Nesting Box Bird Cams

Filming bird families, twenty-four hours a day

If the thought of still bird images doesn't really delight you and you don't want to spend all day in snowy brush waiting for the perfect bird to fly by, you might be interested in investing in a nesting box bird cam. These are cameras that you can connect to a television or computer so that you can watch birds in their nesting boxes, raising their families. It's a rewarding activity and a great gift for those birders who aren't able to or don't have time to birdwatch outside in the great outdoors.

When you install a nesting box in your yard, you get to see birds flirting and helping each other build a nest, but you miss out on seeing the product of all that hard work until much later. With a bird cam, you can watch the babies hatch and grow from the comfort of your home, without disturbing the birds. You can also mount a webcam on your house or other stable surface to watch your bird feeder or bird bath during the times that you're at work or away from the window. This way, you can keep an eye on your birds all the time and never miss a thing.

If you want to watch birds nesting, you have two options: build or buy a nesting box and install a camera yourself, or buy a nesting box that's already been rigged professionally. The latter option is naturally more expensive, but you can be sure that your camera feed won't go out at a critical time during the nesting, or worse, malfunction and harm the birds in the box in any way.

However, building your own nesting box and installing your own camera is not only cheaper, it's a great winter hobby. To install your own camera, you'll need to buy a wiring kit and of course, the webcam. Most cams are reasonably priced, but it depends on how much you want to see and what you plan to use the video for. If you want to publish your findings to the Web, you may want to look at a higher-end camera.

When installing your bird cam, make sure that the birds won't be able to see their reflection in the camera lens. There have been reports of birds attacking the camera and wrecking a perfectly good piece of equipment. You can buy a camera that gives you infrared lighting so that you can see the nest in total darkness, but it's not a good idea to install a light bulb in the nesting box. There are a few reasons for this. One is that the heat from the bulb can disturb the birds, and another is that light bulbs go out at the most inopportune times and you could miss an important part of the nesting ritual.

Watching birds is a rewarding hobby; not only do you learn more about the birds themselves, but you can also share your footage with others. Sure beats most things on prime time TV!