The photos are fantastic, but the app’s user interface is very clunky and the makers seem uninterested in hearing feedback that would improve it.
The design of the feeder neglects to reflect understanding of bird anatomy (no perches to hold onto) and the storage space is poorly designed and does not self-fill without intervention.
The biggest problem is the painfully slow manner in which new photos are added to the app. Each one must be individually approved through a three click process (minimum) and the app does not “learn” from the bird ID you’ve just entered. If I just selected Oak Tirmouse for the first of a set of photos all taken simultaneously, then Oak Titmouse should automatically be added to the list for confirmation of additional photos.
Furthermore, the suggested species suggest a near-complete lack of understanding of bird behavior. Not all species come to feeders, so stop suggesting them actively and rather keep them in the database to be found if needed.
I would much prefer if photos were automatically added to my phone’s photos like WhatsApp and others do but instead the BirdBuddy app forces you into a convoluted sharing process which puts their marketing goals above user ones.
I remain hopeful that the makers of BirdBuddy will start listening to users, or else a competitor with better customer support will easily overtake them.
The app is still in the very beginning stages. Progress has already been made in the short time I have had my feeder. However, as an adult (I bet most avid birdwatchers are adults), I would like a more sophisticated experience. You have to click on a treasure chest EVERY SINGLE TIME a bird photo is taken at your feeder. I wish there was just a daily feed of photos to view & organize. It takes FOREVER to catch up if you missed organizing for even 4-6 hours. Also, if you don’t know birds, you will have quite a hard time identifying as the “smart camera” doesn’t know correctly about 75-80% of the time. Love the concept and I bet it will continue to get better!
I took my time setting it up and it is working great!
I need to recharge every other day since there is little sun in Northern Ohio in December. I love seeing the notification of a new postcard and seeing up close our flighty friends! The app is pretty good.. there are a few quirky responses when you make certain selections but overall I can figure it out!
The response team answered my ‘mystery bird’ request. I did wait a long time for the device but now that it is here, I love it! Can’t wait for spring when the fun will really begin!
Set up the feeder - lesser goldfinches discovered it within 10 minute! It’s annoying to not be able to delete postcard photos once they’re in a folder when the wrong bird was identified. Had to delete an allowed guest because all of his postcards automatically showed up in my own feed. There should be a way to identify postcards from guests separately and not have to look at them if I don’t want to. Had to ask the guest to remove me because I could figure out how to delete him from my guest access - nothing worked and it wasn’t intuitive on how to do it nor were there any specific instructions on how to do it. I have been trying to find a Western Scrub Jay in the app’s list of birds but it’s not even there. There should be an infinite list of birds from which to choose. The app developers still have a ways to go to make this a good app.
Developer Response
Hi camasqueen,
Thank you so much for your feedback!
In regards to zooming photos - this feature was actually added with the Dec 1st app update, so please make sure your app is up to date. When trying to ID/verify a bird, simply tap on the photo and use the "pinch" action to zoom in/out.
In regards to your second paragraph issue - receiving postcards is essentially the very point of sharing feeder access feature. If you wouldn't like to receive postcards from your brother's feeder, simply remove it from your in-app settings and you will not receive his postcards.
I hope you find these tips useful!This was a great idea and after some minor glitches, I was able to get it up and running. The instructions for setup were not clear, I didn’t know if I needed to charge the unit before starting and wasn’t sure which direction to load the camera into the feeder. Every time I get a “postcard” or a new picture I get a drumroll and cymbal crash that I could do without. The battery only lasts for about 48 hours and then has to be recharged. The bird ID software is not very good. It identified a small house finch as a pileated woodpecker, which is huge. I do enjoy the pictures, but it would be nice if it would stop sending me postcards with the same birds over and over again and maybe just notify me if there was some new bird.
Forget any negative reviews. I backed this project on kickstarter and waited almost two years, thinking I’d never see my buddy. In just two days I’ve been nothing but blown away. It’s everything I wanted and was promised from unboxing to setup it’s a new standard. I love my buddy and the friends who visit! Learn more about each of them or see more photos from other feeders - it just works. Updating my review to point out: it’s winter so the solar panel is a bit slow. In a few days here it’ll be late December and the days grow longer again…
I think I originally rated this app 3 stars. After using it for a while I’m downgrading it to 1 star. I’m not sure what the developers were thinking with their postcard concept. I have way to many to open. You have to wait for the rainbow to see your pics. If you inadvertently save a photo you can not delete it later. The longer it is in use, the more unidentified birds I get…when it is the same three species. Please change it to one feed of pictures that I can keep or delete. If I mark them as a mystery and collect them I want to be able to change the name later. Again…let users delete pictures we’ve previously collected. Now that I have a lot of photos I’d like to delete some.
All in all, Bird Buddy is an impressive combination of hardware and software, but it’s a young product that’s only just now getting put through its paces at any real scale. Managing postcards and galleries in the app isn’t super intuitive and it often forces user behaviors that I don’t want to do. Not having the ability to silence or reduce notifications about very common birds is a miss; I don’t love having to manage multiple postcards per day of the same species, and it lessens the delight of getting notifications. Happy to be an early adopter because I’m familiar with the challenges of product and software development, but a lot of people will find this frustrating in its current form.
Bird Buddy is astoundingly good! Yes the software still needs some refinement but that will surely come. However to have this amazing AI in your own back yard to select good photos, identify birds visiting the feeder and then send you a postcard with photos is really great!
It took a few days for birds to get used to the feeder. Also about the same time for squirrels so I’m now working on squirrel obstacles for the support post. But then the visitor postcards start flowing which you can album yourself privately or with others and look at others’ photos.
The solar roof seems a must otherwise the battery would need daily recharging.
I also had to install a weatherproof wifi extender ($60) for a short yard.
In overall terms though this is a really great addition to the internet of things if you’re interested in identifying which birds come to feed in your back yard.
Thank you Bird Buddy!
I am really enjoying my BirdBuddy! I love that it identifies birds and gives you tons of information about them. I also love some of the really comical photos I’ve gotten! :-) I’ve only had my BirdBuddy a few weeks, but I would suggest an option that allows you to set a timer on how often the camera takes photos of birds. Sometimes at the end of the day I’ll have dozens of postcards, and it can be quite time consuming to go through each postcard, and then act upon whether I want to keep it or not.
Otherwise, the app does exactly what it states and gives you the opportunity to take close-up photos of birds you wouldn’t otherwise be able to.
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