The 2 Best Smart Bird Feeders of 2025

If you thought the movie The Birds could have used, well, more birds, choose the Netvue Birdfy Feeder. This smart bird feeder brings a flock of activity to your smartphone, delivering more notifications than any other feeder we tested. Each of those alerts includes the visitor’s species, and the camera captures clear audio and crisp 1080p video in a wide-angle view that isn’t distorted. Although the Birdfy Feeder can distinguish birds by name, we found that it could be indecisive, often tagging our videos with a few different bird types. Overall, however, the Birdfy Feeder is great for the budding or expert birder, as it offers an easy-to-fill feeder, all of the essential add-ons in one package, and a lively in-app community.

It can capture a bird’s entire wingspan in one wide, clear frame. The Birdfy Feeder has a built-in 1080p camera with a wide, 135-degree viewing angle. That wider image typically allowed us to see from beak to claw, even when more than one bird was perching. You can tilt the camera forward to angle it toward the action zone, as well. In addition, the camera features color night vision to capture raccoons, mice, bears, and other nocturnal creatures that may also enjoy the buffet you’ve left out.

You can enjoy a murmuration of notifications. Unlike other models we tested, which limit the number of alerts and recordings you get, the Birdfy Feeder delivers smartphone alerts every time the camera sees motion. We liked that, because even if the shot wasn’t clear, we still had a better idea of who or what was coming by: The Birdfy Feeder sends an alert for every single visitor, including other animals, as well as any people and vehicles that come into view (more on that below).

The Birdfy Feeder also labeled the type of bird in the notifications — house sparrow, red-winged blackbird, mourning dove — so we knew whether the visitor was something we wanted to view immediately or whether it was that pesky grackle bullying all of the other birds and driving them away again.

It can also ID other types of motion. Netvue specializes in security cameras, including the one inside the Birdfy Feeder. That’s why this smart bird feeder can also detect and label all types of motion, besides birds and other animals, including people, cars, and package deliveries.

For best results at the bird feeder, go into the camera’s Settings and filter by “Pets, Animals, and Birds.” It will still capture and record video anytime it detects motion, even if the source is a person walking by, but in the app you can filter the activity feed to only “Birds, Squirrels, and other Animals.”

Choose your storage. The Birdfy Feeder can capture 20-second clips, which it stores free for up to 30 days in the cloud. You can increase that recording time to 30 seconds if you subscribe to Birdfy Cloud, which is $2 per month or $20 per year. If you want to hang on to recordings and photos longer, add them to your Collection; Birdfy allows users to store up to 5GB for free.

Should a bird or other creature hang out for a long time, the Birdfy Feeder creates several clips. In our tests, it wasn’t uncommon for us to get five or six clips from one visit (see Flaws but not dealbreakers), but for the most part, birds don’t linger for too long when they’re snatching a snack. And although we prefer the cloud storage, you also have the option to store footage on a microSD card.

It comes with everything you need. For about $200, you get the feeder, the solar panel, three different mounting attachments, and a perch. All of those components are extremely easy to set up, without tools. And we found that feeders with a perch attracted more birds than those without; often, one visitor would be waiting for another to finish chomping down or would just sit and belt out a few notes post-banquet. (That said, birds aren’t so picky. If you were to toss seeds into a wet cardboard box, they would still find it.)

Netvue also sells a Lite version of the Birdfy smart feeder that’s under $150 but doesn’t have AI for bird recognition — something that we consider to be an essential part of the package. The AI is worth paying a bit more up front, but if you opt for the less expensive model, you can add on the AI later for $5 per month or by paying a $70 lifetime fee.

The seed reservoir is big and easy to fill. The flip-up roof on the feeder made the Birdfy model one of the easier feeders to fill in our tests, and we didn’t have to do it as often as with our runner-up since this model holds 50% more seed, 1.5 liters total.

The Birdfy Community is for the birders. When birds come to visit, you can save photos and clips to your Collection, as well as share them with the Birdfy Community, which includes endless clips and photos from other owners of Birdfy smart bird feeders. And tapping on the species name takes you to Wikipedia for more information about each bird. Although the birds have an ID, community members remain anonymous, as does their location. You can also filter to view non-bird animals that other Birdfy smart-feeder owners have captured, but a Birdfy spokesperson told us that the tags for such images (which in our experience included “Deer,” “Raccoon,” “Squirrel,” and even at least one “Labrador Retriever”) are added manually by community members.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The AI is a work in progress. We found that the Birdfy Feeder sometimes tagged clips of a single bird with two or even three different bird species. (The Bird Buddy model, our runner-up, did this too, but not as often.) We found that one of the tags was always correct. The app allows you to correct and report when something is mislabeled.

Recordings are too limited. Recorded clips max out at 20 seconds — 30, if you subscribe to the Birdfy Cloud service. If a bird sticks around beyond that and continues munching, a new recording begins, but there’s about a 12-second gap between recordings. That said, birds tend not to hang out long, and 20 to 30 seconds of recording time should be plenty.

It may not do well in extreme cold. Whereas most outdoor cameras can withstand temperatures down to -4 °F, the Birdfy Feeder’s operating temperature range is from 14 °F to 122 °F. The company told us that it hasn’t received any negative feedback about this, saying that many owners report that the feeder continues to work fine in extreme cold. Representatives also said that it isn’t necessary to bring the feeder in during winter months, but prolonged use outside may impact battery life.

The solar panel isn’t pretty. The Birdfy Feeder’s solar panel isn’t part of the actual feeder; it’s a separate piece attached with a cord. You can mount the panel on the feeder, but our runner-up from Bird Buddy, in contrast, integrates the solar panel into a snap-on roof, which results in a nicer, neater package, as well as less for you to mount. However, some people may see the separate solar panel as a benefit, since you can install and angle the panel out of shady spots.

Privacy and security snapshot

• Netvue encrypts video transmission from the camera to the app. Although storage and processing on the cloud are not encrypted, Netvue says the data is secured through the cloud platform.
• Although Netvue does not have a specific clause in its terms, representatives confirmed to us that the company will comply with legally supported requests from courts. Otherwise, audio and video sharing happens only as permitted by the owner.
• Location data is recorded only to enhance the bird-species recognition. It is never shared without user permission.
• User data is not shared outside of Netvue without granted permission.
• Netvue does not offer two-factor authentication, although a username and password are required for using the app.

For more details, read Netvue’s privacy statement.