Both promise close-up bird-watching for under $100. After four weeks with each, I found one better equipped for life outdoors.

Courtesy of Birdbuddy; Amazon

Hard to believe, but smart bird feeders have been around for six years.

The idea started with Birdbuddy (then styled Bird Buddy), which launched a Kickstarter campaign in November 2020 for the world’s first app-connected, AI-powered smart bird feeder . Birdfy followed in 2021 with its first camera-equipped feeder , and today the two companies remain the most popular brands in the smart bird-feeder space, with a sizable catalog of offerings, including smart bird baths and smart nesting boxes .

Thanks to two new releases from Birdfy and Birdbuddy, you can now get a premium smart bird feeder experience for under $100—something that just a year or two ago would have cost $200 or more.

I tested both Birdfy’s Rookie and Birdbuddy’s Nook in my backyard for four weeks each, noting annoyances, especially helpful features, and which features were available…