REVIEW – I’ve lived in Florida almost all my life. Like most states, it has a variety of bird species. I have a love/hate relationship with most of them. Cardinals – I love them. Seagulls – I hate them. Hummingbirds – I’m fascinated by them. Woodpeckers – I despise them. Eagles and hawks – I’m in awe of them. See what I mean? One thing that fascinates me about birds is how they build nests and raise their young. The HZVEN BH01 Bird Feeder with Camera and WiFi Connectivity will hopefully satisfy that desire and give me a bird’s eye view of a new family in the making.
What is that?
The HZVEN BH01 Bird Feeder with Camera and WiFi Connectivity is a traditional wooden bird feeder with a modern technological twist. The bird feeder is equipped with a 3MP camera that allows you to monitor the bird feeder’s residents after they move in. Sounds creepy, but it should be fascinating to watch the birds nest and hatch. The camera connects to an app through your WiFi connection and allows you to see what’s going on in there and receive alerts when there’s movement in the bird feeder.
What is included?
- Birdhouse
- 3MP camera with magnetic base
- Pre-installed 32 GB memory card
- 4.8 meter long USB-C power cable
- 0.5A power supply
- Hardware for assembly
- Instructions
Technical data
Click here to expand
- Dimensions: 17.5 x 21 x 32.5 cm (6.9 x 8.4 x 12.8 inches)
- Material: Cedar and other woods, Plexiglas “window”, metal camera mount
- Camera: 2K resolution, 3MP sensor and night vision
- Proximity: IR sensor
- Storage: 32GB memory card included. Supports cards up to 128GB
- Connectivity: 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
- Power supply: USB-C port to 0.5A power adapter
- Weight: approx. 1.5 kg
Design and features
The HZVEN BH01 birdhouse with camera is a very pretty and well-built wooden birdhouse. The outside is fully painted and protected from the elements.
The “roof” has cedar shingles and looks very nice. This roof should last for many seasons. I suspect you can reapply a wood protectant like Thompson’s Wood Sealer each year as the shingles get worn down by rain and sun.
One side of the birdhouse is hinged and can be opened to install the camera and clean the house after a new brood has hatched and moved on. It has a simple twist lock to protect this side from being opened by unwanted intruders.
The bottom of the birdhouse has small drainage holes in the corners in case water gets in. This is to prevent the interior from rotting due to moisture and to keep the young birds dry when the time comes.
Each side has a small round “window” covered with plexiglass, allowing just enough light into the room for the residents and the mounted camera.
The HZVEN BH01 bird feeder camera is a fairly large outdoor camera that attaches to a steel plate inside the bird feeder with some very strong magnets. I shook the feeder after installing the camera and it didn’t move, so the magnets should be more than enough to keep it in place for a very long time.
The camera is powered by a 4.8 meter USB-C cable connected to a 0.5A power adapter. On the side opposite the hinge side, there is a small hole through which the camera’s power cable passes. For details on configuring the camera for my home Wi-Fi network, see the Installation and Setup section.
The power adapter is a typical 0.5A power adapter that comes with a variety of devices. Since this is an outdoor product, I wasn’t sure if the power adapter was suitable for outdoor use. The instructions don’t say anything about this.
The camera takes photos and videos when motion is detected and notifies you via the Tris Home app. The photos and videos are stored on the included 32GB memory card until the card is full, then older files are deleted. There is an option in the app to save these photos and videos to your phone.
In the app, I set up motion detection for the camera to notify me when motion is detected in the bird feeder. At first, I would get all sorts of notifications when shadows crossed the opening at the front of the bird feeder. A few tweaks to the settings in the app fixed this issue and reduced the notifications to a tolerable level.
One option offered by Tris Home is a cloud storage account for storing videos the camera records when it detects motion. I found the cloud storage plan a bit expensive and did not subscribe to it.
The photos and videos are very clear and include sound. At the time of writing this review, no birds have moved in yet. When and if the birdhouse gets its first residents, I will update the review with the photos and videos the camera captures.
Installation and setup
Installing the bird feeder was fairly easy. The included hardware (anchors and screws) works great for concrete or wood walls. My house has vinyl siding and wood walls underneath. I opted to use just a single 2″ exterior screw to hang the bird feeder.
The included 16-foot (metric) power cord is long enough to reach an outlet on the outside of a house, but I didn’t trust the power adapter to be used outdoors. I ended up drilling a hole through my wall into my garage and running the power cord through the wall into the birdhouse.
Configuring the camera was a bit tedious. After installing the Tris Home mobile app, the setup took much longer than expected.
The app uses Bluetooth to initially communicate with the camera and set up the WiFi connection to my home network. Where I hung the bird feeder, my WiFi router is about 10 meters from the camera, yet the camera could not “see” my WiFi network. My phone and computer in the garage have no issues there.
I ended up having to dig out an old WiFi router and set it up as a repeater for my router at the office. Once the camera could get a good WiFi signal, the connection was pretty good.
One day, for some unknown reason, the camera lost connection to the WiFi network. I reset the camera according to the instructions, but it just wouldn’t reconnect. I had to delete the camera from the app and start over. This required climbing up to the bird feeder, pressing the reset button for a few seconds, and going through the setup like I did from the beginning. Since then, the connection has been stable and reliable.
What I like about the HZVEN BH01 birdhouse with camera
- Very well done
- Extremely easy to hang
- Motion detection and notifications are flawless
What needs to be improved?
- WiFi connectivity is weak and cumbersome
- The camera is quite large for such a small room
- The power cable connector on the back of the camera is in a bad place
Final thoughts
The HZVEN BH01 bird feeder with camera is a very well-made and good-looking bird feeder. The fact that it has a motion-detection camera is a huge plus. I can’t wait for the first feathered residents to move in and start their family. The photos and videos will be something my family will cherish for a long time.
Price: $44.99
Where to buy: Amazon (Save 15% with code: 2MBN99FZ, expires 08/22/2024)
source: The sample of this product was provided free of charge by HZVEN. HZVEN had no final say on the review and did not pre-screen the review before publishing it.
