Tag Archives: AI Bird Feeder

Red Returns

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Finally Red was hanging out long enough for me to get some photos of him. While I’m healing and recovering from surgery, Red was the sight I needed to make my day!

More photos of Red:

We put together the shepherd’s hook to hang the new Bird Buddy feeder. But it wasn’t working right. There was something definitely wrong.

Mrs. waiting for her turn in the new Bird Buddy.

I don’t know why the shepherd’s hook placed the feeder mere inches from the ground. It was low enough for a squirrel to jump on the roof. I was afraid he was going to get stuck inside with the camera. He’s definitely not very bright. All he needed to do was turn around and jump into the tray of seeds.

I hung the feeder on this massage tool which securely hooked around a branch of the tree. But before I could hang the feeder, Mrs. hopped on it to try it out. It worked out well to have the feeder there, but we may want to use the massage tool to get the knots out of our backs!

Voilà! I looked at the instructions for the shepherd’s hook and realized my helpful husband installed the hardware that attaches to the fence upside down.

Mrs. finally got her turn in the Bird Buddy. This movie was taken when the bird feeder was low to the ground.

I didn’t like this placement of the camera because the sun causes too much glare.

Do you have a favorite Red photo?

Do you think there’s any upside to letting my husband know he messed up on the shepherd’s hook? Or do I let him notice on his own that it’s in a new position?

Bird Views

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A return of a cardinal in our back yard.

Good news! The solar panel roof of my AI bird feeder with a camera arrived. I ordered it in January after a covey of quail leaped onto the bird feeder and it fell off the fence into the wash behind our house.

The tiny metal piece that plugged into the camera from the cord to the solar panel broke. It seemed like it would be an easy fix, but the Bird Buddy folks said my only option was to order a new solar panel roof and they’d give me a discount. I waited until June for it to arrive! In the meantime, I charged the camera every few days in the house.

I’ve been disappointed with my birds because two species are bullies and take over. White winged doves and mourning doves. They literally sit at the feeder and eat until it’s empty. So all my photos and videos for the past few weeks have been of big gray birds. I would get the occasional house sparrow which was a welcome treat.

Sunday morning I was shocked and thrilled to see a Cardinal! YAY! Here’s a video:

Video of a Northern Cardinal. It think he’s quite young.

I’m also enjoying a few families of quail, even though our nest of eggs never hatched.

Here’s a video of quail mom, dad and babies visiting our yard:

Quail family in our backyard.

Here’s a House Sparrow getting a turn at our Bird Buddy

What do you have planned this week to enjoy the world around you?

Birds, birds and more birds

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Cardinal visiting @birdbuddy

I got my first Cardinal visit to my Bird Buddy.

After waiting patiently from January until now for a new solar panel for my Bird Buddy AI bird feeder with a camera, I made the executive decision to take it out of storage, charge it up and use it without the solar panel roof.

I emailed the company and they said I should receive it this month. Until then, I’m enjoying Bird Buddy and have to charge the camera every four or five days.

I’ve written about Bird Buddy before. You can read those posts HERE and HERE if you missed them.

My son works for a crowdfunding company that helped raise money and marketed Bird Buddy. I think it was one of their more successful campaigns.

In one of my prior stories I wrote about my trouble setting up Bird Buddy. There was an awkward small space to plug in the charger or solar panel. I found it frustrating and I had to get my husband to help me. However, when I set up my 91-year-old dad’s Bird Buddy, he cleverly showed me you can plug in the camera before you put it inside the feeder! Duh!

This is a House Finch who can eat a lot of sunflower seeds!

Bird Buddy takes “postcards” (these two photos are examples.) There was an update to the software and now there are videos, too. It works with an app on your smartphone, identifies birds, gives details and you can play their songs and calls.

Here’s a video of a House Sparrow and Cardinal competing for the bird feeder:

Bird fight!

What birds do you have in your neck of the woods? Which are your favorites?

Bird Buddy Update

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A Gilded Flicker who visited my Bird Buddy feeder.

I received a notification to update my Bird Buddy AI feeder. That’s when the trouble began. The update stopped halfway through the process. I read the instructions on the app. It said to press the on button until you got a flashing green light. I pressed and got a red flashing light.

Then the app said my bird feeder was offline. I spent the better part of a day fiddling with it. In order to do the update, the helpful notes said to fully charge the camera unit.

I brought the Bird Buddy inside, unscrewed the camera and plugged it in for hours.

I won’t go through all the things I tried repeatedly. But I finally decided I should do a factory reset. I was quite upset, because the Bird Buddy has given me lots of joy the past few weeks. I’d be frustrated to have it break already.

I wrote about Bird Buddy HERE and posted bird photos on Thanksgiving.

The Bird Buddy has to pair with Bluetooth on your phone. It also has to be connected to WiFI. I couldn’t get either to work. It worked until I tried the update.

Fortunately, the app has a troubleshooting tab and I went through the steps. It turns out I had inadvertently done a factory reset by pressing the button too long — getting the red flashing light.

I had to unpair the Bird Buddy from my Bluetooth and remove my feeder from the App. Then I started over as if it was a new feeder and Voila! It works again.

I bought a Bird Buddy for my soon to be 91-year-old dad. I will set it up for him and hopefully he won’t have issues with updates!

With electronic devices, are you handy at figuring them out or do you let someone else in your family fix issues? What frustrates you about electronics?

A Curve-Billed Thrasher.