Watching Birds with the FeatherSnap Smart Feeder
Few things are interesting as observing and getting pictures of birds. Smart Feeders make it easy, no hiking or big lens—just check an app.
FeatherSnap asked if I’d write about their Scout Smart Feeder. They sent one and reimbursed me for premium features. Before I knew it, birds had my phone buzzing.
FeatherSnap also sent a feeder to
. He wrote a thorough review.
FeatherSnap’s Scout withstands hot or cold—Phoenix or Fairbanks.
The app lets you log the types of birdseed in the two compartments. Each is a liter. The Wi-Fi subscription’s AI ($59.99 per year or $6.99 per month) can ID birds.
My feeder saw Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus),1 Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis),2 and Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens).3
Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis), White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis), Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor), American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis), Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis).
A Smart Feeder lets common birds shine. Will a Kirtland’s Warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii) visit? Don’t count on it. The National Zoo calls Kirtland’s “one of North America's rarest.” American Bird Conservancy adds it has “one of the smallest breeding ranges.” Being a warbler, the Kirtland’s is insectivorous. Warblers “won’t eat seeds,” the Cornell Lab’s Emma Greig told Birds & Blooms. If a Kirtland’s Warbler visits your feeder, buy a lottery ticket.4
No reason to buy one if a chickadee does, but reason to celebrate. Black-capped (Poecile atricapillus), Carolina (Poecile carolinensis), Mountain (Poecile gambeli)—any chickadee.
Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) also come.
BOR-ring. Such a common bird. Such a ubiquitous bird.
But, he goes on, they’re beautiful and around all year. They encourage new birders. Why tire of reliable beauty? Seeing cardinals from a new perspective renews appreciation.
If you purchase a FeatherSnap Scout, don’t do what I did(n’t). At first I didn’t remove the lens protector. Early photos are tinted blue. FeatherSnap provides mounting hardware. I didn’t use it because I have a system of feeders I wanted to build on. Rope, paracord, bungees; suet, tray, seed cake, tube feeders—now a FeatherSnap.
Behind-the-curtain looks at wildlife interest me. Wildlife webcams, trail cameras.
Compared to trail cams, Smart Feeders require less work for a higher success rate.
When contacted by FeatherSnap I was flattered—but Rock & Hawk as a marketing tool? Antithetical to its raison d’être: “Nothing more timely, nothing less real.”
Being gifted a product to write about feels timely and not real—not in the way a Harlequin Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus) is real. Despite apprehension, I figured readers might find this useful or interesting.
If you want a Smart Feeder, get one. You can try making your own, though might not save money. It’ll require time and materials, then birdseed adds up (squirrels5 and deer6 don’t help).
I used to leave a GoPro in a tray feeder. Not cheaper than a Smart Feeder, a telephoto lens isn’t either. Comparatively, a Smart Feeder is affordable and doesn’t require as much work for photographs.
Ashton’s Feeder Cam isn't live. He puts his phone on a tripod, leans it against a hole in the back of a window feeder and records “on .5 zoom to show the entire feeder.”
It’s “a fun way to make content and have clips of birds on your own feeder,” he says. See his content at @ooshologist.
Ashton taught himself everything he knows. I got to know him editing an article he wrote on Seabrook Town Forest for New Hampshire Bird Records, where I volunteer.
Look at Seabrook Town Forest on eBird, you’ll see his name. He led a walk there, one year he birded the spot every day in May for over two dozen lifers.
A Smart Feeder adds to birding in a multitude of ways, but when a product is “Smart,” I bristle. I wouldn’t have tried a Smart Feeder if FeatherSnap hadn’t sent theirs.
I have a smartphone. Is there a choice? Yes, iPhone or Android. Not really optional anymore. Smartphones, while they have positives, bring no shortage of negatives. Nomophobia: “fear of being without a mobile device [causing] anxiety, agitation, and disorientation.”
Calling it phone addiction feels apt, but the addiction comparison isn’t perfect. Smartphones “aren’t like heroin,” Dr. Amy Orben told The Guardian. “We have to use them.” She compares them to food. “We all need to eat, but the way our food system is set up isn’t great…it’s about reflection and what works for us and what doesn’t.”
