Ever wonder what birds are visiting your yard while you are away at work or school? Wingscapes‘ remote camera, the BirdCam, takes away part of that mystery, unlocking the secrets of the wildlife in your yard.
We have been using the BirdCam for a couple weeks now, testing out various areas in our 1/4 acre yard to find out what birds are where. Setup was a breeze, taking more time to put batteries in than to set up the desired distance and position. We started with a shady portion of the yard, an area where the dogs couldn’t interfere and only captured a squirrel feasting on sunflower seeds. Then we got a nice male Northern Cardinal.
There are various ways you can mount the BirdCam including the bungee straps that come with the product. Our preferred method thus far has been to use a tripod since the camera can be positioned at almost any angle and height with ease.
Using the tripod next to our homemade peanut feeder, we were able to capture some interesting video of a Downy Woodpecker and a Red-breasted Nuthatch.
Then came the big test: how would the BirdCam work when placed by our homemade birdbath-dripper? Very well!!
Blue Jay
American Robin
Dark-eyed Juncos
Northern Cardinal & Black-capped Chickadee
A rare visitor – a German Shepard named Gretta
Three species sharing some quality bath time
Over the last couple weeks our BirdCam has captured over 600 pictures and 30 video clips. We were impressed by the camera’s ability to only trigger when a bird was present (mostly), especially with the dripping water. Occasionally, a misfire would happen with the changing sunlight from the moving trees.
The only problem we’ve had thus far with the BirdCam is that it doesn’t do well in shade. You are best off finding a very sunny location and you can forget about any dawn or dusk shots.
The BirdCam would make a great Christmas present (even to yourself) or if the cost seems a bit steep, save up for Spring migration. We wish we would have had the BirdCam for this year’s migration – our dripper-bath is always full of warblers and it would be nice to know what we missed!
Overall – 9 out of 10 feathers
It’s a neat device, isn’t it? So far I have had the best results when I placed it next to a bird bath or under a bush. Those seemed to get the highest proportion of bird shots to squirrel shots.
Very cool camera for sure! My only question is how does it do to the cold temps and how much does it cost?
John – it really is neat and the bird bath has definitely been the best for us
Mon@rch – It has gotten to 32 degrees and the camera did well (during the day when it was warmer) and it has sat out in the rain a bit too… it says it is all weather but it will be nice to see what it is like in the snow and cold.
As for cost, their website wasn’t working when I wrote the post so the price might have changed, but most recently it was going for $249.99.
wow, kinda expensive! I guess I will have to wait for the price to come down some! Thanks for the quick response and will follow to see how the snow does with it!
Too expensive for me at the moment, but I’ll defintiely be interested when the time is right.-I like the results you’ve had! Thanks for the review.