GoKawiilAssembly was quick and tool-free, requiring only a handful of included knob screws. I also like that it included both fence- and pole-mounting options, the latter of which is critical for preventing squirrel damage.
Screenshot Coolfly app via Kat Merck
Smart feeder companies continue to upgrade their cameras' quality with each new model, but the general range still seems to be anywhere from 1080p photos and 2K video on the low end (as with the Birdfy Lite), all the way up to 32-MP photos and 4K video (as with Camojojo's new Hibird Pro). The Aura falls somewhere in the middle of this range, with 4-MP photos and a respectable 2.5K Ultra HD video.
The camera's 150-degree field of view is wider than that of a typical bird feeder camera, and it helps to capture all angles of what's really the Aura's signature feature—a wraparound perch with little platforms on the left and right sides, where you can position the camera upright (which shows pictures in a horizontal "landscape mode") at the angle you prefer. If you want the camera to be on its side (vertical "portrait mode"), there's a little adapter that connects to the back and screws into the platform. Do note, though, that despite some marketing photos showing the Aura with two cameras, it only comes with one camera, and when it's on its side, it can only be mounted on the right side of the perch.
Portrait mode (the camera mounted on its side) allows for greater detail in photos, but it wasn't always successful at capturing all the action, depending on where a bird stood. The biggest issue with this camera orientation, however, is that the app's AI identification doesn't work with it. I asked Coolfly if this was an error, but it turns out it's how the camera was designed.
Video: Kat Merck
“To offer users ‘Limited Free AI' without monthly subscription fees, our bird ID algorithm is hardcoded directly into the device's hardware,” Coolfly's rep told me. “Because this on-device neural network was trained exclusively on horizontal datasets, physically flipping the camera … disrupts the local algorithm's spatial mapping.”
Video: Kat Merck
The solution? “If our users shoot vertically and spot an unknown bird, they can simply take a screenshot and send it to our in-app ChirpChat feature. Our interactive AI assistant will identify it perfectly from the image," Coolfly's rep said.
Though this step was cumbersome, it did correctly identify nearly all of the birds I proffered (as did the built-in AI ID). I liked seeing the birds slightly closer up with the side camera orientation, but it wasn't a dramatic difference between the views. Certainly not dramatic enough to justify the hassle of losing the AI ID or of having to go out and fiddle with taking the camera on and off its little mount to switch modes. So for the majority of testing, I kept the camera in its default upright position.
... continue reading