Technical Details

The complete system, comprising nest box and camera, was purchased from Nature Cameras.

The camera is a colour camera though images are black-and-white most of the time unless the daylight is particularly bright. The camera is fitted with infra-red LEDs that turn on automatically when light levels fall and provides excellent images in total darkness.

The video and audio signals are transmitted to a receiver by a wireless 2.4 GHz transmitter built into the camera. The camera may be powered by a lithium ion battery, thus making the camera entirely wireless, but we chose to power it using the supplied 8V DC adapter, which is plugged into a mains socket in the nearby greenhouse.

The receiver is placed near our TV and plugs into one of the TV’s AV channels via the supplied AV cable. The distance between transmitter and receiver is about 15 metres and with a single cavity brick wall en route.

Camera Nest Box

The still photographs of the nest and birds are simply taken using a digital camera; a future project may be to stream video live.