Feathersnap Scout Chicken Feeder: Specs
Value: $179.99
Subscription: $6.99/month or $60 yearly
Seed capability: 4.2 cups per aspect (8.4 cups whole)
Weight: 3.3 kilos unfilled
Connectivity: WiFi 2.4GHz
Energy: Photo voltaic; USB-C connection non-obligatory
Working temperature: -20 levels F to 130 levels F
Digital camera: Detachable, 4MP decision with extensive area of view
Storage: 5GB inner storage; non-obligatory Micro SD slot built-in
I’ve been protecting two resident birds well-fed this spring because of FeatherSnap’s Scout Chicken Feeder. We often get different guests, however my two foremost pals cease by on daily basis, a number of occasions a day. I do know this as a result of FeatherSnap makes it tremendous straightforward to trace my feathered guests, categorize them, save movies and pictures of them, and study extra about them.
It’s been addictive enjoyable to verify the FeatherSnap app a number of occasions a day to see who’s been munching on the feeder. I like seeing wildlife within the yard and studying extra about varied chicken species. Whereas the AI options included within the app have been hit and miss, the remainder of the FeatherSnap expertise has been fantastic. It’s an awesome choice for informal chicken fanatics and extra severe birders seeking to determine and observe varied species of their locale.
Feathersnap Scout Chicken Feeder: Value and availability
- Feathersnap Scout Chicken Feeder at Lowe’s for $179.99
The FeatherSnap Scout prices $179.99 and is out there for buy now on FeatherSnap’s web site.You should buy the Scout and a Wi-Fi subscription on FeatherSnap’s web site to rise up and operating extra rapidly. The Wi-Fi subscription provides you further options, together with AI chicken identification, entry to FeatherSnap’s Chicken E-book, Snap Rush Mode, and extra. The Wi-Fi plan prices a further $60 yearly or $7 a month.
You may as well buy the Scout from varied on-line retailers together with Amazon, Chewy, Bass Professional Store, and Lowe’s.
Feathersnap Scout Chicken Feeder: Design
The plastic physique of the Scout features a roof with photo voltaic panels inbuilt. These panels maintain the detachable digital camera charged so that you don’t must take away it and cost it manually through USB-C (although you may, for those who dwell in a spot the place daylight isn’t ample to maintain the unit charged).
(Picture credit score: Tom’s Information)
The roof pivots to can help you fill the principle physique with chicken seed of your alternative. The seed gravity-feeds right into a backside tray the place birds can perch and munch. It’s positioned such that the digital camera factors immediately at your guests and takes pictures of them mechanically.
(Picture credit score: Tom’s Information)
Two extendable perches create extra room for birds at busy feeders. You’ll be able to tuck these into the principle physique for those who desire.
(Picture credit score: Tom’s Information)
Your entire feeder mounts on a metallic bracket you screw right into a stable mounting floor. The feeder mates to a vertical plastic put up, which lets you rotate the feeder to search out the optimum place. This turns out to be useful whenever you’re looking for an excellent backdrop that highlights your chicken guests. FeatherSnap additionally features a stabilization strap to assist open up extra mounting alternatives.
(Picture credit score: Tom’s Information)
The detachable digital camera pops out from the principle physique of the feeder simply. It has a decision of 4 megapixels (1080p video) with a 170-degree extensive area of view (90 levels vertically) to seize birds that desire the corners of the body slightly than heart stage.
The Scout options Wi-Fi connectivity on a 2.4GHz band. A lot of what you’ll love concerning the Scout will get beamed to the FeatherSnap app through Wi-Fi. You’ll see your guests, be capable of save pictures, request movies, and way more. Extra on that beneath.
(Picture credit score: Tom’s Information)
General, the feeder weighs about 3 kilos empty and about twice that crammed. You may get slightly below 9 cups of chicken seed within the feeder.
