Birdfy Nest Polygon Smart Birdhouse Review: Primed for Pictures

You'll decidedly want to support successful mind nan nesting seasons for your geographic region, arsenic this is not a instrumentality for year-round use. The camera needs to beryllium kept supra 32 degrees Fahrenheit for optimal operation, and birds' nesting small heart is activated wrong a reasonably rigid model of time. If you're successful nan US, nan US Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency has a useful floor plan of date ranges by state during which you'll want to support nesting boxes up.

Maybe Maybe Maybe

Aside from nan questionable nesting spread size advice, a mates of different Polygon features gave maine pause. There's nary tile overhang to support rainfall from blowing into nan hole; this was confirmed by nan truth that I saw h2o droplets wrong nan nest each clip it rained. The wrong is besides varnished, thing experts explicitly counsel against, though location is nary discernible odor.

After 5 weeks of nan birdhouse being up successful my Pacific Northwest backyard wrong nan nesting play model and not having truthful overmuch arsenic 1 funny visitant (at least, not 1 captured connected camera), I reached retired to Robyn Bailey, task head of NestWatch astatine Cornell Lab of Ornithology, pinch photos of my Polygon setup to spot if thing astir it mightiness beryllium scaring nan birds away.

“If you unrecorded location that is warm, past I would person expected thing to astatine slightest person gone wrong it to look by now,” she said. She did constituent retired that she has a akin nest container from different marque and noticed that nan wrong is rather cavernous compared to what birds typically for illustration successful nan wild.

“I deliberation astir birds awkward distant from boxes that are overmuch bigger than their needs, preferring to nest successful a container that is conscionable nan correct size,” she said. "I don’t cognize precisely why … possibly it saves them nan power of having to make a overmuch bigger nest to capable nan bottom, aliases possibly it has thing to do pinch somesthesia regulation. That said, if location is simply a shortage of bully nesting sites, I would expect thing to usage nan box.”

Something other I couldn't thief but note: The camera makes an audible click erstwhile triggered either by activity aliases by opening nan unrecorded position successful nan app. The sound is unluckily further amplified by nan roomy size and soft varnish of nan box. Given that birds are frightened disconnected my feeders erstwhile a doorway opens 30 feet away, I tin spot really abrupt noises from wrong their existent nest mightiness beryllium a deal-breaker.

Bailey pointed out, however, that because birds are astir progressive during nan day, there's capable ambient sound astir that a camera click whitethorn not register, though this could alteration wide from type to species. Despite nan camera having rather decent infrared nighttime vision, I will apt refrain from checking connected immoderate nesting birds astatine night, since they will beryllium much apt to go startled by nan noise.

So, successful nan meantime, I wait. At slightest I tin opportunity that nan Polygon's Wi-Fi relationship has ne'er faltered contempt nan container being astir 20 feet distant from nan house, and nan 3-watt star sheet has kept nan camera's 5,200-mAh artillery well-charged. If and erstwhile birds do determine to salary a visit, I'm assured nan Polygon will beryllium ready.