This air quality monitor is a cute bird that dies when you need to air out your home

Birdie has a simple tag line: “Dead bird: open your window.” Harsh, but clear. Like the coal mine canaries of yore, Birdie collapses when air quality drops and revives when it improves.

In Germany, Lüften, regularly opening windows for short periods, regardless of the season or outside temperature, is common, as it improves indoor air quality and sleep, and helps prevent mold. Landlords often add specific instructions for Lüften into rental agreements. The practice has caught on in the United States, where it is called “house burping.”

Birdie is a little bird that keels over when carbon dioxide levels rise, letting you know, in adorable but slightly gruesome fashion, to open some windows. There are plenty of other options for indoor air quality monitoring, but Birdie’s simplicity is appealing. The device charges via USB-C, and a single charge lasts about six months. Birdie is available in several colors, but canary yellow is obviously the appropriate color.

The updated Birdie Pro is currently live on Kickstarter and adds an array of sensors in addition to CO2: humidity, temperature, mold risk, pollen, and outside air quality. A new smartphone app provides access to all this additional information, but the bird still does its main job of falling over to let you know it is time to open your windows.

The original version of Birdie is still available on Amazon, and the Kickstarter campaign for Birdie Pro is ongoing.