Bird Box Camera

I have been given the task of installing a bird box camera thing that one of our teachers has purchased.
It is a bird box with a night vision camera that fits inside.

It comes with 20m of cable and therefore needs to be within 20 metres of the projector they wish it to be connected to.

I was going to just connect it up to a TV in the hall, but they want it on the projector.
The hall is nearly 20 meters to the projector, so I guess I could get extention cables similar to the cables for CCTV cameras they sell in Maplin.

Im thinking that the best place would be near some trees or something, but the nearest trees are at the other side of the carpark, so my only other idea is to suspend a metal cable between the building and the trees at high level, and fasten the camera cable to the metal cable, as digging a trench is not an option.

Has anyone else got one of these systems and any ideas on where to place it.

I am no expert on birds, so am not sure where to place the box for them to want to go in it, and i dont really want to go to all the effort of installing the thing if the birds are just going to turn their noses up at it.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

I'm sure if you do a search Mattx has done something similar...

Does the camera need a power source...that was the stumbling block here as all the suitable locations are too far from our buildings...

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Originally Posted by CESIL

Does the camera need a power source...that was the stumbling block here as all the suitable locations are too far from our buildings...

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The power runs down the same cable as the AV. It is like 3 cables fastened together, power, video, and sound.

Did this in my previous school, the reception class loved it! You need to install before/around March time I believe for nesting birds. I also believe it needs to be on a south facing wall.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CapEnd

I have been given the task of installing a bird box camera thing that one of our teachers has purchased.
It is a bird box with a night vision camera that fits inside.

It comes with 20m of cable and therefore needs to be within 20 metres of the projector they wish it to be connected to.

I was going to just connect it up to a TV in the hall, but they want it on the projector.
The hall is nearly 20 meters to the projector, so I guess I could get extention cables similar to the cables for CCTV cameras they sell in Maplin.

Im thinking that the best place would be near some trees or something, but the nearest trees are at the other side of the carpark, so my only other idea is to suspend a metal cable between the building and the trees at high level, and fasten the camera cable to the metal cable, as digging a trench is not an option.

Has anyone else got one of these systems and any ideas on where to place it.

I am no expert on birds, so am not sure where to place the box for them to want to go in it, and i dont really want to go to all the effort of installing the thing if the birds are just going to turn their noses up at it.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

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Your wanting a Catenary Wire from your main building to the tree. Those systems use 12V DC and just composite for video and mono audio, so very easily extended with some outdoor coax cable and multi cored outdoor flex for the power and sound. Will take a couple of people to get it up and tight, and word of warning, you are best strapping the wires I find to the Catenary AFTER you have tensioned it fully as a friend of mine made the mistake of doing the wires fairly tight to the Catenary, then tightened it too much and snapped his shiny new link! I would do the Catenary fairly tight, strap your wires to it then just to make sure they are tight, before finishing both ends just tighten it a little bit to ensure they are tight and job done.

Right, the Catenary wire idea has gone out of the window on the instruction of the key stage manager.
The only other location we can find is up on the roof where a wall goes up above the roof itself.
It faces East, but is only a few metres higher than the hall roof, so does anyone know if birds will like this location?
I don't really want to arse around putting the thing up only for the little birdies to turn their beaks up at it...

You could put the box on the wall outside the hall, just under the eaves is ideal, so long as it is well out of reach of the pupils.
I believe that a north or north west facing wall is preferable, although I have them in different spots and facing various directions and if the bird likes it then it will nest in it no matter what.
But I think you'd be lucky if you got anything nesting in the first year. If it's a box with a hole then I'd expect to get something like Blue or Great tits or maybe Wrens initially. If its half open you maybe luck and get Robins. Sparrows are more communal and prefer to nest in groups.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CapEnd

Right, the Catenary wire idea has gone out of the window on the instruction of the key stage manager.
The only other location we can find is up on the roof where a wall goes up above the roof itself.
It faces East, but is only a few metres higher than the hall roof, so does anyone know if birds will like this location?
I don't really want to arse around putting the thing up only for the little birdies to turn their beaks up at it...

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We've had a wired one up since June, and nothing is in it yet.
We plumped for the wired version, as the wirelss one seems to eat battery and the signal was weak after about 20 metres.

Luckily, we have a LCD TV up permanently so we can check regularly if anything has decided to call it home yet...!

what kind of camera are you using?
Something similar is being considered our end.

South facing is the worst - overheats.
The RSPB: Advice: Siting a nestbox
Someone got one for my school - I made them take it back as you had to be watching the local screen at the right moment in order to see anything.
We now have one that only activates when there's movement, is accessed via a browser so it can be viewed from anywhere, and stores the data so you can wind back some days to see what's happened.
similar to RSPB Nest box cam
Costs more but it should deliver (no birds yet!)

I got a video to ip converter and chucked it on the lan - then all the school can share it.

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