FeatherSnap Smart Feeder

A Birding with BillBow Product Review

The folks at FeatherSnap reached out to me a couple of weeks ago asking if I’d be willing to test one of their AI-enabled smart feeders, the kind of bird feeder that will take a photo of whomever stops by for a morsel, send it to your phone, and maybe even identify the bird in the process. A bird feeder with brains.

Sounded fun! I’d been intrigued by these kinds of feeders without ever really being in the market for one. One can go off the deep end feeding birds, and I already have an assortment of tubes, platforms, and suet cages around the yard that keep the Rookery sufficiently birdy.

Also sounded too good to be true. I’m a little guarded about being approached out of the blue on social media, but the rep quickly eased my concerns. There were no strings attached, no expectations tied to the product—just receive the feeder, give it a spin, and, if so willing, talk about the experience on Substack.

I agreed. I was flattered my writing caught their attention, and given the generosity of the gift (the feeder itself retails at $179.99, and they also comped the $59.99 cost for a year’s access to the app’s premium features), I promised a review would be forthcoming. After approximately two weeks of use, I’m ready to give some impressions.

I received the FeatherSnap Scout, which I gather is the company’s inaugural product, within days of agreeing to test it. Without ever taking it out of the box, I noticed some features I thought were pretty cool. Built-in solar panels. Dual seed bins for those inclined to give the birds some variety. Two-tiered perch to accommodate birds of varying sizes. Clearly some serious thought was put into the design of this feeder. But the proof is, as they say, in the pudding. On to the ratings!

Assembly—5/5

The feeder is incredibly easy to put together. No tools required. It probably took longer remove the parts from the packaging than it did to assemble them.

Durability N/A

As with most manufactured goods these days, plastic is the predominant material, but plastic can be durable, so I’ll withhold judgment until it has stood the test of the western PA elements for a few months or, hopefully, years. The product specs claim the feeder is cold/heat-tolerant from -20° to 130°F, theoretically making it perfectly suited to Pittsburgh’s climate extremes.

App installation/WiFi connection—5/5

Once installed, the app’s instructions are easy to follow. The feeder was quickly linked to our WiFi and paired to my phone. The only thing delaying actual bird feeding was the initial chargeup of the battery, which is done indoors and was complete within a couple of hours. When the indicator light signaled a full charge, setup was complete. After inserting the battery, Rookery Cam, as I named it, was live!

Outdoor installation—4/5

The unit comes with the choice of mounting hardware or a wraparound strap. Since I’m not totally settled on where to place the feeder, I opted for strap instead of screws. Works great.

The feeder was secure…but also vulnerable. Some people don’t mind feeding the squirrels, and neither do I, to a point. I’ve always said anything on the ground is fair game, but for me bird seed is too dear to let the legions of ravening rodents have their way on the feeders. So here’s my first suggestion to FeatherSnap—accessorize! A customized pole and squirrel baffle would be just the thing for those who demand a squirrel-proof setup.

Functionality—4/5

Here’s how it works—when the motion sensors are tripped, the camera takes three quick pictures, or “Snaps” to use the company’s nomenclature, whereupon an alert is sent to your phone. Since our yard is already lousy with birds, I figured it wouldn’t take them long to find the new feeder, and, based on the first bird to find our feeders when we moved here, I had an educated hunch about who the first visitor to the FeatherSnap would be.

I got the push notification a few hours later—

Lo and behold, my hunch proved correct.

Tufted Titmouse

That was the only visit on the first day. Not surprising. Sometimes birds take a minute to sort these things out.

On the second day, my worries proved founded.

Eastern Gray Squirrel

This would never do. The only workaround I could think of was to switch the feed. Something the squirrels wouldn’t like. I’d never used spicy bird seed before, and here was the perfect opportunity to test one out. I’ll have more to say about that down below in the Recommends 👇

Okay, squirrels aside, the sensor/camera function worked as advertised, and maybe even too well—the sensors were picking up birds at the other feeders and causing empty Snaps. Angling the feeder in another direction solved that, although it does still pick up the occasional Gray-hooded Baldpate, which no one wants to see.

After the initial chargeup, the solar panels seem to do a terrific job keeping the battery juiced. I’ll likely have to move the feeder once our rather thick oak canopy fills in, but for now the charge is reliably at or near 100%, under clear skies or cloudy. For people with extremely shady yards like ours, there might have to be an occasional indoor recharge. It’s nice the battery comes with two charging options.

The WiFi connection has remained strong throughout, so the feeder’s “long-range WiFi antenna” is getting the job done.

There has been one significant hiccup, however, and one I’ve been unable to resolve without resorting to customer service. Less than a week after activating the feeder, the system required a firmware update in order to use the video capture or live stream functions. The app indicates the update can take up to 30 minutes to complete, but my multiple attempts have stalled at this screen with its endless, hypnotic circling green dots.

Though mesmerizing, I think my wife Alex’s claim that I had at one point stared at the dots for nine straight hours is exaggerated. What I know for certain is that, for the time being, the video and live stream services remain disabled, as does my memory of most of last Tuesday.

Photo quality 4/5

I’m pretty impressed by the quality of the photos and videos, given the diminutive size of the camera.

