We have investigated the nanoscale switching characteristics and piezoelectric response based on polycrystalline BiFeO3 (BFO) thin films with different orientations deposited on different oxide bottom electrodes. The BFO film deposited on the LaNiO3 (LNO)-coated Si substrate shows a (001) preferred orientation and higher ferroelectric properties, while the BFO film grown on the SrRuO3 (SRO) buffered Si substrate shows a random orientation. The domain structures have been determined via piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) for both films, predicting that the BFO film with the LNO bottom electrode has a larger piezoelectricity property corresponding to the ferroelastic domain. Through local switching spectroscopy measurements, the evidence of ferroelectric switching and the origin of the enhanced piezoresponse properties have been provided. A greatly improved piezoelectric response has been demonstrated using PFM that is 66.8 pm V-1 for the BFO with a SRO bottom electrode, while we obtain a value of 348.2 pm V-1 for the BFO with a LNO bottom electrode due to the increased density of the polarization vectors along the external electrical field. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3651383]