Sign in to view
member only content

Spotted: Birdwatching is the second-biggest outdoor hobby in the US, so you might expect to find a camera-equipped bird feeder in almost every yard. If the founders of Bird Buddy are successful, this will certainly be the future. The Bird Buddy is a smart bird feeder that offers something new – a way to turn the passive interest of people who love nature but don’t necessarily birdwatch into active participation.

The Bird Buddy not only looks great – it also takes advantage of the ‘collect them all instinct’ that has propelled games like Pokémon Go into the stratosphere. The startup has effectively turned birds into ‘the perfect collectible’.

The Bird Buddy is equipped with a camera and an app. Inside the app there are features such as badges, notifications, points, options to share images on social media, and more. Still in development is a feature that can identify individual birds, in addition to species, allowing users to track the movements of particular birds from one feeder to the next.

Co-founder and CEO Franci Zidar explains that the company has realised that, “it’s not just about building a smart bird feeder, but a brand and a company about reconnecting people with nature. … It speaks to people who are bird-curious but didn’t get into it because it seemed passive — so we made something that turned passivity into activity.”

It seems like just about every new product is smart or connected. Smart devices like those that track sleep and reduce water usage are gaining a great deal of interest. And Bird Buddy is likely to join the ranks of smart devices that people use in their daily life.

Written By: Lisa Magloff