Birdbuddy’s next-generation smart bird feeders have finally arrived. After spending a few days with the BirdBuddy Nook (from $99) and longer with the flagship Birdbuddy Home ($219), there’s a clear winner: The Nook is the perfect all-rounder, just the right blend of technology, nature, and value to bring you delightful scenes from the lives of your backyard birds.

The Nook and Home are cheaper, faster, and sleeker smart bird feeders — but the new camera might be a deal-breaker for diehard birders.

The Nook and Home are cheaper, faster, and sleeker smart bird feeders — but the new camera might be a deal-breaker for diehard birders.

But — and this is a pigeon-sized but — the new camera on both the Nook and the Home is a bit of a downgrade compared to the Birdbuddy Pro ($339, but often on sale for less). It has slightly worse viewing angles, the 2K HDR image quality isn’t as crisp or bright, and you now have to remove the whole feeder to charge it.

On the plus side, you can now rotate the new camera to capture a wide-angle 135-degree landscape view. The live feed loads much faster in the Birdbuddy app thanks to a new instant wake-up feature. In testing, the livestream appeared in under eight seconds, compared to about 30 on the Pro. That’s the difference between seeing a bird up close in real time and watching its tail feathers fly away.

For those unfamiliar, smart bird feeders use an AI-powered camera to capture photos and videos of visiting feathered friends (and the occasional unwanted furry beast). First announced at CES in January under different names, the Birdbuddy Nook and Birdbuddy Home follow the company’s hugely successful Birdbuddy (2022) and Birdbuddy Pro (2024).

New tech that’s cheaper? In 2026? Bravo, Birdbuddy.

They have completely new designs featuring the new camera, but the headline feature is that both are more affordable than the Pro, which Birdbuddy has now discontinued. (It’s currently selling for $239.99 on Amazon.) New tech that’s cheaper? In 2026? Bravo, Birdbuddy.

Birdbuddy’s new camera is the biggest change, but it comes with some compromises. As you can see in the videos below, the new portrait mode has a slightly narrower view of the feeder than the Pro, so while you get close-ups, the bird’s face can get cut off if it’s standing on the edge of the feeder.

In the new landscape mode (which the Pro doesn’t offer), the view cuts off the seed tray. So, while you get a wider view that’s better for seeing more bird activity, you no longer see the feed tray — resulting in more feathers but fewer up-close faces.

Despite the reduced angle and less vivid color, the camera is still very good; the images are clear and colorful, with plenty of detail, and the company says it’s optimized for better action and low-light shots — though I haven’t seen that in my testing.

I also really like the landscape option; it’s one of the reasons I enjoyed the Coolfly model I tested earlier this year. While portrait gives you an intimate up-close look, landscape captures more of the scene, including birds in flight and interacting. (You have to manually change the angles by repositioning the camera; you can’t do it through the app.)

*A montage of videos from the Home (blue tray/red perch) and the Nook (green tray/white perch) in portrait and landscape views.*

Birdbuddy’s excellent app shows you the videos and photos the camera captures in a fun “feed,” where you can scroll through all your backyard visitors and manually initiate free, AI-powered species identification.

To have the app automatically identify birds, you need a subscription ($7.99 a month or $69.99 a year), which also lets you name returning visitors and put silly augmented-reality hats on them, which was a lot more fun than I expected.