Brief History
For many years we have always had nest boxes up in our garden and pairs of House Sparrows often used them to raise a brood. Sadly the population of the Sparrow has significantly dropped in our area now and we only ever see one or two, compared to over twelve or more in the early 90's.
In 2005 we decieded to move the boxes onto the wall of our house, to try and tempt any interested tenants. In April we noticed a Blue Tit was taking great interest in one of the boxes and after a few weeks the visits increased, with moss and nesting material being brought in. The pair seemed to be doing well with both birds bringing in food for their chicks. Sadly the female abandoned the nest and chicks in May.
Whilst reading through the many bird boxes websites on the web we were marveled to see great pictures and video from inside a nest box. Inspired and with our boxes now being used again we decided to construct two new boxes with cameras inside, to allow us to see what actually happens inside the nestbox.
During the early planning stages it was decided to built one big box, but seperate it into two compartments. The box was built from Plywood, purchased from our local hardware store. Metal tubes protected the front enterance holes for predators. The box was then installed during October 2005.
A pair of Blue Tits used the nest box but sadly the nest failed with the female being lost just before incubation started.
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The completed box built in 2005 and used during the 2006 nesting season |
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In August 2006 we decided that the boxes should be separte from each other. Two new boxes were contsructed and the old box (2006 season) was moved into our local nature reserve, where for two seasons now a pair of Great Tits have nested in it.
Current Setup (2007, 2008, 2009 & 2010 Seasons)
Bird Boxes 1 & 2
Bird Box 1 and Bird Box 2 are located in our back garden. Both boxes are made from Plywood purchased from our local hardware store, for around £10 a sheet, and were installed in September 2006. We have used them for the 2007 - 2010 nesting seasons.
Each box has a false roof made from Plywood, with a glass panel glued on top of it.
The cameras themselves are mini CCTV, both identical, and were purchased from Maplin Electronics. The cameras are colour but can not record in dark conditions, without the lighting being turned on. Both cameras are mounted inside boxes to protect them from the weather and elements.
The camera boxes are mounted on wooden sliding panels which then sit on top of the false roof, allowing easy moving if necessary without distrubing the resident.
Since purhcashing the cameras in 2005 they have now been discontinued and are no longer available to purchase. There are other cameras available to use. Please see our links page for ideas.
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The cameras in Bird Boxes 1 & 2 |
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The cameras in Bird Boxes 1 & 2 |
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Boxes 1 & 2 have five white LED's installed into the false roof panels. The LED's were purchased from Maplin Electronics (Part code: NR73Q). Other small pea bulbs can also be used instead of these LED's, but when deciding what lighting to use be careful as we have seen too much light/bright lights can put off potential occupants.
During really sunny days we can leave the lights off in the boxes and still record in colour.
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Led's in force roof |
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Led's in force roof |
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Bird Box 1 has a 25mm hole allowing only Blue Tits inside this box. Bird Box 2 has a 30mm hole allowing Great Tits and House Sparrow in.
Bird Box 3
In December 2008 we decided to add another nest box. Instead of building one this time we purchased a ready made kit made by Garden Nature. The kit contains a ready made nestbox with high-def camera and 30M of cable to connect it with.
The box contains no LED's but the box has plastic windows to allow natural light in to provided enough light to produce a colour image. During dull days and at night the cameras IR LED's provide a good picture. The camera itself is mounted on a sliding pastic panel, which forms part of the false roof, allowing easy access to it if required.
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Bird Box 3 (Ready Made Kit From Garden Nature) |
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Outside Cameras
Bird Box 1
This is a mini colour CCTV camera mounted inside a home made protective case. The camera connects to our main control box by phono leads.
This camera does not work in very dark conditions or at night and has no microphone.
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Outside Camera - Bird Box 1 |
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Outside Camera - Bird Box 1 |
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Bird Box 2
This is a Labtec USB Webcam mounted inside a home made protective case. The camera connects to our main PC via a USB cable. This camera does not work in the dark.
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Outside Camera - Bird Box 2 |
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Bird Box 3
This is a mini wireless colour CCTV camera mounted inside a home made protective case. The camera was purchase in July 2008 and is provided/sold by a company called NatureWatch. The camera connects to it's own wireless receiver. This receiver is then connected to our main control box by phono leads.
This camera has it's own IR LED's allowing video and pictures to be taken in poor light conditions.
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Outside Camera - Bird Box 3 |
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Outside Camera - Bird Box 3 - Receiver Unit
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Main Connection Box
The main connection box is home-made with all the electronic parts being purchased from Maplin Electronics. The box has an output for each camera and these feed into a Scart switch box. The switch box then connects by phono to our main DVD Hard Drive Recorder.
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Main Control Box |
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Main Control Box |
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PC & Webcam Software
We have looked at many of the webcam programs out there. At the moment we use a program called Yawcam. The software is setup to record a set of images each time motion is detected. The images captured are copied across onto our website.
We have a dedicated PC which has four USB capture cards connected to it and one PCI capture card. The Outside Bird Box 2 camera (webcam) connects to the same PC via USB. The PC has 1GB of memory and two 250GB hard drives for storing all the photos captured on.
The video clips on this website are made using a program called Pinnacle Studio Suite. The program is able to import either the photos or video captured and output them into a WMV file.
The website is designed in Dreamweaver and written in PHP.
We do not specifically recommend any of the items/software mention on this page. This setup/equipment has worked for us. We can not be held responsible for any problems that may arise.
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