This inexpensive nest box camera kit will allow you to watch birds nesting secretly inside a birdhouse in your garden. Watch them on your TV.
Imagine watching live CCTV of blue tits, great tits, robins and other familiar garden birds as they nest, lay eggs and raise a little family, unaware of the nesting cam inside their home. The perfect gift for birdwatchers, nature lovers and naturalists at a genuine bargain price. Wonderful present for older parents, and a great Christmas present, too.
Full kit features
Full recommended size nest box with resin windows for better light and colour.
Strong 18mm WBP plywood nest box
Fitted with CMOS Colour/infra-red CCTV camera
Camera produces colour pictures in daylight, black and white IR pictures in darkness
Microphone fitted – look and listen
Fully assembled, painted with safe preservative
Hole kit for 3 different sized entry holes
Removable panel for open front box
20m cable with all connectors
Power supply with UK mains plug
SCART and AV connects to TV
Screws, drill and plugs for hanging up
The nestbox in plug in and play anywhere
Removable CMOS COLOUR/IR camera, with microphone and phono connectors - 380 line, adjustable focus swivel and tilt camera, pre-adjusted for nest box use, with 6 Infra-red LED invisible illuminators
See in the pitch dark (normally makes makes B&W IR pictures inside dark box) without disturbing the birds
Disposable nest box floor liner (insulated for winter roosting
3 nail-on hole adaptors with brass pins, for 25mm, 28mm and 32mm hole
Use 25mm hole for blue, coal and marsh tit
Use 28mm hole for great tit and tree sparrow
Use 32mm hole for nuthatch and house sparrow
Removable panel for open front box (robins, etc)
Removable access panel for cleaning
Read about alternatives to the Handykam.com Nest Box Camera Kit in the Miscellaneous section.
Author
werdnal Officer of the Wild Empire
Registered: September 2006 Location: Cornwall Posts: 748
Review Date: Thu 4, January, 2007
Would you recommend it? Yes |
Total Spent: £59.95| Rating: 10
Strengths:
Excellent quality, reasonable price, idiot proof instructions and set-up
Weaknesses:
We had been looking at getting a nest box camera kit for a while now, but they always seemed pretty expensive. This kit however seems to do “exactly what it says on the tin” for the bargain price of £59.95 (+£11.00 p&p). Not only does the camera produce colour pictures by day (automatically switching to B&W infra-red night vision) but also carries sound.
The kit comes with everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) you need to get it up and running. The box is made of exterior grade 18mm ply, treated with eco-friendly wood stain and tarred on the back to prevent water ingress. The thickness of the ply not only gives long life, but helps keep the temperature inside the box fairly constant, which is beneficial to breeding birds, but also provides a winter roosting site. For hanging, there is a choice of fixings – either screws and plugs to fix to a wall, or galvanised wire with protectors to fix around a tree trunk (all included in the kit).
The camera is about the size of a match box, and although pre-adjusted to focus on the nest at the base of the box, can be easily removed and re-focussed for other applications. The suppliers said that although not strictly weatherproof, there is no reason we could not mount it in our bird table, so long at it was out of direct rain. We also plan to try it above a swallow’s nest in our barn.
Wiring is a breeze – the kit includes 40m of cable, with 3 plugs. Two connect to the AV sockets on your TV, VCR or DVD, whilst the 3rd connects to the camera power supply (also included). There is also a scart adaptor if required.
It doesn’t end there – they even supply a long drill bit to get through your house wall, a rod to pull the cable through with and waterproof plugs to seal the hole around the cable. The whole thing is rounded off with excellent, easy to follow instructions. In fact the only thing they don’t supply is a pair of blue tits or similar ready to take up residence!
Handykam.com are also hoping to extend their range, and currently evaluating a PC editing package, to allow easy editing of filmed footage and an AV splitter box, allowing more than one camera to be connected at a time, and easy switching between them.
We are planning to put the box up this week to hopefully gain some interest from the local birds ahead of the breeding season.
Bill Oddie eat your heart out!
February 2008 Update
Just thought I'd add an update here, as to our success to date with our Handycam nestbox camera.
Firstly, we were thrilled to have a pair of Great Tits who took up residence last March. We watch them daily, recording their progress on DVD, until they finally fledged 4 healthy chicks. We felt really lucky to get a pair nesting so soon after putting the box up, but were even more thrilled a few weeks later, having noticed some activity around the box outside, to switch the camera back on and discovered a pair of sparrows raising a brood. Two successful families in one season. Not only that, but over winter, several wrens have been using the box as a night-time roost.
Since the box proved so successful, we splashed out on a second "camera only" kit, and fixed above a well used swallow nest site in our barn. We then had the delight of seeing 2 broods of youngsters raised here last Summer. We have left the camera in place in the hope they will return to the same spot this year.
Having now cleaned out the original nestbox in anticipation of new occupants this year, we switched on this morning, just out of interest, and caught sight of the tail end of an as yet unidentifyed bird leaving the box, so they are already house-hunting! Here's to more fascinating viewing of our new "neighbours"!
