Review: Birdfy Nest Polygon Smart Birdhouse

“Bald Eaglet Dies During Snowstorm.” “Third Eaglet Belonging to Famous Big Bear Bald Eagles Dies.” “Jackie and Shadow Continue to Care for Their Eaglets.”

These were but a sampling of headlines from large news outlets back in mid-March, announcing not a significant national news event but the trials and tribulations of a pair of nesting eagles on Friends of Big Bear Valley's 2025 bald eagle nest cam. For years now, millions of viewers have been tuning in to live nest cams like this one, watching various bird species assemble nests from foraged sticks, feed fish and snakes to their young, and engage in all manner of activities both heartwarming and not. What if you could have the same experience, except instead of watching birds across the country you'd be seeing the miracle of life unfold in your own backyard?

This is the promise of Birdfy's new Polygon smart nest, a garden ornament of sorts that also serves as a backyard bird life documentarian. Instead of capturing birds simply eating, as with a smart bird feeder (Birdfy, a subsidiary of Netvue, also happens to make our favorite one), the Polygon and its AI-assisted app are primed and waiting to auto-edit a social-media-ready “story”—a prelude, followed by the process of nesting, hatching, growing, and fledging, and then The End, when the nest is officially abandoned for the season. Unlike with many smart feeders, it comes with unlimited cloud storage, and no additional subscription is required.

Photograph: Kat Merck

Home Sweet Home

Putting a camera inside a nest box is obviously not a new idea, but the Polygon is thoughtfully designed to make the process of spying on birds as discreet and simple as possible. Its single 2-MP, 1080p camera and associated mechanisms are in a cavity separate from the nest box itself, the box's back hinges open for easy cleaning, and there's a totally waterproof remote control attached to a 10-foot wire, so you can restart the camera or charge it remotely if the built-in rooftop solar panel fails or runs out. (Though I never had to use this feature, as the camera stayed quite well charged—even during extended cloudy periods—during my testing period.)

Photograph: Kat Merck

The Polygon's somewhat avant-garde design sets it apart from Birdfy’s two other smart nests, which feature the expected plain, rectangular wood boxes. Looking a bit like a jaunty parallelogram, this box is made of FSC-certified, rot-resistant bamboo with turquoise-painted panels on the front and back. It's certainly unique—it even won the gold award at 2024's French Design Awards. The floor of the nest cavity itself has holes to drain water or debris, there are horizontal indentations acting as a sort of ladder for the nestlings, and there's even a little “skylight” on top to let in light for the camera view.

Photograph: Kat Merck

Also of interest are the included interchangeable entry holes (0.9 inch, 1.5 inches, and 2 inches), each with its own metal predator guard to prevent chewing by squirrels or other unwanted visitors. The Birdfy website lists the types of birds that are attracted to each size hole, but I found some of Birdfy's suggestions, such as the size preferred by the black-capped chickadee, to contradict advice I'd seen elsewhere. I recommend consulting Cornell Lab's NestWatch project for both hole sizes and nesting box heights.

Out of the box, the Polygon comes mostly assembled, aside from needing to snap the camera in. Setup was extremely quick and simple—there are brackets, hose clamps, and a strap for mounting it to a pole, tree, or wall. I was able to quickly mount it by myself on a 1-inch-diameter pole from Amazon.

Photograph: Kat Merck

You'll definitely want to keep in mind the nesting seasons for your geographic region, as this is not a device for year-round use. The camera needs to be kept above 32 degrees Fahrenheit for optimal operation, and birds' nesting instinct is activated within a fairly rigid window of time. If you're in the US, the US Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency has a handy chart of date ranges by state during which you'll want to keep nesting boxes up.

Maybe Maybe Maybe

Aside from the questionable nesting hole size advice, a couple of other Polygon features gave me pause. There's no roof overhang to keep rain from blowing into the hole; this was confirmed by the fact that I saw water droplets inside the nest every time it rained. The inside is also varnished, something experts explicitly advise against, though there is no discernible odor.

After five weeks of the birdhouse being up in my Pacific Northwest backyard within the nesting season window and not having so much as one curious visitor (at least, not one captured on camera), I reached out to Robyn Bailey, project director of NestWatch at Cornell Lab of Ornithology, with photos of my Polygon setup to see if something about it might be scaring the birds away.

“If you live somewhere that is warm, then I would have expected something to at least have gone inside it to look by now,” she said. She did point out that she has a similar nest box from another brand and noticed that the inside is quite cavernous compared to what birds typically prefer in the wild.

“I think most birds shy away from boxes that are much bigger than their needs, preferring to nest in a box that is just the right size,” she said. "I don’t know exactly why … maybe it saves them the energy of having to make a much bigger nest to fill the bottom, or maybe it has something to do with temperature regulation. That said, if there is a shortage of good nesting sites, I would expect something to use the box.”

Something else I couldn't help but note: The camera makes an audible click when triggered either by movement or by opening the live view in the app. The sound is unfortunately further amplified by the roomy size and smooth varnish of the box. Given that birds are scared off my feeders when a door opens 30 feet away, I can see how sudden noises from inside their actual nest might be a deal-breaker.

Photograph: Kat Merck

Bailey pointed out, however, that because birds are most active during the day, there's enough ambient noise around that a camera click may not register, though this could vary widely from species to species. Despite the camera having quite decent infrared night vision, I will likely refrain from checking on any nesting birds at night, since they will be more likely to become startled by the noise.

So, in the meantime, I wait. At least I can say that the Polygon's Wi-Fi connection (note that it only works on 2.4 GHz) has never faltered despite the box being about 20 feet away from the house, and the 3-watt solar panel has kept the camera's 5,200-mAh battery well-charged. If and when birds do decide to pay a visit, I'm confident the Polygon will be ready.