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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Trail cams (1 Viewer)

Elmer Fudd

Well-known member
Is anyone here using trailcams to survey nesting boxes and bird houses especially during the winter months?

Last year we tried a Moultrie Camera with good success. Nice to see that even by nighttime the bird house was accepted - by a marten!

Next spring I would like to survey nesting boxes especially for brown owls. Is here anyone among the forum members who would like to share his experiences or who has some tricks and helpful hints?
 
Here is a picture, not one of the best, taken with the Moultrie M80xBLX or something like that. Pictures taken by night are a little bit grainy. But this is normal for cameras with the black flash.
 

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I couldn't manage to add pictures with the editing modus so I have to place another posting.
 

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Most trail cameras are not really well built for up close bird action. Two reasons mainly, one is the sensor is a left to right pir used to detect action coming in from either left or right and also these sensors activate at a fairly far distance, second reason is most trail cameras are not focused close up, most are set at 40+ feet away minimal. One Trail camera on the market does have interchangeable lens marketed for bird nests and feeder which is the Bushell Natureview hd, but the sensor still is not great for close up birds.

One company that markets for bird nests and feeders is a sub company of Moultrie called Wingscapes. They make cameras built for birding shots. The sensor they use is cone shaped for up and down activation, which is how a bird would enter the picture, and their focus is manually adjustable so once you set the camera up away from a nest or feeder the picture is always focused where you want (since the nest or feeder does not move much).

Over the last year or so I been using the Birdcam 2.0 model Wingscapes recently discontinued. It has taken well over 700K+ pictures and worked everyday without issue. From 100 degree days to 10 below it has always worked. Recently Wingscapes came out with a new model called Birdcam Pro and of course I tried it out. I couldnt get that camera to work well though, maybe i had a early version with some bugs still in it. Big difference between the two models is on the pro you can use a 32gb sd card and on the 2.0 you can only use a 4gb card. On the pro you can use a wifi sd card but not on the 2.0. and on the pro it has a viewfinder on the back and a lcd preview display on the front making setup super easy but nothing on the 2.0 model making setting up a bit tricky. Also on the pro you have more focus settings. I believe both cameras use the same camera as the pictures are the same, actually i think the 2.0 has a better picture.

Both these models use regular flash, the pro has adjustable leds and the 2.0 has a flash tube. I always questioned about using IR flash for birds since they see in that range vs using regular flash. I would guess the Ir might scare them off easier...but you should look into that.

I can post pictures of daylight shots since that is the only time I use mine.
 
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