This mechanical bird drops dead when your home’s air quality worsens

Key points

• is a senior reporter who’s been covering and reviewing the latest gadgets and tech since 2006, but has loved all things electronic since he was a kid.
• The original Birdie debuted in 2022 with a morbid-but-fun design — an air-quality monitor with a literal canary in a coal mine.
• When the CO2 in your home hit a certain level, a mechanical bird mounted on your wall would appear to drop dead, then prompt you to open a window to air things out.
• Once the air quality improved, the bird miraculously came back to life.
• The new Birdie Pro carries forward that same design and approach, but adds additional sensors providing a more comprehensive analysis of the environment in your home.