Feathersnap Scout Chicken Feeder: Digital camera specs and settings
The digital camera detects movement inside ten ft of the feeder and shoots at a focal vary of 4-24 inches. It’s a 4-megapixel decision digital camera, with a 170-degree-wide area of view. In line with FeatherSnap’s web site, the pictures and movies are excessive definition, although that’s a reasonably obscure time period.
(Picture credit score: Tom’s Information)
So let’s make clear. Video shoots in 1080p and pictures default to dimensions measuring 1280×720. And there’s an ambient gentle sensor to regulate the digital camera for much more readability. The person handbook notes that the digital camera contains an infrared LED flash, however I’ve not seen proof of this being utilized in my movies and pictures. Maybe it’s delicate, or I’m simply not seeing its results, however in any other case, it doesn’t seem to have activated but in any of my snaps.
Feathersnap Scout Chicken Feeder – Pattern footage – YouTube
Watch On
To get probably the most out of the digital camera’s capabilities, FeatherSnap recommends inserting your feeder in a sunny location. The handbook additionally notes it is best to keep away from dealing with the unit to the south, as this may expose it to daylight glare that may activate the snap recording whereas no birds are literally on the feeder.
Feathersnap Scout Chicken Feeder: Testing and positioning the feeder
The very first thing I realized, in a short time, concerning the FeatherSnap Scout is how essential it’s to place it correctly. You’ll need to select a location that’s straightforward to entry so you may refill the feeder when obligatory, however you’ll additionally want to think about just a few different key components:
- Positioning in a location the place squirrels can’t entry the Scout
- Positioning someplace the solar will hit the photo voltaic panels ceaselessly
- Positioning so the birds the digital camera captures aren’t at all times backlit (this makes the birds seem darkish)
- Positioning the Scout in a low-foot-traffic space
(Picture credit score: Tom’s Information)
That final issue was one which instantly affected the usefulness of the Scout for me. I first positioned it simply outdoors my again door, pondering I might take a look at the birds from my kitchen window. That was true, but it surely additionally meant the digital camera snapped an image of anybody coming and going from the again door of my home — together with my canine. I suppose if I needed to make use of this feeder as an out of doors safety digital camera, this might have been an awesome place. However for chicken documentation, I wanted to relocate.
(Picture credit score: Tom’s Information)
So I moved the Scout to the again of my storage, pointing caddy-corner out on the again a part of my yard. This proved ultimate for stopping unintentional snaps — although I nonetheless get just a few pictures of my canine sniffing round. This positioning was additionally nice for stopping squirrels and different non-bird-critters from accessing the feeder.
At sure occasions of day, nonetheless, the extreme Colorado solar shines on my yard, however not on the feeder itself, which sits beneath the eave of my storage in shade. So for a lot of the day, the birds in view of the digital camera are backlit. This makes the picture endure fairly a bit.
(Picture credit score: Tom’s Information)
That mentioned, at different occasions of day when the solar hits the feeder excellent, I get crystal-clear photographs of the birds that go to the Scout. One neat characteristic of the app is that Feathersnap will let you already know when your feeder is getting probably the most visitors: for my feeder, that occurs round 11 a.m. At the moment of day, the birds are backlit, so sooner or later, I’ll in all probability modify the feeder accordingly or discover a new place altogether.
(Picture credit score: Tom’s Information)
Shifting the feeder aspect to aspect is fairly straightforward, so minor changes are not any drawback. Relocating the feeder totally includes eradicating the screws on the mounting plate, and re-screwing it in a brand new location. Additionally fairly straightforward.
Feathersnap Scout Chicken Feeder: App
The Scout feeder itself, whereas seemingly weatherproof and sturdy sufficient for years of use, isn’t definitely worth the $179 price ticket by itself. It’s only a plastic feeder, in any case. The celebs of the present are the digital camera and the companion app, which in tandem showcase the birds visiting the Scout.
