Review Insights · App Store
Birdbuddy: ID & Collect Birds
Buddy Bird Inc · 60,371 ratings · ★ 4.8
4.8
★★★★★
60,371 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 66 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"bird"
36 negative reviews mention this · 55% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Won’t connect to app. Bought this as a gift. I have tried so many times to complete setup. I have used home wifi and my hotspot. I can connect the device to my home internet and hotspot, but the connection to the bird buddy account always fails. Ready to give up…" - reviewer#42 was taken?
2
"birds"
25 negative reviews mention this · 38% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Amazing when first released, not worth the money now. I loved my bird buddy when I first got it. I got it through one of the original kickstarter campaigns, or whichever platform they used. The bird ID was spot on, I rarely had to correct it. Then it started to not be able to recognize birds t…" - spacey ray
3
"feeder"
22 negative reviews mention this · 33% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What a waste. $200 for a plastic hummingbird feeder and they’ve still managed to paywall half the useful features for it. Never mind the fact the livestream takes forever to connect with strong signal and the bird “identification” struggles to identify …" - M.Smoores
4
"features"
19 negative reviews mention this · 29% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What a waste. $200 for a plastic hummingbird feeder and they’ve still managed to paywall half the useful features for it. Never mind the fact the livestream takes forever to connect with strong signal and the bird “identification” struggles to identify …" - M.Smoores
5
"subscription"
16 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Too much locked behind sub. I can’t invite my other family members in the house to connect to the camera without having to pay a subscription free. That’s insane. This is not a cheap device and I expect at least to have my wife also be able to use it. Greedy." - q.sanchez
6
"buddy"
16 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Won’t connect to app. Bought this as a gift. I have tried so many times to complete setup. I have used home wifi and my hotspot. I can connect the device to my home internet and hotspot, but the connection to the bird buddy account always fails. Ready to give up…" - reviewer#42 was taken?
7
"bird buddy"
16 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Won’t connect to app. Bought this as a gift. I have tried so many times to complete setup. I have used home wifi and my hotspot. I can connect the device to my home internet and hotspot, but the connection to the bird buddy account always fails. Ready to give up…" - reviewer#42 was taken?
8
"product"
16 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What a waste. $200 for a plastic hummingbird feeder and they’ve still managed to paywall half the useful features for it. Never mind the fact the livestream takes forever to connect with strong signal and the bird “identification” struggles to identify …" - M.Smoores
9
"behind"
15 negative reviews mention this · 23% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Too much locked behind sub. I can’t invite my other family members in the house to connect to the camera without having to pay a subscription free. That’s insane. This is not a cheap device and I expect at least to have my wife also be able to use it. Greedy." - q.sanchez
10
"paywall"
14 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What a waste. $200 for a plastic hummingbird feeder and they’ve still managed to paywall half the useful features for it. Never mind the fact the livestream takes forever to connect with strong signal and the bird “identification” struggles to identify …" - M.Smoores
11
"identification"
14 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What a waste. $200 for a plastic hummingbird feeder and they’ve still managed to paywall half the useful features for it. Never mind the fact the livestream takes forever to connect with strong signal and the bird “identification” struggles to identify …" - M.Smoores
12
"identify"
14 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What a waste. $200 for a plastic hummingbird feeder and they’ve still managed to paywall half the useful features for it. Never mind the fact the livestream takes forever to connect with strong signal and the bird “identification” struggles to identify …" - M.Smoores
📋 All 66 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Too much locked behind sub
I can’t invite my other family members in the house to connect to the camera without having to pay a subscription free. That’s insane. This is not a cheap device and I expect at least to have my wife also be able to use it. Greedy.
Won’t connect to app
Bought this as a gift. I have tried so many times to complete setup. I have used home wifi and my hotspot. I can connect the device to my home internet and hotspot, but the connection to the bird buddy account always fails. Ready to give up because I haven’t heard back from support.
