Earlier this month, I finally got my hands on the Kiwibit Bird Feeder Pro 4K AI Camera, and it has quickly become my favorite backyard gadget. Setting it up is refreshingly simple. There are multiple mounting options, so you can place it on a pole, a window ledge, or even a tree. The feeder features two seed compartments that are easy to refill and clean. A solar panel on top means you won’t have to worry about batteries dying. The build quality and camera performance are also impressive. Other specs include support for 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, cloud storage, built-in two-way audio with a microphone and speaker, and a 130-degree wide-angle lens.

Once I installed it in the backyard, I connected the feeder to the companion Kiwibit app on my phone. This app is where you get notified whenever a bird stops by, watch recordings, and track every visit. A few weeks into testing, the real fun began. My phone buzzed with a notification each time a new visitor showed up, and I found myself eagerly waiting for updates. Even on extremely rainy days, I managed to attract a few birds, including a stunning northern cardinal that I now look forward to seeing every morning. As of now, the device has successfully recorded visits from six different species.

I’ve been hooked ever since. I find myself checking the app every morning to see which feathered friend stopped by. I show off the videos to almost everyone I know, as if these birds are my own pets. One amusing notification I keep getting is “a nuisance animal detected” whenever squirrels raid my birdseed stash—which happens as often as you’d expect. The app uses Kiwibit’s proprietary bird-identification algorithm to recognize over 10,000 bird species, including blue jays, ravens, and mourning doves. The Activity tab is especially useful, tracking the number of “visits” captured, videos recorded, and total species observed. You can also browse through a calendar to view specific days. The Birds tab offers in-depth information on each species, with detailed descriptions pulled from Wikipedia. However, I did notice that the system occasionally struggles to count “visits” accurately. For example, if a house sparrow is feeding in front of the camera for several minutes, the AI might record it as multiple visits, even if the bird hasn’t moved much.

Overall, testing the Kiwibit Bird Feeder Pro has been a delight. If you’re looking for a way to connect with nature while having fun collecting bird species like Pokémon, give this smart feeder a try. Just be prepared for all the squirrels to visit, too.