Garden tech review: Watching wildlife from your phone with the Birdfy Birdbath Pro
The clever dual-lens system on the Birdfy Birdbath Pro combines a wide-angle view with automated tracking of visiting birds. Pictures: Birdfy
My garden is typically a sanctuary for local wildlife. On any given morning, I expect to see Goldfinches, Sparrows, Dunnocks, and Bluetits, alongside the more familiar Robins and Blackbirds. However, my recent experience testing the Birdfy Birdbath Pro coincided with one of the hottest spells Ireland has seen in years. Between the extreme heat and my habit of not using bird feeders during the summer months, there were surprisingly few visitors to document during my testing period.
The Birdbath Pro is available in two colours, and my review unit arrived in a striking blue colour. It stands out nicely against the greenery without looking out of place in a natural garden setting. I received the version with the solid, freestanding stand, which provides a very stable base and allows you to move it around the garden easily without needing to bolt anything into the ground. I also found the top particularly easy to remove, which is a massive help when it comes to keeping the water fresh and cleaning the unit regularly.
The solar-powered fountain is a lovely addition for attracting wildlife, though it is worth noting that it does not have its own battery. It relies entirely on direct sunlight to keep the water moving, so on very overcast days, the movement might stop.
The camera has an internal battery, and during our recent stretch of long, sunny days, I found the charge stayed incredibly high, often sitting well above 95%. This meant I never had to worry about the device powering down during a period of observation.
The camera uses a dual-lens setup, combining a wide-angle view with an automated tracking lens. When a bird enters the frame, the system attempts to follow them, which makes for much more engaging footage than a standard static shot. I managed all of this through the Birdfy app on my phone, and when birds did appear, the image quality was excellent. The footage of the few sparrows that visited was crisp and clear, and I could see the details of their feathers quite easily.
The Birdfy app offers decent control, though it does rely on a subscription for the full experience, which includes cloud storage and bird recognition for over 6,000 species. I found the notification settings useful for managing my phone's alerts. You can choose to be notified about birds or squirrels, and there is a Smart Push feature designed to alert you specifically when rare or new species arrive. To prevent getting overwhelmed, the app also allows you to set up filters and a Do Not Disturb mode for certain categories.
However, getting these alerts to be useful was a bit of a struggle at first. Because the detection sensitivity was set so high, I was plagued by false alarms every time a branch swayed in the wind or a butterfly drifted past the lens in the distance. It was quite frustrating to get a notification only to see nothing but moving foliage. I eventually had to lower the sensitivity settings, which made the notifications much more meaningful and less of a nuisance.
Most of my regular visitors, like the blackbird couple, preferred to stay on the ground or visit my nearby water feature instead. To try and bring the energy back to the garden, I have recently started putting the feeders out again, so I am keen to see if more species return to the Birdbath Pro.
A beautiful piece of garden tech that brings wildlife closer. While the fountain needs sun to work, the camera quality and easy setup make it a joy for any nature lover to use.
€240 Birdfy
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