Birdhouse Camera/Video Setups? (1 Viewer)

[RadSurfer]

Birdhouse Camera/Video Setups

Hello from Northwest Pennsylvania!

A friend of mine and I are interested in the best way to economically
set up an easy camera inside a bird house which will allow his family
to view the entire life cycle of whatever decides to nest there.

Things like:
1) Obtaining an affordable camera
2) the best way to get power to the camera from the house
3) the best way to send the composite video to the house
4) weather proofing and bird-proofing the camera / cables from damage
5) the best way to display the incoming video for the family to enjoy.

Such considerations as cheap B/W "security" cameras, and
usb or internal video capture cards and vcr for viewing / capturing scenes
have yet to be worked out.

Where might we find the best guide(s) for such a project?

I may be contacted via this forum, email.

//RadSurfer//

 

[Andrew Rowlands]

Hi Radsurfer, welcome to Birdforum from all the staff here.

Sounds like a neat project :t: - I think it would be better if I move this to the Garden Birds/Feeding/Nestboxes forum, you should get a better response there.

Cheers,

Andy.

 

[RadSurfer]

finding my message...

I can only find my message because I logged the url to it...

Where is it actually hiding now?

Hi Radsurfer, welcome to Birdforum from all the staff here.

Sounds like a neat project :t: - I think it would be better if I move this to the Garden Birds/Feeding/Nestboxes forum, you should get a better response there.

Cheers,

Andy.

 

[RadSurfer]

Camera field angle debate...

Another aspect of this Birdhouse video monitoring business is which
type of camera is best suited for an interior view ...

I think that the 45º field of view is adequate,
my friend feels that 90º field of view is appropriate but I'm saying thats
overkill in such a small confined area as a birdhouse !

Whose right?

Also curious to know if there are birdhouse blueprints with camera
mountings specifically in mind... perhaps from different angles even?

I wonder how often it might be necessary to unatrusively need to
clearn off the camera compartment (glass barrier) from dirt, etc.?

Would love to chat with those who are actually doing this kind
of close video observation of the life-cycle of the
PA housewhens, etc...

Thanks!

//Radsurfer//

 

[nobby]

I have been running nest box cams for a few years now. I started with a BW cam and now have colour cams as well.

My web site is here http://uk.geocities.com/[email protected]/nest_box.htm
there are a few pages on my setup that may help. There is also some plans of nest boxes I have built. These are tall enough so the nest box hole is visible when you are looking at the nest. Note these boxes are for UK Blue Tits and Great Tits so they may need changing for the US.

I would go for BW CAM first just connected to your video or a cheap TV card with composit video in.

Most standard nest boxes should be water proof and take a camera. You can buy a box with a cam installed or just fit a mini cam yourself. Best to go for a CCD model they cost a little bit more but are worth it.

Brett.

 

[Mangetout]

I have just set up a birdbox cam this year and there are Blue Tits taking up residence right now; I've attached an almost-live picture to this post (NB: it looks out of focus, but it is in fact about 1AM here and the bird is sleeping/resting with its head tucked away and its feathers fluffed right up.

Anyway, my choice of construction was to use a cheap USB webcam -the cheapness somewhat offset by the expense of other components - USB natively has a maximum cable length of 5m, so I bought a pair of extender units from Lindy.co.uk (Link to product page ) - one has a USB A plug, the other a USB a socket - the pair of devices are connected together by RJ45 connectors on up to 50m of Cat5 cabling (i.e. a network cable).

I unscrewed the front lens of the camera and popped out the small square plastic IR filter that was sitting in there, then I stripped the external casing off it (it was all on one smallish PCB). I bought a weatherproof project box from Maplin and cut a hole in it, then covered this with a transparent piece of acrylic sheet, cemented with silicone. I cut the USB cable off the camera and shortened it to about 5cm, soldering it back on and heatshrinking the joints. I stripped two low-power IR LEDs out of a couple of old remote control units I got in some box of surplus junk and soldered these together in series with an appropriate resistor to drive them off 5v (I actually backed them off a bit from full output, because I don't want them to fail early); this was connected directly to the +5v and 0v lines of the USB connection at the camera PCB (Probably shouldn't have done that, but what the heck).
I filed the front lenses of the led packages to make them disperse a little more evenly and inserted them facing out of holes drilled in the project box /camera housing, again, sealed with silicone.
The camera PCB was mounted inside the case by custom standoffs made from little bits of plastic pipe and a couple of screws.