What a waste
$200 for a plastic hummingbird feeder and they’ve still managed to paywall half the useful features for it. Never mind the fact the livestream takes forever to connect with strong signal and the bird “identification” struggles to identify the one kind of bird that shows up. I was super excited to share the livestream with my girlfriend since we’re long distance but that’s an extra tier of monthly membership! Greed knows no limits, buy ANY other product if you’re reading this please
Not a smart feeder
I am very disappointed in my birdbuddy Hummingbird feeder. I have had it up for nearly 2 months and it has captured a total of 2 postcards. I thought this out of character for a hummingbird, which tend to have excellent memories and follow the same nectar routes so I put up an external birdfy camera to see if I was getting more visits: I'm capturing between 10-30 visits per day on the birdfy camera. In just 10 days since | put up the external camera I have captured 169 visits that were all missed by the bird buddy. I would NOT recommend paying $200 for this smart feeder plus $100 for the Al identification that is really just a normal hummingbird feeder with a fake camera installed. I contacted customer support and their response was basically
"it's working just fine." Save your money and just buy a normal hummingbird feeder without a camera, you'll likely get the same number of pictures.
"it's working just fine." Save your money and just buy a normal hummingbird feeder without a camera, you'll likely get the same number of pictures.
Amazing when first released, not worth the money now
I loved my bird buddy when I first got it. I got it through one of the original kickstarter campaigns, or whichever platform they used. The bird ID was spot on, I rarely had to correct it. Then it started to not be able to recognize birds that have visited my feeder 100’s of times (Blue Jays, Northern Cardinals). Then it started to not even record bird visits. I would see a cool interaction at the feeder through my window, but that event would never show up in my postcards. Now they’ve taken away the bird ID feature unless you pay for premium. Mine is getting close to needing to be replaced - I’m looking into other ‘copycat’ brands because Birdbuddy seems to have just become a name brand where you pay for the name but the product just isn’t worth the money anymore unfortunately.
AI has made this a low-quality product
automatic bird ID has been paywalls and has lost basic functionality. ID is also less accurate; their old algorithm worked better than AI, but doesn’t give you the option to - it’s force-feeding lower-quality functionality. take the loss on the AI investment, because it has broken the product.
Not pairing, no support.
Spent the extra $100 to get one of these and can’t get it to pair right off the bat. $200 feeder that doesn’t function. Support is AI slop bot. Save your money!!
Hitting “contact support” button does nothing, nor does troubleshoot. Uninstall app, re install app 3x…
Tweaked my router. Created a 2.4GHZ network just for Birdbuddy. Reset it. Restarted phone.
Before you buy this product do some research. For example, THERE IS NO CUSTOMER SERVICE NUMBER. Fortunately, I bought unit from chewy and not direct; with chewy I was able to talk to customer service and get a refund in less than 10 minutes.
Hitting “contact support” button does nothing, nor does troubleshoot. Uninstall app, re install app 3x…
Tweaked my router. Created a 2.4GHZ network just for Birdbuddy. Reset it. Restarted phone.
Before you buy this product do some research. For example, THERE IS NO CUSTOMER SERVICE NUMBER. Fortunately, I bought unit from chewy and not direct; with chewy I was able to talk to customer service and get a refund in less than 10 minutes.
Slow and over featured
I just want to watch birds on my camera that I paid for, not be solicited for a subscription every time I open the app or have to ‘livestream’ to turn the camera on, or deal with any ai BS, or miss the birds because it takes 10 minutes every time the camera wakes up, or get notifications, just stop with all this and let me use the camera to watch birds, record video and take pictures.
Hard to set up
Problems
Doesn’t do what it used to
Birdbuddy used to automatically attempt to identify birds. You could choose to hide certain birds. I hid blue jays, but the update no longer identifies visitors. Now I receive multiple blue Jay postcards hourly. It’s ridiculous. I’m adding something my husband printed to try to keep large birds out in hopes of just getting postcards of other visitors.
