While I loved the simplicity of the Rookie and appreciated that it uses the same excellent app as the pricier Birdfy feeders, the 1080p camera’s picture quality was noticeably lower than the Nook’s, and while it did capture every bird that visited, there were also plenty of false-alarm motion detections.
I also found some significant drawbacks to the design over my four-week test. First, though the feeder itself is IP66 rated for water resistance, there’s no overhang on the roof, which means water is going to get into the seed if it rains (as it did off and on throughout my testing period).
Second, the lid just sits loosely on the top, so it kept blowing off whenever there was a big gust of wind. And third, perhaps most frustratingly, because the camera is on the side, it didn’t do the greatest job capturing larger birds, though the camera lens stayed relatively clean, being farther away from the action, and small-bird shots were well framed. Birdfy advertises the battery charge as lasting seven weeks, but my test unit lasted less than two.
One big advantage the Rookie has, however, is its seed capacity. At 1.3 liters, it’s only slightly less voluminous than Birdfy’s popular original feeder, which packs 1.5 liters. (Though note that this still pales in comparison to Birdfy’s Bamboo feeder, a top pick in our guide to the Best Smart Bird Feeders, which holds 3.5 liters.)
Feeder capacity aside, Birdfy’s app is well designed and simple, and it makes it easy to see which birds visited that day. You can even watch your feeder on TV if you have Roku—the Birdfy app is available on devices running Roku OS 15.1 or higher. Best of all, as of November 1, Birdfy offers unlimited automatic AI-based identification without a subscription, which is a rarity among smart bird feeders. Birdfy’s ID is pretty decent, with nearly no mistakes during my test.