I attached a cable gland to the project box and threaded one end of my cat5 cable through it, then added the RJ45 termination (wouldn't thread through the gland with the plug on it), then I plugged the short camera cable into the 'remote' USB transciever, plugged the network cable into this and packed it all inside the project case, which was sealed tight - it had a rubber gasket, but I also gave this, and the cable gland, a good dollop of vaseline for a proper seal. I also popped a sachet of silica gel inside the housing to absorb any errant moisture.

I built a custom birdbox with a false ceiling made of plywood, on top of which the camera assembluy sits, then the roof. It's fixed about 15 feet off the ground to an oak tree in my garden, in the same spot when the old non-camera box previously resided.

Anyway; the cat5 cable was then run down the tree trunk, along a fence, up and through the house wall and across to the computer indoors; terminated with another RJ45 connector and plugged into the 'local' USB transciever, which in turn is plugged into the computer.

The USB transcievers are transparent to the computer, so it just detected the camera and asked for the driver; the rest was pretty easy.

The IR illumination cannot be turned off independently of the camera, as it's powered directly from the USB cable, but that doesn't really matter; in the daytime, a bit of stray light does creep in and colours are discernible, otherwise, it's all monochrome under IR. Pretty much any cheap webcam can be converted to IR sensitive just by popping out the IR filter.

 

[Mangetout]

I guess I ought to post one of the more interesting images.

 

[Mangetout]

I should also mention; I'm just chuffed that the thing works, but there is room for improvement - these things are on my 'to do' for next year:

-Install a microphone
-Rebuild the box so that the false ceiling is a smidgen higher (it doesn't quite capture the whole of the inside of the box at present)
-Possibly install multiple cameras; top view(as at present, plus side view and, if I can engineer it, a small camera outside the box pointing across the plane of the front face, to observe the birds clinging to the outside before they enter the hole.

 

[nobby]

I think that the 45º field of view is adequate,
my friend feels that 90º field of view is appropriate but I'm saying thats
overkill in such a small confined area as a birdhouse !

Whose right?

My Colour cams have a 70º field of view and are mounted up a bit higher in the nest box using a plastic box. The B/W I think have a 90º field of view so can be mounted lower down without the plastic box.

I think a 45º field of view would be a bit small but would give you a closer view of the chicks. You would not be able to see the nest hole unless you raised the camera up in the box.

If you print out my scale plans from my technical page http://uk.geocities.com/[email protected]/nest_box.htm you can check what you can see by drawing lines with a protractor. I have added 70º lines already and as you can see the entrance hole is visible.

I do not use a glass cover in front of my lenses as they will collect dirt from above. The lenses should not need cleaning untill the nesting season is over.

Hope this helps.
Brett.

 

[Mangetout]

Nobby, are you using cameras that are already weatherproofed? I was absolutely paranoid about moisture when I built mine, which is why I went to such lengths making a watertight housing (I think I could actually detach the camera housing and turn it into a pondcam if I wanted to).

I'm hoping the acrylic sheet between the camera lens and the birdbox won't get too dirty; it isn't vulnerable to dirt falling from above as it is an integral part of the bottom of the camera housing; I am wondering if I should have used glass though, given that acrylic can attract fluffy dust, of which I'm sure there will be plenty later.

Still, it's all a bit of an experiment, and even the moderate success so far has been worth the hassle and expense.

 

[nobby]

Nobby, are you using cameras that are already weatherproofed?

Hi.
No my internal cameras are just standard not even splash proof. They stay in the nest boxes all the way through winter.

With my pitched roof boxes with gable ends I have glued the joins with external glue to make sure they are waterproof. On the larger box I have covered the roof with rubber from a pond liner. This is the Sea Buckthorn cam on my web site.

I use rubber as seals on the hidged lids and sections to the boxes as well.

Your plastic sheet between the lens should be OK as long as it is a close fit then no dust or dirt can get in between.

My next project is to install a mini DV camcorder instead of the B&W cam in nest box 1. This should give me much better quality pictures and I will be able to zoom in and out using the supplied remote control (modified to work as a radio remote). I think this camera will have to stay inside for the winter as they do not like damp. I will design the box so the B&W cam can be inserted for the winter.

I like your idea of extra cams. I have just added a cam to the front of the box but the side view sounds really good.

What software do you use on your PC? I use http://www.icode.co.uk/icatcher/index.html with a 4 port video card from the same company so I can watch all my cams at the same time and transmit them live to the net.


By the way adding sound to your boxes is well worth it. I use the mics from Maplin as they are only a few quid and can plug direct into your sound card.

If you dounload a movie from my video page you can see for yourself.

Goodluck.

Brett.

