You know who doesn’t care about AI, recession indicators, or You Can See Everything FOMO? Birds.
Birds don’t even know you exist, nor would they care about you if they did. In this era of everything all the time, it’s almost life-affirming to interact with a being who has a brain the size of a garbanzo bean, that isn’t able to drive or vote.
There are probably entertaining dramas playing out in your yard right now that you don’t even know about. Mine include a crow with one eye and a greedy Steller’s jay that fills his crop with peanuts until it’s translucent.
Now that smart bird feeders have been around since 2020, even moderately priced models come with high-resolution cameras, 4K video recording, and AI ID that rarely misses. Many of them require minimal maintenance other than filling the seeds. (As long as you’re following the 5-7-9 rule of pole-mount placement, to keep squirrels away.)
Below are some early Black Friday sales on models I have been using and enjoying for years and would not hesitate to buy for a gift (or myself).
Top Picks
Kiwibit Bird Feeder 2
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Kiwibit 4K Smart Bird Feeder (Auxiliary Solar)
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Birdfy Original (Blue) With Solar for $127 (29% Off)
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Photograph: Medea Giordano
Birdfy
Feeder Lite With Solar
For some reason, this deal is only on the blue version of this feeder; the yellow costs an extra ($13). Anyhow, if you’ve only got $130 to spend, Birdfy’s enduring original is your best bet. Sure, there are sturdier, better-designed feeders (like Kiwibit, below), and feeders with better camera quality (like Camojojo’s 32MP Hibird), but you will either pay extra or run into janky apps and paywalled features.
If you’re just looking for a reliable feeder that will last through the seasons and sports a high-quality, easy-to-use app without major features being paywalled, you won’t do better than this model. It comes with an auxiliary solar panel that mounts separately, but if you don’t want solar, you can pay even less—just $110. I would recommend it, though—Birdfy’s panels have been very reliable in my experience, and I think it’s worth the extra $17 to not have to worry about bringing it in to charge. (Note: This model only supports 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi.)
Kiwibit Feeder 2 With Solar Roof for $170 (29% Off)
This isn’t the latest and greatest Kiwibit model (that would be the Feeder 2 Pro, $220), but the regular Feeder 2 is still exceedingly well designed, and this is the lowest price I have ever seen it. The generously sized, 1.5-liter seed hopper is bifurcated for two different types of feed and pulls right out of the body via a handle on the top—no need to take the whole feeder down to refill.
The 8-megapixel photos and 4K video quality are top-tier at this price point, and the solar roof kept everything charged through all kinds of weather during my test. The app is easy to navigate and functional without a Kiwibit Plus subscription, but more and more features are starting to be paywalled, as I found when I recently reviewed the Feeder 2 Pro, which I don’t love. Note that this feeder only works on 2.4-GHz Wi-Fi and the warranty is only one year, compared with the above Birdfy’s two-year warranty.
Kiwibit 4K Feeder With Auxiliary Solar for $140 (26% Off)
Despite the different name, this Kiwibit model has the same camera and hardware as the Feeder 2, just without the built-in solar roof. Still, I had no issues installing the included 3-watt solar panel on the back of the wall mount (I always pole-mount my feeders to keep squirrels away), so if you’re interested in Kiwibit’s sturdy build quality and high-resolution imagery and want to save $30, this is a totally viable option.
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