Technical – Archived

Bird Box 3 – To be possibly reused in 2025

In December 2008 I decided to add another nest box. Instead of building one this time I purchased a ready made kit made by Garden Nature. The kit contains a ready made nest box 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 plastic panel, which forms part of the false roof, allowing easy access to it if required. The entrance hole is 32mm in size.

Bird Box 3 (Ready Made Kit From Garden Nature)
Bird Box 3 (Ready Made Kit From Garden Nature)
Bird Box 3 Camera
Bird Box 3 Camera

Old Setup – 2006 – 2024

Bird Boxes 1 & 2

Bird Box 1 and Bird Box 2 were 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 – 2024 nesting seasons.

Bird Box 1
Bird Box 1
Bird Box 2
Bird Box 2

Each box had a false roof made from Plywood, with a glass panel glued on top of it.

The cameras themselves were mini CCTV, both identical, and were purchased from Maplin Electronics. The cameras were colour and could not record in dark conditions, without the lighting being turned on. Both cameras were mounted inside boxes to protect them from the weather and elements.

The camera boxes were mounted on wooden sliding panels which then sat on top of the false roof, allowing easy moving if necessary without disturbing the resident.

Since purchasing 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.

The cameras inside Bird Boxes 1 & 2
The cameras inside Bird Boxes 1 & 2
Sliding Camera Panel
Sliding Camera Panel
The cameras inside Bird Boxes 1 & 2The cameras inside Bird Boxes 1 & 2
The cameras inside Bird Boxes 1 & 2

Boxes 1 & 2 had five white LED’s installed into the false roof panels. The LED’s were purchased from Maplin Electronics (No longer available). 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 I could leave the lights off in the boxes and still record in colour.

Led's in false roof
Led’s in false roof
Led's in false roof
Led’s in false roof

Bird Box 1 & Bird Box 2 had 32mm holes to allow Blue Tits, Great Tits or House Sparrows in.

Outside Cameras

Bird Box 1

In 2012 I had to replace this camera as the existing one failed, after three years of use. It was purchased from Maplin Electronics (same module) just before they discontinued the product. It was mounted inside a home made protective case.

Upon testing the cameras for the 2013 season I discovered the camera had failed again. The camera was not replaced until the 2014 season, where I purchase a bird box that had a good internal camera inside it. The camera was removed and the box used elsewhere.

The camera was mounted in a home made protective case and also has night vision. It also had a microphone. The camera connects back to the main control box.

Bird Box 2

This was a Labtec USB Webcam mounted inside a home made protective case. The camera connected to our main PC via a USB cable. The camera does not work in the dark.

Outside Camera - Bird Box 2
Outside Camera – Bird Box 2

Bird Box 3

This was 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 Nature Watch. The camera connected to it’s own wireless receiver. This receiver then connected to our main control box by phono leads.

This camera had it’s own IR LED’s allowing video and pictures to be taken in poor light conditions. The issue with wireless was that sometimes the signal/picture breaked up.

Outside Camera - Bird Box 3
Outside Camera – Bird Box 3
Outside Camera - Bird Box 3 - Receiver Unit
Outside Camera – Bird Box 3 – Receiver Unit

Main Connection Box

The main connection box is home-made with all the electronic parts being purchased from Maplin Electronics. The box had an output for each camera and these feed into a Scart switch box, apart from Outside Camera Box 2 which was a USB connection. The switch box then connected by phono to our main DVD Hard Drive Recorder

Main Control Box
Main Control Box
Main Control Box
Main Control Box

PC & Webcam Software

We have looked at many of the webcam programs out there. Until 2025, we use a program called Yawcam. The software was setup to record a set of images each time motion is detected. The images captured were copied across onto our website.

We had a dedicated PC which had four USB capture cards connected to it and one PCI capture card. The Outside Bird Box 2 camera (webcam) connected to the same PC via USB. The PC had 16GB of memory and two 250GB hard drives for storing all the photos captured on.

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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.