Degraded service
This company has removed nearly all functions available at launch and put them behind a paywall. It is now just a camera. Save your money and get a better product. To maximize short term profits they have degraded the service. This is terrible for a product that started on Kickstarter.
Quality has gone down
The products they release are not tested and rushed to generate cash. The app releases are not tested and always buggy. They are moving fundamental features into a paid model outside of the standard ones they originally sold it as.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS
This has to be one of the most predatory apps I have ever seen. Firstly, when signing up and connecting, I get hit with a page that wants me to spend money on an annual subscription plan. Wasn't planning on paying it cause everything said that you can still use the feeder while not having a subscription. Here is the first problem, THERE IS NO 'X' TO LEAVE THIS PAGE!!!! This is a textbook predatory tactic to make people feel like the only way forward is to pay for a subscription. The only way to get around it is to completely close the app and go back into it. Though, that is not all. I get a prompt that tells me to share access to the feeder with family and friend. I do so, but I HAVE TO PAY FOR THE SUBSCRIPTION TO LET THEM JOIN!!!! Another textbook predatory tactice where people will feel bad and pressured to buy a sunscription since they already sent a message to family, yet they can't actually view the feed. The dumbest thing is that they can see the feeder exists on the app, yet they can't watch any live feed. 4.8 stars is also hard to get on the app store, especially with predatory subscriptions like this? Probably targeting only users who have had a positive experience with the app. Please do not buy or gift any of this company's products for anyone
Membership change
I hate that they changed the membership. Now feels like another greedy company.
Choose another birding app
This app and its platform is more frustration than it is fun. I’ve had a Birdbuddy feeder and the app for a few weeks and while it was engaging at first, the sheer volume and frequency of issues has quickly turned it into uselessness.
The camera simply will not stay connected to the internet. It won’t identify birds and turn on (record) till they’ve been at the feeder for 5-10 seconds, which means it never gets those quick birds that dart in and out (I.e. the good ones you want to see). My “feed” is full of the same bully birds over and over and over again, yet it CONSTANTLY misses the woodpeckers and chickadees that visit the feeder.
The best thing I can do with it is go into the live feed and manually take pictures of the birds that visit, but this is also an exercise in frustration. First, it takes 5 minutes to get the live feed working (have to make 5-10 attempts, shutting down the app over and over again to get it to work). Then, when you see a bird, you snap a bunch of pictures and send those off for identification. Ah, but it caps the number of pics you can take at 12, and once you’ve met the limit, you can’t simply save the pics and ID later. You have to send those off for identification, and of COURSE it kicks you off the live stream every time you do this. So every time you take a series of pics on the live stream, you have to spend another 5 minutes to log back into the livestream.
Save yourself the hassle…try another brand, or save yourself some money and just go with a regular bird feeder.
The camera simply will not stay connected to the internet. It won’t identify birds and turn on (record) till they’ve been at the feeder for 5-10 seconds, which means it never gets those quick birds that dart in and out (I.e. the good ones you want to see). My “feed” is full of the same bully birds over and over and over again, yet it CONSTANTLY misses the woodpeckers and chickadees that visit the feeder.
The best thing I can do with it is go into the live feed and manually take pictures of the birds that visit, but this is also an exercise in frustration. First, it takes 5 minutes to get the live feed working (have to make 5-10 attempts, shutting down the app over and over again to get it to work). Then, when you see a bird, you snap a bunch of pictures and send those off for identification. Ah, but it caps the number of pics you can take at 12, and once you’ve met the limit, you can’t simply save the pics and ID later. You have to send those off for identification, and of COURSE it kicks you off the live stream every time you do this. So every time you take a series of pics on the live stream, you have to spend another 5 minutes to log back into the livestream.
Save yourself the hassle…try another brand, or save yourself some money and just go with a regular bird feeder.