White-breasted Nuthatch

American Goldfinch

Indeterminate Chickadee

As a bonus, the video and live stream feature sound, which I didn’t realize until I first switched it on. How lovely to hear our Nuthatches, Mourning Doves, and Carolina Wrens from indoors while temperatures are in the single digits, almost like having a window open on the yard in winter. Here’s hoping FeatherSnap’s AI will one day be able to sound-ID birds, maybe send notifications when an owls calls at night, preferably loud enough to wake the dead.

Bird Book 4/5

The Bird Book is the app’s checklist component, a fun feature that allows you to identify and add the bird manually, use the identification tool to help land on an ID based on size, color, and region (the Merlin and Audubon apps have similar features), or use FeatherSnap’s AI to identify the bird for you. The ID tool has failed to correctly ID a bird for me yet and in some cases has swung and missed badly (for example, suggesting Cedar Waxwing, Pine Grosbeak, and Yellow-rumped Warbler for what was an American Goldfinch). I imagine this feature will only improve as it gets more refined, and it could certainly benefit from adding a couple of metrics (shape, local habitat, etc).

I was far more interested testing the AI’s ability to make a positive identification, and so far AI is, to use another baseball metaphor, batting 1.000, or about as close as could be expected. Most impressive has been its ability to distinguish nonbreeding male and female Goldfinches, not always a piece of cake. So, is FeatherSnap’s AI any match for my real, human brain? Gratefully, not yet! As one example of its limitations, the AI correctly identified a Chickadee as being just that, but what it has not accounted for is that in an overlap zone such as the one we live in, it’s damnably hard, if not impossible, to distinguish Black-capped and Carolina Chickadees, two species that already looked enough alike before getting all cozy with each other and interbreeding. I don’t know to what degree the AI considers location or hybridization or vagrancy or any of the millions of curveballs (last time, promise) birds throw at us, but I’m sure it’s a matter of time before the subtlety of FeatherSnap’s AI makes significant strides in catching up with the subtlety of birds.

The Perch 5/5

The Perch is tab in the app that includes a couple of entertaining features, including Snap Wrap, described as “A Weekly Snapshot of your Feathered Visitors.” The Snap Wrap tracks how many visits you had the past week (79 my first week), the most frequent visitor (White-breasted Nuthatch), and your bird book progress compared to other users (+97%), among other statistical morsels. Also embedded in The Perch is a Badges section—basically awards given for reaching certain milestones in your FeatherSnap journey (first Snap, first Bird Book log, etc). These are small but satisfying incentives meant to keep the user engaged with the feeder and the app. They’re also easy to ignore for those not interested.

Look, as with all newfangled things, some of the novelty surrounding smart feeders is going to wear off. I’m certain, however, they’re here to stay and just as certain they’re going to get more advanced in a hurry. One major step in the evolution of these products (and maybe it’s already a feature of some) would be the ability to customize the alerts that are sent to our phones. As much as I love American Goldfinches and Chickadees and White-breasted Nuthatches, I don’t necessarily need to know every time one visits the feeder. The ability to program which birds I want to be notified about would be incredibly helpful, however. Any first-time visitor? Absolutely. Purple Finch? Yes, please. Common Redpoll? Shout at me! Evening Grosbeak? I’d appreciate my phone delivering a significant electric shock to my buttock, if at all possible.

And I have one final recommendation that I’ll save for this week’s Featured Photo 👇

Meanwhile, as for whether I’d recommend the FeatherSnap Scout AI-enabled smart feeder—absolutely.

Overall score—4/5.

The issues I’ve encountered seem more glitches than failings. It’s a delightful product that works well already and will only improve as the AI gets trained. Though it may seem a bit absurd to shell out $179 (plus another $59.99 annually) when you can fashion a feeder from a two-liter bottle, let’s be real—it’s always been that case that people are going to spend as little or as much money, time, and effort as they like in attracting birds to their yards. The FeatherSnap is, at the very least, a good quality feeder with cool features and potentially amazing payoffs. And if this feeder ever notifies me of the presence of my most coveted Evening Grosbeaks, I will erect a shrine to the rep who reached out to me and exalt him as the finest gentleman who ever lived.

Unless I’m out of town at the time, in which case I will curse his name before dying on the spot.

Featured Photo—Wild Turkeys

I would never have been aware of this flock of Wild Turkeys without an additional set of “eyes” on the back yard. I don’t EVER want to miss 35 Wild Turkeys, so that was a special bonus of having the FeatherSnap out there. What was a bit disappointing, though, was that there currently is no option to add anything but songbirds to the Bird Book. Obviously FeatherSnap’s dual perch couldn’t possibly accommodate anything like a Wild Turkey’s outsized carriage, but the camera did its job. Take the W, FeatherSnap, and let me fill my Bird Book!

10/10 Recommends

Mr. Bird Wild Bird Seed, Flaming Hot Feast

As someone who adores spicy food, this represents just the second time I’ve been tempted to claim the birds’ food for myself (except maybe hold the mealworms in this case). I don’t know if gluttony will eventually win out, but for now, Mr. Bird’s Flaming Hot Feast has kept the squirrels away and does seem to be, as advertised, FOR BIRDS ONLY.

That’s all for this week. How do you choose to feed the birds? Are you equipped with the latest in AI-enabled, satellite-linked bird-detecting technology from Q Branch, or are you content to simply toss handfuls of seed on the ground and let best critter win?

Until next time, however you choose to nourish the birds, don’t forget to clean your feeders!

nwb

The words in this post were human-generated. All photos by Rookery Cam and Nathaniel Bowler.