself.
I can also watch other people’s Bird Buddys, if they choose to share their feeds.
They often appear to live in more exotic locations and have a wider variety of birds.
It’s fun and relaxing, not something I can say about most smart home technology.
