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Jun 30, 2025

First We Fell in Love With a Smart Bird Feeder. Then This Smart Bird House Stole Our Hearts. | Reviews by Wirecutter

By Grant Clauser Grant Clauser is an editor who has written about audio, video, and smart-home technology for more than 20 years. If you already think close-ups of birds happily munching on millet are

By Grant Clauser

Grant Clauser is an editor who has written about audio, video, and smart-home technology for more than 20 years.

If you already think close-ups of birds happily munching on millet are adorable, guess what’s even cuter? Baby birds, that’s what. For those who enjoy sparrow selfies, bird feeders with smart cameras hidden inside are already popular. Now Birdfy, which makes one of our favorite smart bird feeders, offers a Smart Bird House nesting box outfitted with a Wi-Fi camera and solar panel, so you can record a nature documentary in your backyard.

I already have two regular nesting boxes in my yard, and last year I enjoyed watching bluebird and house sparrow parents fly into and out of the golf-ball-sized holes, with insects clutched in their beaks. Alas, I had to enjoy all of that from outside the nesting box and far enough away that I wouldn’t disturb them. Getting to peek inside as the chicks grew was a treat I couldn’t resist, so I set up a review unit in early March. Then I sat back and waited for something to happen.

This bird house’s solar-powered camera lets you watch a bird family right from your smart phone.

Unlike most of Birdfy’s feeders, the Netvue Birdfy Smart Bird House’s nesting box is made of wood — fir, to be exact. Fir is not a particularly weatherproof wood, like cedar is. So before you install this bird house, the company recommends treating its exterior surfaces with a weatherizing agent. Linseed or tung oil are good nontoxic options.

Birdfy recently launched another bird box, with a more avant-garde look; this one is constructed of bamboo, but it costs about twice as much as the more-traditional bird house.

Most of the nesting box comes preassembled, including the solar panel perched on the roof. You have to install the camera in a bracket inside, and then secure it with a screw thingy. There’s also a metal grate for the bird-house floor, to make cleaning it easier once the chicks have fledged.

After I downloaded the app, I simply followed the instructions for connecting the camera to my Wi-Fi network, and then I was ready to hang the box outside. My home’s Wi-Fi network is strong enough that I was able to set up the box on a shed wall 120 feet from the house. You should test out your range first: Carry the box to the place you want to mount it, and then check whether you can get a live camera view on your smartphone.

Unlike hanging a bird feeder, hanging a nesting box in the yard is no guarantee that a pair of birds will settle in and put down roots. Birds’ nesting habits vary by species, and species vary by region and habitat. But there are many other factors involved, like the box’s height and location, competition, predators — in other words, the magic might not happen. Birdfy offers some guidance on this. According to the guidelines provided by the National Wildlife Federation, the Birdfy bird houses are fit for Eastern and Western bluebirds and sparrows, and you might attract chickadees and some wrens.

It took about a week, but eventually my phone chirped with a notification — something was happening. I looked at the video and first saw a small beak — and then a feathered head and body — cautiously investigating the box. It was a common house sparrow, probably one of the many that hang out in my nearby juniper tree.

Even with the camera’s built-in light turned off (I worried it would spook the birds), the video was bright and sharp. When you press the play button on the app for recordings or live video, the image takes five to seven seconds to load, which is longer than with any of my home-security cameras. But this bird cam is located 200 feet from the Wi-Fi router inside our people house. You can then download it to your phone to share on social media, and it becomes part of a “story” on the Birdfy app, which lets you track the nesting progress of your tenants.

The nesting box used the same Birdfy app as the company’s feeders, and it functions in the same way. Writer Rachel Cericola explains the app’s features in her review of the feeder.

After a week, the bird box didn’t draw any additional attention, despite the housing shortage in my backyard. I thought maybe the close proximity to another (occupied) nesting box might be the issue, so I moved the Birdfy box to a different location on the other side of the yard. Within a day, a pair of bluebirds started checking it out.

For several days, a male bluebird would show up every morning for house tours, sticking his head in as if taking measurements for a sofa. Then one morning I checked in via the app to see a few twigs arranged on the floor of the house — the couple had apparently signed the lease and started to move in.

In addition to being transfixed by the birds’ bobbing and twitching inside the small space, I was charmed by their delicate chirps. The camera’s microphone easily picked up conversations between the bird couple as they planned their life together in their new temporary home. In a few weeks I expect the gentle tweets will be replaced by the caterwauling of chicks screaming for breakfast.

All in all, the Birdfy nesting box met my expectations. The camera images look good, and it maintained connection to my Wi-Fi router. According to the battery meter in the app, the solar panel kept the battery fully charged — even on cloudy days — though increased chick activity may draw on it more. And the whole shebang held up well through spring storms with heavy wind and rain.

In prior years I’ve enjoyed watching all of the activity around my non-camera nesting boxes, and I’ve always wanted to know what was going on inside them. Hopefully the happy couple who’ve claimed this one will continue building their family, and I’ll get to watch the feedings and fledging as the season continues. I will be posting updates to this article as things progress.

This article was edited by Jon Chase and Grant Clauser.

Grant Clauser

Senior Editor

I’m an editor whose coverage areas encompass audio, video, and smart-home devices, including headphones, TVs, and security cameras.

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