When the feeder gets birds, you get notifications. They’re easy to disable—sounds/vibrations, lock screen visibility, I kept the badge.
Notifications disabled, put out the feeder and review results when inclined.
I bird to be away from my phone. Birding feels best when I leave mine in my truck. I can bird without a phone but my camera is essential. Pictures of birds matter to me. Smart Feeders provide pictures but I’m perhaps not the target customer. FeatherSnap’s Scout does a great job at what it’s designed for.
In his review,
points out FeatherSnap’s AI distinguished nonbreeding male from female Goldfinches, “not always a piece of cake.” Sibley adds “the gray-brown nonbreeding males can be hard to tell from females.”Birding cultivates non-artificial intelligence. Make mistakes, be curious.
The human brain is “off the scale.” Bird ID requires it to do things computers can’t. Get binoculars and a field guide. AI has a place, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing—just one of the last arrows in your quiver.7
Human intelligence costs less than AI. Instead of $59.99/year or $6.99/month, a Sibley is $45/life.8
Bird however you want. Some birders aren’t able or don’t want to walk for hours. The greater the lengths you have to go, and the lower the likelihood you’ll see a bird, make it special if—hopefully when—you do.
Not everyone wants to go to great lengths for a maybe. Smart Feeders don’t require it. No binoculars, no boots, no early mornings, lowering an already low barrier to entry.
They say work smarter, not harder. Let’s call Smart Feeders smarter, but sometimes it’s fun to make birding harder. Miles by by foot—a drive, maybe a plane or ferry ride—all for the chance of a bird.
The FeatherSnap Scout retails for $179.99. If you’re in the market for a smart feeder, definitely consider it.
Smart birding and hard birding aren’t mutually exclusive.
Smart:
Fill the feeder, bring birds to you, get photos as you do other things.
Harder:
Drive to a NWR and walk ten miles for a warbler.
Smarter & Harder Coexisting:
Maybe the warbler evades you. When you get home, make yourself a nice cup of tea—if needed, a stiff Manhattan. Put your feet up and scroll through FeatherSnap’s day of photos. Warbler-less, find solace in pictures of chickadees.
Birds add to our lives however they find their way in. Maybe they send you to Attu or Monhegan; maybe they put a FeatherSnap in your yard. It isn’t either/or. Whatever’s best for you. If you want to add a Smart Feeder to your birding equation, consider FeatherSnap.
Birds & Blooms lists Yellow-throated (Setophaga dominica), Townsend’s (Setophaga townsendi), Orange-crowned (Leiothlypis celata) and Yellow-rumped (Setophaga coronata) as potential visitors. I’ve had Pine (Setophaga pinus).
Squirrels devour birdseed.
With the FeatherSnap, I didn’t have to refill as often—perhaps because the feeder holds two liters, maybe dispensed cleverly to prevent the squirrels obliterating birdseed as quickly.
AI makes me uneasy. “Nothing more timely, nothing less real.” It’s artificial. Do not take this as against the product, it’s against technology commandeering birding.
In The Technological Society, Jacques Ellul says technology and a preoccupation with efficiency have “penetrated the deepest recesses of the human being.” Should we let it penetrate birding?
A perk of birding is a lack of subscriptions. Birding doesn’t have to be expensive. Get your hands on binoculars, learn to use them. Get some hand-me-downs (how I started) or keep it to $100 with Vortex Triumphs, even $60 for Tasco Essentials 8x42s.
Perfect. I knew you'd have the most philosophical perspective. "Bird however you want" I think is the crux here. I've know people who like to leave the binoculars behind and bird by ear and eye alone. That's not me. Some people are gadget geeks and the AI bins and bird feeders are the newest thing. Not me either. I'm in between, and I'm really enjoying the FeatherSnap feeder on my terms--not obsessing over every notification, delighting at the titmouse with a peanut in its mouth when I do choose to scroll the snaps.
Great post and thank you for the multiple shoutouts!
Wow, the FeatherSnap Feeder looks so cool. I would definitely enjoy one of those. Right now I am happy to get a view of birds at the feeder outside my backdoor. This feeder is really a game changer.