PeckPerk Bird Feeder review - A great way to birdwatch from afar

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REVIEW – I’ve always enjoyed bird watching. I’m not a good birdwatcher by any means, but I love seeing different birds pass through as the seasons change. The PeckPerk Bird Feeder touts itself as an easy way to see the wildlife in your backyard even when you’re not there to see it in person. If it holds up, it looks to be a great gadget to add to the flock. Read on to see how it does!

⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $109
Where to buy: PeckPerk and Amazon

What is it?

The PeckPerk Bird Feeder combines an outdoor rated web camera with a bird feeder to create a comprehensive little bird watching unit.

What’s included?

Feeder Cover
Bird Seed Container with AI Camera
Base
Bird Perch
Mounting Bracket and Bracket Kit
External Antenna
3W Solar Panel Kit
2x Fruit Holder
Fastening Strap
User Manual
Triangle Fastener

Tech specs

Dimensions:
- Height 10 in / 25.3 cm
- Width 6.3 in / 16 cm
- Depth 7.6 in / 19.2 cm
Seed capacity: 1.8 liters
Weight: Unfilled 1.45 lbs / 660 g
Main materials: New and Post-Consumer Recycled Plastics (BPA Free)
WiFi: 2.4Ghz

Design and features

This is a nicely designed comprehensive unit. The build of the bird feeder is in the shape of a teardrop with an overhang to protect the camera unit and a little deck for the birds to perch and hang out.

There are slots in the perch where you can install a small hummingbird feeder (included) or place a little fruit fork for those birds that prefer fruit. I didn’t use the hummingbird feeder as they haven’t shown up yet and I’m worried about it freezing solid still.

The camera unit connects via 2.4Ghz wifi and had great connectivity in every spot I tried it. It has a decent sized antenna on the back and I was impressed at how well it performs. There is an included solar panel that, while not large, is more than plenty to keep the battery topped off even in partial sunshine. The mounting bracket for the feeder is a separate piece, which I really like because it allows you to take down the feeder and refill with food without having to take anything apart.

Installation, Setup

There are multiple installation options out of the box. You can install this bird feeder on a house, posts, in a tree or pretty much any other fashion you prefer. There are screws and anchors if you want to install on a house. I don’t like punching holes in my house, so I opted not to go that route. As I wasn’t sure where I wanted the feeder long-term, I initially used one of the large hose clamps around a branch in a birch tree. I had to trim up some of the branches, but it worked very well in this spot before it found a more permanent home on a dedicated pole.

Filling the feeder takes a little bit of grip strength because it seals up very snugly. There is a piece that slides off the top to fill, but you have to push hard to open it up.

Our birds seem to prefer sunflower seed and seem to make less mess and it works great with this feeder.

Performance

This smart bird feeder has some very interesting functions built into it. I put a small micro-SD card (8GB) in, and it seems to work great. I don’t need weeks of footage stored. The picture below shows me trying to figure out the setup. It allows you to stream live, record, take pictures, review playback, speak, listen to audio, and a few other things. Some of the functions are still in development, but basic playback and recording work great.

Here are some of the fun bird pictures I was able to capture in my first setup.

The second setup looks like this:

Final thoughts

I really like the design and quality of the PeckPerk smart bird feeder. It is very sturdy and comes with a bunch of attachment options, which I really appreciated, since going to the hardware store for additional mounting equipment is not my favorite thing to do. My biggest gripe is the squirrel detector function in the app. It just doesn’t work. Maybe it’s a calibration thing or maybe it’s detecting ghost squirrels, but I would rather just turn that function off. The app could use some work as some functionality seems like it’s still in beta. I love seeing and listening to the birds throughout the day and I never realized how much they chitter at each other up close and personal. I definitely recommend this if you love watching birds and seeing your backyard when you’re away.

What I like about the PeckPerk Bird Feeder

Very durable build
Battery is fantastic. On a single charge alone it lasted over 10 days. With the included solar charger, you should never have to worry about it keeping a charge.
Video and audio quality is very good
The trough for the bird seed contains the seed well without letting birds spill it out everywhere

What needs to be improved?

The squirrel detector needs to be fixed. It seemed to randomly go off whenever at all times of the day. I would prefer to just turn it off.
Finish the additional app functions advertised

Price: $109
Where to buy: PeckPerk and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by PeckPerk. PeckPerk did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.