Ridiculous
The charging cord came apart. The camera won’t charge. Have no one from the company to assist. Am totally frustrated. This was a gift from my children and I am so disappointed in this. Will end up using it as a bird feeder because nothing works. Solar roof is a joke does not charge the camera. I am so upset and disappointed with this product.
Now you have to pay
The previous version of the app is what made the bird buddy exciting to use. Now they want you to pay. I agree with another review that stated this is now a bird feeder with a camera. Once my bird food runs out I’m done with this product
Now it’s a bird feeder
I was so happy with my bird buddy for several years! I received it as a gift and bought one as a gift for someone else. However with the latest app update, one of the core functions has been converted to paid subscription. Now it is merely a bird feeder with a camera - it doesn’t even record every bird visitor. Not sure how this change got approval, but it has definitely ticked off a lot of loyal customers (check out Reddit on the topic) So disappointing!
Removed features
The automated identification feature was removed from the free subscription to paid subscription.
Not worth opening the app anymore
Ridiculous that this company would take away the most important feature for this app (AI bird identification) and start requiring a subscription to identify birds that stop by. I already paid $200+ for this product and now it’s useless for its original purpose!!! I might as well get a baby monitor cam and tape it onto bowl of bird food.. I get way too many cardinals and I want to ignore them but because the app won’t identify them ahead of time, I get stupid notifications for every bird even though I don’t want to see them! Bait and switch by this company- this product had major potential but the company just wants to drain their customers wallets with this subscription model.
Loved the app a year ago, many features now paywalled. Will not be purchasing more feeders
Got my first bird buddy over a year ago and instantly loved it. Encountered a couple small bugs here and there but nothing bothersome. Liked a lot of the features of the free tier , especially the app ID’ing birds and sending you a notification of what birds were stopping by. This feature has now been moved to the premium tier. The app is also constantly adding AI features that, from a user standpoint, seem unneeded and don’t improve anything. Admittedly not an app-breaking problem but I don’t think this type of conduct should be rewarded. I would not have purchased a hummingbird video feeder from Birdbuddy had I known this would happen. From the recent reviews, I gather many others feel similarly.
Garbage Update
Zero birds get ID’ed now. The switched their ID to AI and did it on the cheap. To save costs, now you have to manually prompt it to ID birds instead of it being done automatically. I would return this birdhouse if I could.
Does Not Work
App is extremely slow and will not allow us to log in.
Junky UI/UX
way too many popups and upsells, some which are impossible to dismiss (premium upsell has no X button! Wth?). Got this for my parents and all they need is the livestream. Lose the junk and it would be much better.
ruined by AI upgrade
This was such a great app/feeder system last year! Sadly, they decided to upgrade to “a more advanced AI model,” and now it barely functions. Mine will only take pictures of one kind of bird (the AI is using its judgement to decide what I see, and it only judges northern cardinals as worthy), and the app offers way less information about birds than it used to. I really wish the app that worked was still an option, instead of the AI-driven crummy Instagram for birds they’ve decided to be.
Getting worse
I received a Bird Buddy feeder as a gift a couple of years ago. At first, I was very pleased with the app interface. Remember that this a very expensive product to begin with. It used to automatically identify the birds in the videos it produced. You have to now tap an option on each video to ID the birds. When you send videos to others, it used to provide the species names, but no longer does. Previously, you had the option to exclude birds that appear too often in the feed. For example, I don’t need 15 videos of Northern Cardinals every day. You can choose to exclude species but it no longer works, I guess because it doesn’t ID in real time as previously. Be forewarned that the app constantly offers you very cool options. You then find out that these options require a subscription. What I find absurd is that they use Kickstarter to fund new products. This is now an established company. It seems tacky to fund in this manner. Kickstarter should be for actual startups.
App used to be great
They put a lot of regular features that used to be included behind a paywall like bird ids. That’s the whole point of the app.
Remove features after purchase
I have 3 of these feeders - a first day backer. They removed the bird identification which was the core selling point.
