With $85 off at Amazon, this smart bird feeder is a cheap buy this Black Friday

This year brought a slew of innovative new pet technology, including smart collars and pet sitters. For example, there is this smart bird feeder that is equipped with a camera. At $230, the Netvue Birdfy is expensive even as a unique Christmas gift, but the company has slashed prices ahead of Black Friday, meaning you can score this smart solar powered bird feeder for $145 on Amazon now. That’s an $85 discount on a smart device that’s sure to provide hours of entertainment.

This solar powered bird feeder has a 1080p smart camera that supports color night vision. The camera is centered on the feeder to optimize your view, and you can view a live video feed of birds at the feeder or take still images. The Birdfy app has an AI feature that helps identify the bird species from the images and makes it easy to share the images with friends and family.

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The Netvue Birdfy deal is offered by Woot via Amazon and applies to two colours: blue and yellow. It features a sheltered area for birds to land and enough space for more than 6 cups of food at a time (1.5 liters).

If you’re hoping to spend a little less, Amazon also currently has the battery-powered version for $130lower than the usual $200 price tag, when you clip the coupon on the page. You get all the same features, minus the solar panel, which means you just have to remember to charge it periodically or risk missing out on some feathered friends.

If you’re looking for other gift ideas, we rounded up the best tech gifts for the holidays under $100. And be sure to check out our favorite early Black Friday deals under $100 and under $50.

Read more: 52 best Christmas gifts and ideas for every price range

Why this deal matters

A friend of mine received one of these as a gift and has since delighted me with images, including images of several species of songbirds and hilarious close-up shots of an extremely fearless squirrel. At a starting price of $230, this might be a bit of a treat for something that might be more of a novelty for anyone but a hardcore birdwatcher. But if you drop that price by 37% to under $150, it becomes more justified. And I can tell you that the hours of joy and hilarity it has brought us are worth at least that.