 

[joggerman]

Has anyone tried using any of the cameras advertised on e-bay, such as the 12 LED waterproof wired cameras. The cable supplies power from, and takes video back to the house direct into the TV or video. They also come with a good cable length?

 

[nobby]

Has anyone tried using any of the cameras advertised on e-bay, such as the 12 LED waterproof wired cameras. The cable supplies power from, and takes video back to the house direct into the TV or video. They also come with a good cable length?

If you use these cameras in a nest box it will be too bright. They are best used outside and can illuminate a few meters. They are good for mounting in front of the box. I have just fitted one this year and have some very good pics. See my site http://uk.geocities.com/[email protected]/nest_box.htm

The best cams are the splash proof type with a swivel mount or the bare board type. They have fewer LEDs but can still be a bit bright. Try sticking a sheet of plastic cut from a milk bottle over the LEDs or bend them towards the nestbox wall to get a soft bounced effect.

In general if the box is dry enough for birds them it will be fine for your camera.

Brett.

 

[Mangetout]

I guess I've gone belt-and-braces with my hermetically sealed camera housing; still, I didn't want it to fail halfway through the nesting season, so I guess more protection is better than not enough. The plastic lens cover should be OK; it's exposed to the birdbox on the underside, but the top surface is inside the housing and the housing is sealed to the false ceiling of the box with silicone.

I agree that the 12 LED cameras will be too bright for the inside of a nest box (they would be ideal for watching badgers and foxes at night though. Even though IR illumination is invisible to most (possibly all) vertebrate eyes, it can still cause damage if it's too 'bright' - this is one of the big risks with mucking about with infrared lasers (such as you might find inside a laser printer); you can be exposing yourself to intense and damaging (yet invisible) light. UV is much worse, because shorter wavelengths carry more energy, but there are still risks with 'bright' IR.

Fortunately, CMOS and CCD cameras are quite sensitive to IR light, especially if you get one without an integral IR filter (or if you take it out, as I did; as detailed in this tutorial); in my setup, two 5mm IR signalling LEDs (they're not even high-output) are sufficient to illuminate the inside of the box even in total darkness and I am not driving them at full current.

At the moment, I'm only using the webcam monitorng utility that came with the device (which is a Creative webcam NX), and I'm not doing timed unattended recording or upload to the web (although I hope to set these up soon). I have used a program called CatSpy for webcam monitoring before; unlike nearly all of the others, it records constantly to a buffer, then when motion is detected, it records the buffer and the live stream into the file; the result is that you can set it up to effectively record from a second or two <i>before</i> motion occurs. Most of the other software I've tried loses the first bit of action while it starts recording.

I bought a small video camera from China on eBay a while back - in fact I originally intended to use it - it was fine (although you do need to research the seller's background if you're buying in from Asia - there are a lot of scams about). If you're thinking about buying one of the many wireless video cameras on offer on ebay, make sure you get one that operates in the UK unlicensed 2.4GHz band; the 1.2GHz ones are not legal to use in the UK - and 1.2GHz is right in the middle of radar and military applications, so it's not something you want to even *try* to get away with.
Of course wireless cameras still need a power source, they can be run from batteries but for a birdbox where changing the batteries is impractical power would have to be cabled in to the camera.

 

[Abbygirl]

Out of curiousity. Do they sell those here in the United States. and would anybody know about how much they would cost? Thank you.

JOYCE

 

[tigerlillie]

I hope I'm not out of line by saying this, but have you considered that photographing box-nesting birds may be disruptive to the birds? As fascinating as it may be, I'd be worried that the presence of your equipment may frighten them and interfer or even inhibit their natural nesting habits, and that may cause them to abandon their eggs or newborns. I'm certainly not trying to give you a hard time, just something to think about. I guess I'm just old fashioned and believe nature should be viewed in it's natural setting. I hate even disturbing my babies when the feeders need cleaning or filling. LOL......like I said, not trying to upset you. Just posting my thoughts on your project. I've never done any research on it nor do I have the first idea of how it all works, so if I'm being obtuse; feel free to let me know. Sometimes my ignorance on a subject is a great way to learn something new. In any event....welcome to the forum and I hope you enjoy the fun we have exchanging stories and ideas on here.
Tigerlillie

 

[Mangetout]

No, yours is a perfectly valid concern, tigerlillie, and certainly something everyone should bear carefully in mind when constructing a birdbox - not just one with a camera installed, because it's quite possible to build ordinary nestboxes that would be detrimental to the birds through some flaw of construction, such as the use of timber treated with harmful chemicals, protruding screws or nails, or shoddy workmanship that will fall apart at a crucial time.

Before we talk about bird-cam boxes, let me just say that ordinary man-made bird nesting boxes are unnatural.