Bait and switch
I bought my unit back when it identified birds. They now make you pay for identification. This is so wrong, I paid for the ID feature when it was included and now I have pay extra for it.
No more bird identification
The app used to automatically identify the birds that would come to the feeder. Now you have to go through the hundreds of daily “post cards” and tap the analyze button and cross your fingers for a result. Why downgrade the app??? Makes zero sense.
Taking away features
Very frustrated that automatic bird ID was put behind a paywall. This was advertised as something included with my feeder, and now you are making people pay for it. The accuracy of the bird ID was so bad most of the time, so it’s not something I’m willing to pay for.
Bad Product Update
Came here to see how badly this app is getting savaged for putting what once was core functionality behind a subscription model. I’m not at all surprised to see that they rightfully have been taken to task for what can only be described as a serious blunder.
I totally understand the need to generate consistent revenue, but thinking you can drum it out of your existing user base by taking away features you previously gave them seamlessly for free and cowardly framing it as an product improvement is crazy bold and borderline gaslighting! You have seriously burnt up a ton of goodwill and the fact that you can’t figure out how to make a truly compelling subscription with *new* features makes me question the long term viability of your service. I hope these reviews are making up to the leaders at BB and that they figure out a way to backtrack out of this mess soon!
I totally understand the need to generate consistent revenue, but thinking you can drum it out of your existing user base by taking away features you previously gave them seamlessly for free and cowardly framing it as an product improvement is crazy bold and borderline gaslighting! You have seriously burnt up a ton of goodwill and the fact that you can’t figure out how to make a truly compelling subscription with *new* features makes me question the long term viability of your service. I hope these reviews are making up to the leaders at BB and that they figure out a way to backtrack out of this mess soon!
Paywall
They put the main selling point of the app - automatic bird ID - behind a paywall. False advetising and greedy corporate practices. Buy anything else.
Bird ID is a core feature
Locking it behind a paywall add and making me click the button every time is really shady for a product we’ve already purchased. I’d consider alternatives
New paywall
Please unlock the autoID.
Greedy and Disappointing
The new update is horrible. All the best features - like bird ID - are now hidden behind a paywall. I already bought a $250 birdfeeder - now I have to shell out even more just to use the features it originally came with. Absolute money grab and these guys should be ashamed of themselves.
Great until it wasn’t
Automatic ID was the sore purpose of this product and now it’s placed behind a paywall even though I’ve already purchased the item. Save yourself the money and don’t buy this product.
Self Inflicted AI Rot
Bird Buddy choosing to remove the absolute most basic feature and selling point, in bird identification, from a device we all own to try to recoup money on a incredibly useless from the beginning FOMO-induced “AI” integration and investment (which from then on messed up identification constantly on clear as day photos that the original machine learning model had no issue with) is as desperate a decision as I’ve seen in a long time. Not necessarily desperate for revenue but an executive or several desperate to hang on to their gullible convictions in a coming AI first economy. They’ve steadily made the product worse since I’ve owned it and paywalling the core function that has always been available is not only dumb, shortsighted strategy but incredibly insulting. No one should pay for any service from this company while vampirism is the corporate strategy. Frankly, peak Kickstarter business behavior.
Removing features
I tried different smart bird feeders, and I would usually recommend Bird Buddy because of the simplicity and quality of the app.
However with the most recent update, they have decided to remove features that were previously available for everyone.
The smart bird identification? You have to manually id birds now. To automatically id birds, you now need to pay.
Scummy move.
However with the most recent update, they have decided to remove features that were previously available for everyone.
The smart bird identification? You have to manually id birds now. To automatically id birds, you now need to pay.
Scummy move.
