Take your backyard birding to a new level with the Harymor smart feeder, one in a new class home technology that lets you experience local wildlife up close from your phone, no matter where you are.
There’s a video from a content creator doing the rounds on social media – where once you turn 30, you'll wake up one day and suddenly love birds. While I've always had an interest in birds, I can say that the older I get, the more my interest in animals has veered toward ornithology.
Which is one of the reasons I really wanted to try out a smart feeder, having seen so many on TikTok thanks to the algorithm knowing what to feed me.
The Harymor smart feeder is ideal for first-timers, with an unobtrusive camera that automatically detects when a bird lands and captures 2K video, as well as images, with a 3X digital zoom you control on the phone app. The system then uses AI to identify the visitors, sending alerts to the phone. There's also night vision for nocturnal guests that might be more elusive, and even two-way audio to speak to the birds (however, they don't really seem to like this too much, understandably).
One of the standouts here, though, is 3-W solar paneled "roof," as well as the option to connect another separate panel, which keeps the feeder's 5,200-mAh battery going after your initial setup USB-C charge. This roof also tilts forward on its hinge, allowing you to fill it with appropriate feed easily, without over-filling the container and increasing spoilage or risking illness for your feathered friends.
I charged the built-in battery once, when I set the feeder up for the first time, but am yet to plug it in again, with the panels given it enough juice for 24-7 viewing.
The feeder uses an app called VicoHome, and the bird-recognition feature is subscription-based. Harymor says it will recognize of more than 10,000 bird species, but you'll probably already have a pretty good idea of the types of visitors that frequent your neighborhood. I've been impressed with its naming of Australian birds, like the most frequent visitors – rainbow lorikeets (Trichoglossus moluccanus) and crested pigeons (Ocyphaps lophotes). So far, the only bird it's gotten wrong has been the silver gull (Larus novaehollandiae), a seagull common to this region. But they're not exactly bird-feeder types, just opportunists.
And it more than made up for it, recognizing the fairly elusive blue-faced honeyeater (Entomyzon cyanotis) and many others.
The feeder's green extended base, where the birds perch to reach the feeding bowl, can be customized – there's a hummingbird attachment and spikes for attaching fruit, and a dual container for specialized treats or water. I left these off, since there are definitely no hummingbirds in the neighborhood, and the water vessel is pretty small and easily soiled if you get as many rambunctious visitors as I do.
This feeder has been designed for a North American audience, but it's also hugely adaptable. Where I am in Australia, many locals like to forage on the ground – which is why I've positioned the feeder on the grass rather than mounting it up high. It comes with sturdy metal braces as well as a tough Velcro strap made for wrapping snugly around a tree trunk.
One of the interesting aspects of this kind of technology is what you can learn from a distance. You may start to notice the same visitors turning up at roughly the same time each day – here, the first in for breakfast are the crested pigeons, then the rainbow lorikeets, who tend to monopolize the seed tray until they've made enough of a mess for a few hours. In the afternoon, it's been common for a few sulphur-crested cockatoos (Cacatua galerita) or Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen) to sneak in for a snack before the screeching lorikeets return.
The hardware itself is easy to assemble, and weather-proof. It's worth noting that because this gadget runs on Wi-Fi, it'll need to be positioned as close to your connection hub as possible if you want to stream live video. However, it'll capture 10-second videos as soon as a bird appears within the camera's field of view, so even if you can't watch the action live because of a weaker connection, you'll still get these clips and an alert sent to your phone.
The company says depending on obstacles it can range up to 100 m (328 ft), but when I moved it from the backyard to the front, less than a fifth of the maximum range, it was only picking up a weak signal. So you may need to improvise, and keep it close to the house regardless. Or have much better Wi-Fi range than I currently do.
This will also affect the quality of the 10-second clips you'll receive through the app on your phone, but I've found them to be pretty good considering the bad connection.
There's also an amusing AI function that will write descriptions of photo captures, and while it's not terribly useful, it's worth it for the over-the-top and somewhat romance-novel-style prose it comes up with.
So if you've been smart-feeder-curious, this model is an excellent entry point, available from Amazon for about US$117 (there are currently different models on the Harymor shop). I've loved watching local species interact and the more shy types discover the free wild-bird seed on offer and then bring their friends back the following day.
That is, until a cockatoo tries to play with it and tip it over – a known risk, since I'm keeping it on the ground.
While Amazon shipping varies, postage from Harymor will be calculated based on weight, size and address.
Source: Harymor