In my own case, I'm as confident as it's possible for me to be that the birds are not at all aware they are being observed inside the box; the only artificial illumination I use in the box is low-intensity infra red, which will be invisible to birds as it is to humans; the ceiling of their birdhouse will appear to them (when there is sufficient natural light to see it) as if it has a nondescript grey square in the middle of it, with a small black circle in the middle of that - that's all. The camera emits no visible light, no noise and virtually no heat; the edges of the ply false ceiling around the camera opening have been carefully sanded to remove splinters and I have taken great care to make sure none of the plastics and glues I have used are accessible to the birds from either inside or outside of the box.
The camera was installed in the box before the birds moved in and it will not be touched until they have definitely finished with the nest; in the unlikely event that it should fail in the middle of the nesting season, that will be tough luck on me; I will not disturb the nestbox for repairs when the birds are using it.

I think it could probably be argued that in many cases, the care and forethought required to build and install a bird box camera results in the careful construction of a nestbox that is above average in terms of safety, comfort and privacy from the birds' point of view.

Yes, it's unnatural that I can remotely view birds raising their young in painstaking detail, but it's also unnatural that I can watch the commonwealth games from my living room, or that I can wear polyester shirts or be treated by antibiotics when I am sick. Unnatural is what humans do best, or at least do all the time, and in my humble opinion, the unnatural environment of a birdbox is without doubt an extremely good thing for the birds that will use it, furthermore, the inclusion of a camera allows communion with the mysteries of nature and engenders new respect for things by shedding new light on the things we considered commonplace.

Still, you're right to ask the question; we should not take anything for granted.

 

[Mangetout]

Out of curiousity. Do they sell those here in the United States. and would anybody know about how much they would cost? Thank you.

JOYCE

If you're referring to the wireless cameras, yes; they're all over eBay, shipped to you from Hong Kong - but do check out your seller before you commit to buying - you're looking for plenty of positive feedback, left for similar items to the one you're buying, and left by members in your own country, members who have more than a handful of feedbacks themselves.

 

[nobby]

I hope I'm not out of line by saying this, but have you considered that photographing box-nesting birds may be disruptive to the birds? Tigerlillie

It depends on the species. I am sure there are some birds that will abandon their young at the first sigh of disturbance. In the UK most nest box cams are designed for Blue Tits and Great Tits. These Tits take to man made nest boxes very easily. They also do not mind being in close proximity to man. My house has been around for around 80 years, thats 80 generations of Tits. So really my house, garden, sheds and wooden boxes nailed to trees are to them natural.

When I am working in my garden near the nest boxes even with noisy machinery the Tits just carry on feeding their chick as if I was not there. I have read a book on a study of British Tits (they had no web cams fitted) the study team have to open the nest boxes every day to inspect them and the chicks. This causes no problems at all.

As to lights in boxes all they do is even out the wide variations of lights from outside. If you watch a web cam with no lighting, as the sun moves behind a cloud there is a massive and sudden change of light in the box. This is much more than a few watts of artificial light can do.

Brett.

 

[tigerlillie]

No, yours is a perfectly valid concern, tigerlillie, and certainly something everyone should bear carefully in mind when constructing a birdbox - not just one with a camera installed, because it's quite possible to build ordinary nestboxes that would be detrimental to the birds through some flaw of construction, such as the use of timber treated with harmful chemicals, protruding screws or nails, or shoddy workmanship that will fall apart at a crucial time.



Thanks Mangetout for responding. I suppose different species would react in different ways and you're absolutely right in saying that "nothing about a home-made bird box is natural". Being from the UK, you obviously have a slew of species that are not indigenous to the eastern coast of the USA (where I live) and would know better what birds would tolerate that. Seems you also have a knack for knowing when to set it up and never to disturb it no matter what. So, I've learned something. For that I thank you.
We have folks here who set up boxes for the Bluebirds because they are particularly leary of being in the open; however, we have a large population of House Sparrows that have a terrible mean streak and invade Bluebird boxes frequently.....killing the young and the nesting mother. Everyone here knows to not put out feed that attracts the House Sparrows and to ALWAYS make sure the opening to the Bluebird's box is too small for the Sparrow to enter. As we have a variety of colorful species here on the east coast, I'd like to share some of my photos with you. Hope these come out alright....the first is a male American Cardinal on my black sunflower feeder and the second is an American Goldfinch who turns greyish-brown in the winter and bright yellow and black in the summer. Funny thing about the finch is that they normally only take to thistle/niger seed....but this fella decided to have a gourmet meal instead. Enjoy the photos
Tigerlillie