Bird Box Cameras

[plexer]

The ccd based cameras I plan on using are only £60'ish quid each which makes all those kits seem a bit expensive.

Ben

[smileydman]

Forget the RSPB !, do the Birds know what you are planning
Have they signed consent forms !

I think it is a cynical attempt to get page hits !, just think of the keywords; birds, webcam, school .... 8O

Perhaps you could install a wheel for them to power the camera .. Ooops ! forgot that was the hamster cam project .


Someone did mention doing something like this on the lancs forum in April 2005, but never said how they got on.

I guess you will mount camera behind a glass panel to provide separation, and colour is a bit academic cos I imagine it will be in dark mode most of the time. Can you get better deal on B/W cameras ?

[lindylou]

The South East Grid ran birdbox projects this year and last

http://www.segfl.org.uk/news/view.ph...match_type=any

Maybe they or the schools involved could advise you?

HTH

Linda D

[plexer]

The bird box ones are fixed by basically having a false ceiling with a hole in it for the lens to look through.

The Bird box ones probably don't need to be colour but then we are going to have a general pond cam and also a peanut feeder cam. Once the boxes aren't being used we could turn these into additional feeder cams so the colour would be nice.

Lindylou: Thanks for that I'll have a look.

Ben

[iTeacher]

Hi eduG'rs,

We have built many different camera nest boxes over the years. Some with web cams, some with IP cams along with many other ideas. What we have found is that building the correct box and choosing the best camera is the key.

The nest box has to match the camera. If you have a nest box too short, the viewing distance is all wrong and the box may be too warm for the birds. Don't forget that you will need a bit of light for colour cameras to work.

The choice of camera is very important. There are many cameras that profess to be good bird box cameras. We have found that a dedicated camera has a right lens, correct focal distance, Infra-red intensity for the box.

After many experiments, we did find a perfect camera bird box system from Handykam.com. They offer a plug in and play dedicated kit with everything you need, at a low cost too.

The other bit of advice is to keep experimenting with position of your box. In the right position, the birds will return again and again to raise their broods as well as offering perfect teaching opportunity.

iTeacher.