A nation of birdwatchers: how a network of smart bird feeders is changing the way we look at nature

If you want to experience nature up close, there's no need to travel to a national park. Our backyards are a prime spot for observing a wealth of bird life, and the more welcoming you make it for birds, the more likely you are to get to see lesser-spotted species from the comfort of your own home.

Bird watching is a much bigger thing than you might think. There are estimated to be around 96 million birdwatchers in the USA, most of whom haven't invested in high-end binoculars and field guides; around 91 million Americans simply enjoy watching birds at home or nearby.

Nature's happening right out there in our backyards, and over the past few years we've been paying more attention to it. It started when the pandemic shrunk all our worlds and many of us found ourselves spending more time looking out on our gardens through the window, and becoming more attached to our regular avian visitors.

Watching becomes caring

Once you start feeling attached to the birds in your backyard, you don't just want to watch them, you want to look out for them. So you start feeding them and you want to understand just what species are coming to visit. Identifying birds has traditionally been a case of investing in a guide book and flicking through it until you happen across the most likely candidate, but now technology is making casual backyard bird watching easier and more rewarding.

Birdfy's smart birding devices have become a boon for backyard bird lovers. The brand makes bird feeders, bird baths and nesting boxes equipped with high resolution cameras to automatically capture photos and videos of feathered visitors that you can share with friends and family, and integrates AI technology that can immediately identify the birds in your backyard.

With over a million Birdfy smart birding devices now in use worldwide, those everyday encounters with backyard birds are happening at scale. In the US alone, Birdfy’s network has recorded over two billion bird identifications.

From data points to insights

While this represents a personal win for everyone who manages to put names to the species that are visiting their backyards, there's a wider benefit as well. Birdfy is building a vast dataset on bird life in the US, from which it can derive insights into how birds interact with residential environments, and it has just published the Birdfy U.S. Birdwatching Insights Report 2026: A Million Devices, One Portrait of Nature, sharing some of these discoveries..

There are over 1,100 bird species resident in the USA, and Birdfy's report reveals that its network of smart birding devices has spotted over 1,000 of them.

There's more to the data than that, though: for example, the Birdfy dataset clearly shows how the Rockies divide the US in terms of the most common backyard birds. To the east it's the bright red Northern Cardinal, to the west it's the red and gray House Finch.

Birdfy has also found found that you don't need to invest in expensive equipment to see rare birds in the wild, because they may just visit your garden: out of over 20 million Hummingbird sightings, Birdfy devices have spotted 17 rare species including the Broad-billed Hummingbird and Lucifer Hummingbird at ordinary backyard feeders.

Other insights include the fact that it's true what they say about early birds: Birdfy devices are capturing early-morning action while you're still fast asleep, and by 6AM the Birdfy network has logged over 60 million sightings. And chances are you're more likely to post a photo or video of your latest backyard visitor to your socials or family WhatsApp – the Birdfy data shows that sharing has more than tripled, meaning that more people are shifting from simply seeing a bird to wanting others to see it too.

Complementing the science

While data like this can't — and isn't intended to — replace structured scientific studies, it can complement them while also highlighting exciting new opportunities and perspectives for the future of nature observation.

Science can be at its most engaging when ordinary people are offered the opportunity to participate, and technologies such as Birdfy's devices can provide people with the means to contribute to the understanding of wildlife behavior through insights generated within their own gardens and communities.

And when people are actively seeing more birds and can put names to the species in their neighborhoods, that's a step on the road to understanding them better and ultimately to caring more about them. Which is something birds need; since 1970 we've lost an estimated 3 billion birds across almost every habitat.

When we’re more engaged with the birds in our backyards, though, we’re more inclined to care for them and to want to protect them, and that's good news for birds, as well as bringing a little more natural joy into our own lives.

Read the full Birdfy U.S. Birdwatching Insights Report 2026 here.