The best bird feeder camera in 2023: birdwatching at home

With the best bird feeder cameras you can take close-up photos of beautiful birds in your own backyard or garden, without even leaving the house!

While bird watching is a fun and fascinating hobby that can be enjoyed by all ages, the best lenses for bird photography tend to be very expensive and heavy to use. That means that bird photography has traditionally been enjoyed by photographers who could invest in long telephoto lenses, as well as a camera for wildlife.

Fortunately, the best bird feeder cameras have made the technology smaller, more affordable and easy to use. Bird feeder cameras come in several shapes and sizes. Some are very intuitive to use – pairing with smartphone apps almost instantly so that you can take photos and monitor the feeders live. Others require more time to set up.

We’ve selected the best bird feeder cameras at a range of price points, settings and designs in this design. We’ll also be reviewing as many as possible in the future to ensure that our guide is accurate and reliable.

best bird feeder cameras: our top picks

The best bird feeder cameras in 2023

The Netvue Birdfy Smart Bird Feeder Camera is one of the more expensive bird feeder cameras on the market, but it's a good buy for keen birdwatchers or those who want to know the comings and goings in their garden with help from AI technology. Likewise, the bird recognition smarts could be a good way to get younger users into wildlife. You can check the bird feeder at any time from your phone, and hear them, too, thanks to the built-in microphone. 

With a decent 1080P live camera, and the ability to identify 6000+ bird species, it's easy to see why the Netvue has become a popular option. Installation is quick and friendly, and you can turn notifications on and off if you don't want to be pinged when a bird has visited. The bright, plastic design might put off some users, especially those with a more natural-looking garden, but this does make it easy to clean. 

It's the easiest camera in this guide to set up and use, and the battery is long-lasting. You only have to hope that the birds want to visit when you do!

The Palprot Bird Detective Smart bird feeder can identify birds and remind you of when they visit, by sending notifications to your smartphone. 

The built-in camera can be set up to automatically takes pictures of birds that visit your garden or backyard, so that even when you're not around to see a rare bird, you still get a chance to encounter the sighting. The feeder itself is build with a modular design, so that each section is detachable and upgradable, and the product itself is IP65 rated – to ensure weatherproofing.

The Technaxx Bird Camera is a durable and camouflaged option, with a removable food and water container. Its closest focusing distance is 6-15cm, while it has a viewing angle of 100 degrees. Like the Netvue Birdfy camera, it also has a built in microphone and speaker (although we're still not sure convinced as to why you'd need the former). 

Despite being one of the more affordable cameras in our list, it offers slow motion video up to 25 fps, and there are 940nm LEDs for recording footage in low light. Rated with a protection class IP56, the Technaxx Bird Camera is likely to stand the test of time when left outside in your garden. 

This kit includes a bird feeder, wooden mount and the Green Feathers Wildlife Wi-Fi Bird Box Camera, which can also be bought separately and placed in a bird box. 

This 1080p Full HD camera is housed in a water-tight casing rated IP68, so you won't have to worry about leaving it outside. It also offers night vision, and a Starlight chip for low light imaging. Assembly this kit is simple enough – you simply attach the waterproof camera to the wooden mount, hang up a bird feeder and watch birds flying in to get their food. 

Unlike the Netvue, Birdfy and Palprot cameras, this product is designed for viewing on a tv or monitor, and it comes with a 20-meter cable to transmit video from the camera and power it, too. In theory, you could watch the bird life from your living room TV, although this might take a bit more wiring than a smartphone app.

If you're interested in the Hawk Eye HD camera, the first thing to know is that it doesn't record, but offers a live feed into your television. The camera is designed to be placed inside a bird box and offers live feed. It's small enough to do so, measuring just 1-inch on all sides.

It's also got a built-in microphone for listening to baby birds and comes with two 50-inch detachable AV and power cables. You'll need some more technical knowledge to set up this camera than with something like the Netvue Birdfy Smart Bird Feeder Camera, so it's not the best choice for beginners who want a plug-and-go option. 

If however, you're a serious wildlife photographer or enthusiast, it's a fantastically small camera to add to a bird box setup, and a fun project to get stuck into. This Nest Box IP Camera Kit 1080P at Wayfair is a similar alternative.

See other bird box cameras

The Wasserstein Bird Feeder Camera Case is a good option if you already have one of the best outdoor security cameras and want to use it to watch the birds in your garden. It goes without saying that this product is just a waterproof housing with a plastic bird food feeder, and it works with Blink, Wyze, and Ring Cam models.

In our test, we were impressed with the impressive 26.4 oz of bird feed capacity and its durable, weatherproof but not fiddly construction. The case comes with a strap so that you can easily mount it to small trees or poles, while there's also a metal wall mount for larger trees or walls. The feed falls around the safely ensconced camera, and the security camera services offer automatic recording – the downside being that the lens is so close to the birds it struggles to focus.

Despite the high price of this feeder case (given that it doesn't come with a camera like the Netvue Birdfy at the top of our guide), our impression was positive overall. You can see the pictures we got in the full review.

See our full Wasserstein Bird Feeder Camera Case review

What to look for in a bird feeder camera

Mounting options: Consider where you might want to put your bird feeder, as some come with tree mounts, or fittings to mount them on a wall.

Power source: Some bird feeder cameras run off traditional batteries, while others can be recharged via USB-C or even solar power. Check the quoted run times for each camera, as removing the camera frequently to charge it could disrupt the birds.

AI bird-recognition: Several bird feeder cameras on the market now come with AI tech to recognize thousands of different species, and they can be set to alert you when they land on the feeder. If you want to increase your bird knowledge, this feature might help you – but the AI technology isn't always accurate, of course!

Video output: Most bird feeder cameras come with a standard resolution of 1080p, which is more than adequate for monitoring birds but not really high enough for extracting high quality stills from. For professional bird shots, you'll need one of the best lenses for bird photography.

Don't forget that while birdwatching is becoming increasingly popular, bird feeder cameras are still quite specialist. If you're feeling confident, you could make your own by positioning a waterproof outdoor security camera near an established feeder – or use a trail camera.

How we test the best bird feeder cameras

We test out bird feeder cameras by calling in each product and putting it through real-world testing for several weeks. We commission reviews to experts in their field, which means that they'll know exactly what to look for when it comes to letting you know whether a product is a good buy. Find out more about how we test and review at Digital Camera World.

If you're a natural history lover, you might also be wondering: what's the best camera for wildlife photography? We've also got an expert guide to the best trail cameras – ideal devices for helping you track and capture animals.