I like to think my grandmother sends me birds.
She passed away a while ago, but I always think of her when I see cardinals. A few months ago, I found a deceased baby bird in my apartment complex. After a tearful flower burial, I asked my grandma whether she could send me a sign that the bird was wherever she was, happy and healthy. A few days later, another baby bird appeared, but this one was living and in need of a human to help her. I kept her warm and brought her to a wildlife rehabilitator, where she was able to recover.
Whether you believe that was my grandma’s doing or not, you can’t deny that birds are beautiful. They’re funny and interesting little creatures, and I always feel lucky when I get to see them. But they are flighty—literally—and not always easy to observe.
I’ve used bird feeders that stick on a window for easy viewing, but it’s harder to do that several stories up, and the wind gets too strong to dangle one from the balcony. Netvue’s Birdfy Feeder Cam is a sturdy feeder with a camera inserted inside for unobstructed views of feeding time. Once the birds find your feeder, suddenly everyone in the neighborhood knows it’s there. And if you look closely, you’ll see the same birds come back every day (I swear!).
Through Netvue’s app, I often sit and watch the live view. But you can watch recorded 10-second clips later. The Birdfy camera has 1080p resolution and the result is pretty nice, especially since the birds are up close and personal to the lens. The only place I could put the feeder faces the camera directly into the sun, and while I do believe that affects some of the species identification (more on that later), it still results in clear images of the birds for me to enjoy.