Earlier this month, I got my hands on the Kiwibit Bird Feeder 2 4K AI Camera, and it has become my favorite backyard accessory.

Setting it up is pretty straightforward. Multiple mounting options allow you to place the feeder on a pole, window ledge, or tree. Its dual seed compartments are designed for easy refills and cleaning. The solar panel on top ensures you don’t have to worry about batteries running low.

Durability and camera quality are also strong points. Other specs include support for 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, cloud storage, built-in two-way audio with a microphone and speaker, and a 130-degree wide-angle lens.

As soon as I installed it in the backyard, I connected the feeder to the companion Kiwibit app on my phone. This is where you can be notified when a bird stops by, watch recordings, and track all the visits.

A few weeks into testing is when the real fun started. My phone buzzed with a notification every time a new visitor showed up, and I found myself eagerly waiting for updates. Even on extremely rainy days, I managed to entice a few birds, including a stunning northern cardinal that I’ve now come to anticipate seeing every morning. As of this writing, the device has successfully recorded visits from six species.

I’ve been addicted ever since. I find myself eagerly checking the app every morning to see which feathered little guy stopped by. I show off the videos to almost everyone I know as if they’re my own pets. One amusing notification I keep receiving is “a nuisance animal detected” when squirrels raid my birdseed stash (which happens as often as you’d expect).

The app uses Kiwibit’s proprietary bird-identification algorithm to identify over 10,000 bird species, such as blue jays, ravens, and mourning doves. The Activity tab is particularly useful, as it tracks the number of “visits” captured, videos recorded, and total species observed. You can also navigate through the calendar to view specific days. The Birds tab offers in-depth information on each species, featuring detailed descriptions from Wikipedia.

However, I did notice that the system — which typically costs between $179.99 to $249.99, depending on the model — occasionally has trouble accurately counting “visits.” For example, if a house sparrow is feeding in front of the camera for several minutes, the AI might record it as multiple visits, even if the bird hasn’t moved that much.