I love feeding the birds in our garden, we already have multiple bird feeders and I spend a lot of time watching them from our kitchen window. The calm of watching them fly and hop into the garden is a joy.
We had tried a wildlife camera, but the videos weren’t great, and a faff to get them off onto your phone.
I had seen specialist bird cameras on Amazon and when the Birdy Feeder Smart Bird Feeder Cam* was on offer I decided to purchase it a couple of weeks ago.
The reviews on Amazon were really good so I was hopeful that it would live up to this.
You can see from the video here of the first couple of days in our garden, it is brilliant!
Carry on reading for a full review of the Netvue Birdfy Smart Bird Camera
Different Models of the Birdfy Smart Bird Camera
I chose to go for the lite model with the solar panel, the lite model means if you want the AI you have to pay for a subscription. For me, I didn’t really want the AI bird recognition as we don’t really get anything too exotic in the garden.
The AI recognition is still also a work in progress, this is admitted by the manufacturers. So I didn’t want to spend extra on it.
Charging the Netvue Birdfy Smart Bird Camera
The solar panel means you don’t have to bring the feeder in to charge, and I have found after having the feeder up for a couple of weeks, that even on a dull, no-sunshine day in the UK it is fully charging each day. And we are having lots of notifications! Up to 300 a day.
Getting the Birdfy Smart Bird Camera ready to put up
The instructions were really clear, putting the perch and roof onto the feeder, and installing the (optional and purchased separately SD card).
You need to fully charge the feeder the first time indoors with the supplied lead, it took a couple of hours for us.
You download the free app and that walks you through the set up of adding the feeder to your wifi. We had no issues with this, and the wifi reached into the garden, with the feeder about 10 metres away from the house.
Installing the Birdfy Smart Bird Camera
In the box is everything you will need to mount the camera, on just about any surface. I chose to put it in our tree with the other feeders as the birds love the shelter there. I used the big velcro strap which goes through the supplied mount to secure it.
But it comes with fixings for a pole, or to screw to a fence etc. Lots of options to cater for everyone’s gardens.
I put the solar panel to the outside of the tree facing where the sun is most, it comes with a fixing band too, that you can put around poles / tree etc or also a mount to fix to a fence / wall.
Filling your Birdfy Smart Bird Camera with bird food
I already had lots of different types of bird food for all our other feeders, so used a mix of meal worms, sunflower seeds, mixed bird seeds, suet nuggets and peanuts (you shouldn’t feed whole peanuts during spring as fledglings can choke on them)
The feeder holds lots of food and it falls into the tray at the bottom easily too.
How long before birds use your Birdfy Smart Bird Camera?
As we already had lots of birds in the garden, it only took a few hours before I started to get the notifications to my phone. But if you have no birds in your garden and it is in a new place, it might take a few days for them to find it.
The app has lots of settings on it that are easy to find and use, you can choose the detection level, so you can get notified of Low / Medium / High movement, this is useful if you have other animals in the garden and don’t want it set off too easily.
When a bird lands on the feeder you get a notification, and then can go to the app and view the video. You can then share the video and / or download it to your phone. Both of these worked easily without glitches.
Do the birds like the Birdfy Smart Bird Camera?
Yes!
We have had all the regular visitors to the garden using it, except the sparrows so far. And the best thing for me has seeing my favourite Robins on there so frequently. As I have only ever spotted them very occasionally in the garden.
What is the quality like of the camera?
It is really good, as you can see from the images on here & TikTok videos, these stills are from screenshots on my phone.
Life with the Birdfy Smart Bird Camera
I have really enjoyed using the Birdfy Smart Bird Camera, I have muted the notifications though, as within a couple of days I was getting 200-300 notifications a day and it was a bit much. So Now a few times a day I go on and scroll through the screenshots, and then click and watch the videos.
The app also allows you to watch the camera in live mode.
And gives you options of a siren, bright white light, and talk through to the feeder. Options for unwanted visitors to the feeder (although we welcome Robert our resident squirrel!
The camera also works at night, and so far we have had a mouse, a cat, and Robin caught in the dark and it is also really clear.
I am really happy with the Birdy Feeder Smart Bird Feeder Cam* , it would also make a great gift for anyone who loves nature and bird watching.
Once you are signed up to the app you get a link to join the Birdfy Facebook group, it is fascinating to see all the different types of birds around the world people have got videos of.
You can purchase the Netvue Birdy Feeder Smart Bird Feeder Cam on Amazon*
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