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Filming birds in the garden with wireless CCTV..? (1 Viewer)

wanger765

Member
I have been thinking of using a wireless camera to film birds in my garden. I have quite a large garden with a lot of different bird species visiting day and night. Just wondering whether anyone can provide any advice with ragards to getting the best out of this kind of setup..?
 
I sure can't help you in that department but i did want to give you a warm welcome to BirdForum from those of us on staff here. I'm sure one of our geniuses will come up with some thoughts for you. ;)
 
Hi again, I am moving your query to theTrail Cam and CCTV area and subscribing you to the thread so you will receive updates if anyone responds Hopefully someone over there can help you.
 
You need to look at security cameras. The market is much much bigger than the wildlife market and thus lots more options.
 
Thanks for the welcome guys, just thought I would try for some advice here first before spending any money as that type of kit can be quite expensive.
 
I’m assuming that you may be filming birds at or near feeders? Otherwise I would imagine it would be very hit and miss to get anything on camera? I’ve found that trail cameras are pretty useful for this kind of situation. - I blu tacked a close up lens to mine so that stuff is in focus. Alternatively there are some “bird feeder cams” on the market. I’ve also briefly tried my friends go-pro mounted near feeders and the results looked good. I think there’s some stuff on YouTube showing the kind of footage you might expect.

The disadvantage with this approach is, of course, that the images aren’t live and you have to go through the hassle of downloading them to a computer before you can review them.

I’m currently looking at wired (not wireless) cctv for our new place, as we’re moving to somewhere with (hopefully!) good potential for critters. I’m initially looking to use it for trying to get mammals on film at night and my friends system has an alert feature which can set off a little bleeper every time something changes in frame. I’ve been impressed that during playback all the alerts are highlighted so that you just scroll through to the action, missing out the “dead” footage. He’s got his set up for home security so the cameras are mounted right up at gutter level (and it’s a big old house so they’re way up there) nevertheless he’s getting footage of up to three badgers every night (he’s scattering peanuts for them in the area the camera covers) the odd fox and quite a decent clip of a tawny owl. Considering how much better the images would be if the camera was nearer the action I’m seriously considering investing in a similar system. Unfortunately this was a system designed and installed by an independent security guy who’s just emigrated so I’m struggling to find out the spec.

There’s some very useful reviews of the pros and cons of wired and wireless systems on the web. I’ll post a link or two later. It looks like wireless systems are fast catching up on the quality of image produced by wired systems, but most wireless system still require a power lead to be connected to the camera ( though there are some truly wireless systems available which run from batteries I believe.
 
Hello All and thank you Torchepot for the information you sent I read through the link page you sent and there is some great advice there on all things CCTV related. Just thought I would add to this in case anyone is looking for a similar setup in the future. I have looked at trail cameras however I feel they are quite limited. I was looking at a more robust system where I can monitor from within the house in realtime and also record the captured footage. I found these wireless kits here, in terms of the recording of the captured footage you can get a portable DVR like this Mobi DVR.
I am just in the process of familiarising my self with the setup and making sure I have not overlooked anything but I am keen to press ahead with this and get it setup and start monitoring. The camera I am going for is small enough to fit within a bird house so hopefully it's going to be similar to BBC spring watch with the results ;-)
 
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