#bird camera

[pain-is-too-tired]

That Robin flew over just so the finch couldn't 😭

[ostdrossel]

Slobber, the Redbellied Woodpecker (he has a little saliva issue) visited the Birdfy feeder this morning. I love the portrait mode of that camera, and the morning light made him look extra pretty.

(If you get one of their feeders, use the code OSTDROSSEL for 15 % off here:)

Birdfy Official Site - Birds in Sight, Joy in Mind -Bird Feeder Camera

Birdfy-bird feeders with cameras. Explore our wide range of products designed to bring you closer to nature. High-quality, durable, and easy

[cazxart]

Caught in 4K the raccoon that’s eating our bird food

[birbagel]

who are you?! let’s fight 🤺

actually we can chill it wasn’t that deep….

[budgiechops]

I got a bird table for Christmas, but I still hadn’t seen a single visitor! I know they’ve been, as the food has diminished and there is some very poopy evidence on the floor, but I’ve always missed out.

So, since I got myself a telephoto lens the other day, I decided to set my camera up at the kitchen window, to see who appears while I’m not looking. I was about to give up, as it was getting dark, but I decided to do 20 more minutes, and I’m glad I did! This lovely magpie turned up to nom on some mealworms! So cute!

[ostdrossel]

The end of an (*almost) era

Hello, dear followers. It looks like Birdsy has finally come to an end, the servers seem to be offline. This means I will have to finally sit down this weekend and find a streaming solution. Please bear with me, this may take a bit (I have tried a bit with foggy head earlier this week and could not get it to work). In the meantime, I have trailcams out in various spots to capture clips and photos but it is of course not the same as a livestream.

I will try Youtube for streaming and the iSpy software for recording but if anybody has a free solution for the latter, please let me hear it.

Let me also again say that the five years with Birdsy were wonderful, and I am extremely sad and disappointed that this wonderful adventure has found such a sad ending. I hope in the future there will be another rendition of Birdsy, and one that conquers the birdwatcher world. Because there is nothing like it and we need it.

PS: This does NOT mean that I will stop posting things, it just means that I currently have no livestreams and no way to record the clips I recorded with Birdsy.

[ostdrossel]

Hey! Not sure if you have a post on this somewhere already, but do you have recs for quality but not TOO spendy cameras that can be set up outside?

We recently got a bird bath for my parents’ house and wanted to set up a camera to capture visitors (my dad is obsessed with his Merlin app and we are hoping the bird bath will provide opportunities for him to see some of the birds he keeps hearing).

Thanks so much, any recommendations you could share would be much appreciated!

It depends on what you consider spendy and what you want. I am using several different systems. The livestream cams are IP cameras that require Wifi and that I record with a spare computer and extra software (it is free but can be annoying if you are not tech savvy). I also use trail cams, I have they CY95 and the CY75 from Ceyomur and love those. They are not too pricey and have a solar panel so you save on batteries. The thing is, they are not connected to a computer, so you have to "harvest" the footage by removing the SD card and looking at things on a computer. I do this daily to avoid having to go through too much footage. My photo setup is with an action camera. This one is time-consuming, also with SD card, because the camera takes a lot of photos.

In my nestboxes, I use Wyze cameras, and I think if you want to venture out into watching birds with cams, this may be the cheapest solution. Apparently, they now also have a birdwatching option. I pay 45 bucks a year for three CamPlus licenses. This means clips are longer than 12 seconds and there is no 5 minute wait time between recordings. The app is easy to handle and you can download and watch from your phone. You can also watch on the computer but that system is not entirely reliable.

I also use Birdfy feeder cams, and they are superb too but not a budget-friendly solution.

[ostdrossel]

Ostdrossel, how do you get started with a bird camera? Is there an affordable camera you would recommend for a beginner?

It depends on what you want. There are always options that are better or worse or more pricey or cheaper. I use different systems for different things.

My homemade "feeder cam" with an action camera (the camera has the photoburst with motion detection function but any with photo timelapse works too). I have to harvest the photos from the SD card every day and take the cam in over night. The motion trigger is hyper active, so there will be tons of unusable photos and it takes a while to go through all.

IP cameras - I am still using my old Birdsy cameras in some spots, recording and livestreaming with the help of youtube and OBS.

Wyze cameras - I use them mainly for nestboxes but they are also a cheap option for feeder or baths, maybe. They come with an app. I pay 45 bucks a year for three cam pro licenses so I don't have videos restricted to 12 seconds. The v3 and v4 are pretty good quality, and I have also used them to "stake out" locations for other cams.

An actual "feeder cam" - I use a Birdfy 2, which is quite fantastic but expensive. (I posted a more thorough review on my website and here too last year.) I think similar quality you may get from Bird Buddy and the one that WBU sells (Feather Snap?) but I cannot vouch for any of these.

Trailcams. I have started using trailcams last year and have been enjoying playing around with them a lot. The positive side is that you may get better image and sound quality than with the smart feeder cams and don't need internet or data or even wiring for them to work but you will have to harvest your footage from the SD card. Cellular ones seem to work from afar but I have not tried any because I am too cheap to pay for extra data. I have been usng three models from the Chinese company Ceyomur (the CY65, 745 and 95), and they are all three a lot of fun to work with. The best of the lot is the 75, IMO, it has the fastest reaction time, a solar panel and takes good photos and videos. All three come with a practical app (great for positioning!) and can take photos and videos at the same time (great for the harvesting stage so you don't have to watch every single video, the photos act as preview). they are all well-priced on Amazon. I also use the more expensive Browning Spec Ops elite, which has stellar video quality but does not come with an app, is not great with photos and cannot take video and photo simultaneously. I usually try to say which one I used on my posts.

Last but not least you can use a regular photo camera.