Money grab - don’t fall for it
I own 3 bird buddy feeders and when first purchased, one of the main selling points was auto-id. Meaning the app would tell me what type of bird was visiting my feeder. But now they’ve removed that feature and it’s only available with a premium paid subscription. Why should I pay for a feature that was marketed as standard? On top of removing features, their newest feeder the BB2 does not live up to the hype. Camera quality is poor, auto wake up isn’t any better than older BB feeders, portrait mode is way too narrow…. I could keep going but I’m going to spend my time shopping for another brand of smart feeder. You blew it Bird Buddy.
Paywalled now
They’ve paywalled the formerly free auto-identification feature, so you can’t get notifications of interesting birds without a very expensive yearly subscription. Way to appreciate your long term users; seems like management sees no value in brand goodwill.
New update is awful
Why do we have to ask to ID birds via AI now? We paid for a product that records and IDs birds. I’ve been here since kickstarter and this feels like a dirty trick. I’m so disappointed. I’m also so embarrassed that I recommended to my neighbor and she just bought one before the change. The attempt to force us to pay for a subscription makes me just want to quit using it altogether.
Bait and switch
When I bought my two Bird Buddy feeders, they came with automatic ID for free. Now you have to manually submit each bird to get an ID, unless you pay for Premium. It’s a real downgrade to the experience. Gross. Would not buy again.
New update horrible
Doesn’t automatically identify the birds anymore you have to either tap to identify or makes you buy premium to have that feature. So frustrating… everyone just wants more money from you.
Paywalled - never recommending again
Paywalling the previously included instant bird identification is such and underhanded tactic. Seriously took any brand loyalty I may have had and flushed it away. What features may disappear next? Time will tell.
Auto Identification
Auto bird identification is now behind a paywall!!! Stupidity. 🤦🏼♂️😡 And every time you click the button “identify this visitor” you get a pop up to subscribe to premium! Not only do I have to click the button and wait for AI to identify the bird species but I also have to swipe away the ad. What used to be easy to use is now clunky and cumbersome in the form of a paywall money grab. Used this for over a year without an issue and now they change it up and make it less intuitive to use and spam me.
Update after Developer Response: Please make the pop up for premium go away after every time I initiate AI. Just make that stop.
Update after Developer Response: Please make the pop up for premium go away after every time I initiate AI. Just make that stop.
Not happy
I love the bird feeder. But all of a sudden this week, the birds are not automatically identified and you have to do an extra step to analyze the feed. Then a pop up telling you more information but that this step is not a factor if you go on the paying subscription. In addition to that every analysis is with low confidence now.
I am sorry but I should not have to pay for something that has been free and the main selling point of your device since the beginning. Maybe stop having constant sales to push your product.
I am sorry but I should not have to pay for something that has been free and the main selling point of your device since the beginning. Maybe stop having constant sales to push your product.
Bait and Switch!!!!
Removing existing features and putting them behind a paywall while trying to pitch it to users as a “feature” that further empowers users to GET OUT OF HERE WITH THAT NONSENSE. Returning my new TurdBuddy 2 - having none of this!!!
EDIT: Received a developer response that spins this as me being able to “take advantage” of AI nonsense while cutting features and putting them behind a paywall. I’m DONE with this lousy ecosystem.
EDIT: Received a developer response that spins this as me being able to “take advantage” of AI nonsense while cutting features and putting them behind a paywall. I’m DONE with this lousy ecosystem.
Latest Update AI ad Nightmare
Now every 2 taps
You get prompted to buy the membership. Totally ruins the experience.
You get prompted to buy the membership. Totally ruins the experience.
Garbage AI push
The system used to make a best effort to identify a bird, and it would give you a notification that “so and so” species had been at the feeder. That is gone now, every bird is unidentified and you have to manually click an AI button in the app for it to guess the species. It also gives you a pop-up that with Birdbuddy Premium, AI will auto identify the birds that come to you! So they have taken what was a base app feature and locked it away behind a subscription, but I’m sure pressing the AI button is also exciting executives with reports on how high their AI engagement is now.
+ 16 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
96%
Positive (4-5★)
2%
Neutral (3★)
1%
Negative (1-2★)