Bringing tech to nature: Smart Bird Feeder launched at CES
CES Honoree 2022, Bird Buddy, debuted its smart bird feeder at CES 2022 in what was the first ‘Tech for Nature’ consumer product at the show. Attendees of the show were able to see an exclusive, never seen before, one:one online app experience demo accompanied by one of Bird Buddy’s three founders. Bird Buddy is the world’s first ever smart bird feeder recording and recognising bird visitors to backyards.
The app demo, specifically built for CES, showcased the engaging app experience with live streaming, AI identification, gamified species collection, and live geographical exploration via the Bird Buddy network. The demo proved to be popular with Bird Buddy already cited as ‘one of the unusual products at CES’. As well as seeing the live demo, recipients were also able to sign up to exclusively receive the Bird Buddy app prior to launch in early March.
Bird Buddy is well on its way in establishing the world’s largest monitoring network for birds which will then create the globe’s biggest bird conservation database. Since launching on Kickstarter a year ago, Bird Buddy went on to be the most successfully funded project in the gadget category and now has over 55k units pre-sold across the world. Furthermore, the Slovenian and US based startup has recently secured $8.5m seed investment to fuel the predicted growth rate.
Bird Buddy is the brainchild of Franci Zidar (CEO), Ziga Vrticic (Chief Product Officer) and Kyle Buzzard (Chief Design Officer) who share a passion for bird watching and nature conservation. The idea started with the viral image of a gull who had acquired a Go Pro camera taking selfies. From that, the co-founding team used their combined experience in app development, gamification and design process to create Bird Buddy. With bird watching increasing in popularity (over 45% in the US in the past two years), the team are poised to help thousands across the globe reconnect with nature and get to know their feathered friends.
Commenting on their live app demo, Bird Buddy CEO Franci Zidar said: “For the first time ever, as an exclusive for CES, people were able to access the world’s only live streaming of birds visiting a feeder, with species recognition and collection. It was a different type of product for CES as we demonstrated how we can allow nature to grab our scrolling attention and for people to receive pure enjoyment from their backyard as well as connecting with others around the world. Packed into our bird feeder and app is a beautiful segue of AI, hardware and software coming together to provide a joyful experience wherever you are in the world. It really does need to be experienced to not only believe it but feel the fun you can have.”