(Picture credit score: Feathersnap/ Tom’s Information)
The primary display of the app is the place you’ll see all of your snaps of your feeder’s guests. From there, it can save you a photograph you want, or request a video from FeatherSnap of that second. The movies take a while to indicate up in your video feed, however I’ve discovered them to be very clear and I get pleasure from listening to the birdsong too.
The My Feeder tab will present you related details about your account, in addition to the standing of the digital camera’s battery and the WiFi connection. Right here, it’s also possible to click on on the Reside Feed button to see what’s occurring at your feeder in actual time.
The Chicken E-book tab is the place you’ll discover all of your saved birds. Whenever you save a photograph, you need to use the built-in AI chicken identifier to kind your birds into classes. I’ve had little or no luck with the AI software, sadly. Lots of birds have been merely misidentified, or the pictures have been apparently not clear sufficient for the AI software to make an excellent identification. This was disappointing, truthfully, and one of many foremost explanation why I upgraded to the paid subscription.
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The Perch tab is the place you’ll discover badges that you just’ve earned (primarily game-ifying the feeder for you), and the Snap Wrap, which provides you a enjoyable weekly abstract of what birds visited your feeder, what number of, your high guests, and extra. That is additionally the place you’ll study what the height feeding time is, and you need to use this data to place your digital camera optimally.
And at last, there’s the Settings tab, which has all of the boring stuff you’d anticipate within the Settings tab.
General, the app is intuitive and enjoyable to make use of, however I’m largely disillusioned within the AI chicken identifier software. I feel if that is extra correct and streamlined, the FeatherSnap system turns into way more usable and enjoyable.
Feathersnap Scout Chicken Feeder: The competitors
Chicken Buddy is an in depth competitor with FeatherSnap. The Scout compares to Chicken Buddy’s Sensible Chicken Feeder PRO, which prices $279 (as of this writing, it’s on sale for $189). The photo voltaic choice prices $349 (on sale for $219 as of this writing). So it’s persistently dearer than the Feathersnap.
For the additional cash, you get HD 2K video and pictures, which is a lot better than the FeatherSnap’s decision. And, you get that and not using a subscription.
The Chicken Buddy additionally takes photographs extra close-up to the chicken guests than the FeatherSnap does. The Scout’s area of view is extremely extensive, so that you get way more of the encompassing space, and the chicken itself is smaller within the body.
(Picture credit score: Tom’s Information)
Whereas I like the expertise of the FeatherSnap, the Chicken Buddy’s pictures and movies soundly beat the FeatherSnap’s high quality.
Feathersnap Scout Chicken Feeder: Verdict
The FeatherSnap Scout is a enjoyable addition to my yard, and I’ve loved trying on the birds that go to the feeder way over I believed I’d. Set up is fast and simple, and I hardly ever, if ever, take into consideration the digital camera unit, because the photo voltaic panels cost it and maintain it charged. It feels well-built and I can think about getting a few years of use out of it.
The digital camera produces clear photographs and movies, assuming you’ve positioned the feeder for optimum lighting. However the photographs aren’t as sharp or clear as what the Chicken Buddy’s 2K digital camera can produce. And the app is straightforward to make use of and gives useful data, in addition to entertaining snaps of assorted feeder guests.
Given the price of the feeder itself, and the standard of the pictures and movies in comparison with the FeatherSnap’s competitors, I do really feel as if the app options for which you have to pay a month-to-month payment ought to be included within the buy value of the unit. And the AI software wants a variety of refining to actually be helpful. As a rule, the AI software misidentified the birds that visited my feeder.
However apart from these drawbacks, the FeatherSnap Scout is a ton of enjoyable, whether or not you’re an avid birder or only a novice excited by seeing the wildlife out your again window. It gives a approach to come far nearer to nature than you might in particular person, and really examine wild birds shut up. So long as you’re not in search of the tops in AI identification, the Scout is an excellent addition to the again yard.
Feathersnap Scout Chicken Feeder: Value Comparability
