L&L Project :: Birdhouse Webcam

Like many, I developed new hobbies during COVID – one of them being bird watching. I’m ecstatic to take it to a new level with a birdhouse webcam inside our bluebird box.

As we’ve invested in making our backyard our haven, it made sense to foster the birds visiting, which started as significant attention to hummingbird season but then spread to the birds who live here year-round.

Two Christmas’ ago, my husband contributed to my new passion by adding a birdbath and a birdhouse. And, for the last two years, we’ve had a pair of bluebirds nest in that new home.

This past nesting season, I had an issue with cowbirds. It drove me nuts that I couldn’t keep an eye on what was actually going on inside the house. So for several months, I’ve been working on this setup and am so excited to finally have it in place. I have a camera mounted inside the birdhouse so that we can watch our bluebirds build their nest, lay eggs and nurture their family through a live webcam feed.

First I had to rehab my birdhouse. In truth, the one I have is probably meant to be more decorative than to endure the weather, but I love its look, so I’ve stuck with it.

It is a two-story birdhouse, so the first thing I did was remove the “floor” for the upper nest. (You’ll need a tall house for one that has a camera.) In my research about cowbirds, I learned I needed a smaller hole so that only the blue birds could get in. I found a source for birdhouse hole protectors that would do the trick. In addition, I repainted the entire house, replace the hardware on the doors, re-tiled the roof, and applied a clear-coat protection to the entire house. I also added netting to the upper hole to deter the birds from trying that entrance and drilled a hole in the back for the camera cord.

To power the camera, I tested a couple of solar-powered batteries used for trail cameras before I figured out that I needed a lot more juice for a 24/7 live birdhouse webcam. This setup includes a solar panel that powers a battery, and then the camera is plugged into the battery.

I played with the setup on my deck for several months before finally installing it into its permanent location. Because the camera app provides alerts when there’s movement, I have a couple of pics where a few potential renters were checking things out while I was figuring out the setup.

I’m working on figuring out how to publish the live feed of the birdhouse webcam to Lit&Leisure, so stay tuned for more on that front! Now, bring on the bluebirds and their nest!