Black Friday is in full swing, and on this most sacred of shopping holidays, there haven’t been enough bird deals. The WIRED staff loves birds. As WIRED senior writer Scott Gilbertson points out, this humble hobby can have a whole host of benefits, including making you friends, improving your concentration, and enriching your life.
You don’t need fancy tools to enjoy the ones in your area, but two of our favorite bird feeders are on sale. If you needed an excuse to step away from your computer screen or out of the mall, now is your chance to pick up the Bird Buddy (8/10, WIRED Review) or Netvue Birdfy (6/10, WIRED Review). They’re on sale right now.
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Bird Feeder Deals
Bird Buddy is equipped with a camera that uses AI to identify exactly who’s visiting your backyard. When we tested it, the price hovered around $200, but the price has gone up since you can no longer pre-order it. Still, this is the cheapest we’ve tracked it yet. Some readers reported issues with shipping early on, but we think stock should be more consistent now.
The connected app shows you a live feed or images taken when birds arrive—what it calls postcards, which you can collect for new identified species. When we tested it, there were some errors, but it was usually accurate. At least, it was able to narrow it down to the same family, like calling a mourning dove a white-winged dove. This $169 price is for the feeder, but there are bundles and accessories too. I particularly recommend getting the solar roof bundle for $209 so you don’t have to worry about charging the camera.
Photograph: Netvue
We also tested two of Netvue’s smart feeders. The plastic feeder is discounted to $170 ($80 off) or $190 with a solar panel. This $240 price is for the newer bamboo feeder that I’ve been testing and a solar panel. It’s a price jump, but the result is a really beautiful addition to your yard or balcony. It still has a camera, but doesn’t look like a plasticky gadget. It’s not a birdhouse, it’s a birdhome.
The Birdfy is better-looking, and you also get a higher camera resolution at 1080p—Bird Buddy’s camera is 720p (the Pro subscription unlocks 1080p postcards). However, Netvue’s AI database was still far behind Bird Buddy’s when we tested it in December, so identification was less accurate. The brand started an “AI Improvement Journey” and every few weeks it crowd-sources its users to help train its AI to identify particular species. If that’s irritating, stick with Bird Buddy.
