Many of us love watching the birds noshing on the bird seeds we put out for them. But have you tried to photograph them when they’re flitting around the feeder? Bird photography is quite difficult because it’s always hard to get close to them. Recently, we’ve launched a new series of outdoor bird feeder cameras to give you a closer look at these feeding birds without disturbing them. However, not every bird feeder camera is equally made. In order to create an effective bird feeder camera system, you’ll need to have an encyclopedic knowledge of what functions are required to deliver a successful bird watching experience.
Therefore, in today’s post, we’re gonna illustrate the key functions of an effective bird feeder camera system.
High Resolution
The foremost and most important feature of an effective bird feeder camera is high resolution. A sound bird feeder camera should capture images at least in 1080p HD to deliver quality videos in close-up shooting. A high-resolution feeder camera generates a larger output size, increases the sharpness and clarity and improves the detail of every image. The most obvious advantage of a high-resolution bird feeder camera is that it can automatically imply a higher amount of pixels and display all intricate details of every feeder visitor on your TV/HDMI-compatible monitor or digital players such as smartphones and tablets. Another benefit of such a full HD feeder camera is that it helps in down-sampling, a resizing technique to reduce pixel dimensions, which effectively reduces noises in images and hides focusing errors so as to deliver perfect quality images. Green Backyard has produced several outdoor bird feeder cameras in different resolutions (700TVL, 1080p and 3MP) for selection.
Wide-angle Lens
A wide-angle lens is a good start to photography birds at a feeder with unique perspectives. Simply put, a bird feeder camera that has a wide-angle lens allows more of the scene to be captured in the image. Oftentimes, you’ll need to place the feeder camera up close to the bird feeder to capture highly detailed images of those peckish passers-by as they’re feasting on safflowers and kernels. However, when using a bird feeder camera with a normal-sized lens, the closer it is located around the bird feeder, the less content it captures. The biggest benefit of the wide-angle lens is its capability to capture more details (the surrounding scene as well) and create a greater sense of depth from the foreground to the background while remaining close to the bird feeder. The mini WiFi bird feeder camera from Green Backyard can produce a wider viewing angle of 120° with an adjustable lens to help you get an optimized shooting focus.
Waterproof Shell
Water leaks and moisture infiltration can cause serious damage to any kind of digital camera with poor or improper waterproofing construction. Since the outer shell of most feeder cameras is plastic, a few times of water splashes might not damage the electrical systems of the camera, but they could eventually lead to rusting of the interiors of the higher-end bodies. Considering the bird feeder is oftentimes installed outdoors, placing a waterproof bird feeder camera will give you peace of mind in all weather conditions. It is designed to withstand exposure to water, but most importantly, it can be submerged in the water. The advantage of an outdoor bird feeder camera is its resistance to water, which makes it more durable and reliable in outdoor applications. Encapsulated in a waterproof shell, the IP bird feeder camera is a perfect solution to survive the rainy days in Britain or tropical rainforest climate without any risk of water ingress.
Motion Detection
Another essential feature of an effective bird feeder camera system is motion detection, a highly sensitive mechanism only available in IP-based feeder cameras to inform you of every bird visit with instant message notifications on your smartphone or tablet. Bird watching is a time-consuming pastime, but motion detection allows you to spend less time waiting around and engage in other meaningful business. In this way, you can get immediately notified when a bird or any other garden creature enters the camera’s detection zone to ensure you’ll never miss out on any exciting moment. Green Backyard’s bird feeder camera employs a highly sensitive motion detector to initiate every trigger event by detecting pixel changes around the birding background. And you can avoid false alarms triggered by trees and moving shadows to the maximum by facilitating the configuration. You can define the region of interest where motion is detected via a free app to program the bird feeder camera only reacts to the pixel changes within this region.
Night Vision
When shooting at night, one of the biggest problems is the lighting. Some cameras would use white light to light up the whole shooting area, but it’s so bright and glaring that it not only washes out areas of your intended images but also spooks the birds. Moreover, chances are higher that this artificial lighting could disrupt their physiology and behaviors. While the low-glow flash is more tolerable, it’ll still emit partially visible red glows. Night shooting is never easy, but with the emergency of invisible infrared LEDs, low light photography is now a fantastic possibility to capture black and white images in extremely low-light conditions or in complete darkness without emitting red glows that will scare the wildlife away. The infrared LEDs can deliver 24/7 nonstop recording without using any visible light source at all, ideal for photographing nocturnal birds like owls, night hawks and mockingbirds. Green Backyard has recently released the mini WiFi bird feeder camera is equipped with both infrared and daytime LEDs (limited daytime use only) to help you achieve better image quality in outdoor settings.
Audio Recording
Audio recording, undoubtedly, is an indispensable feature in the effective bird feeder camera system. Installing extra audio recording equipment will cost you $50 or more and its bulky size can easily drive the wild bird away. Attaching a mini microphone to the feeder camera is not feasible either, for an exterior microphone is more susceptible to damages accidentally caused by the birds or garden wildlife. Most importantly, you’ll have to make sure the microphone is weatherproof as well to endure the harsh environment in outdoor deployments. Therefore, it’s always recommended to choose a feeder camera that is equipped with a highly sensitive, built-in microphone for audio recording. The built-in microphone can effectively avoid bird biting or ‘beaking’ and deliver the most authentic, true-to-life bird sounds to its dedicated listeners while without any concerns of water penetration or dust ingress.
If you need more information, continue to read Bird Feeder Watching: What Cameras Do You Need? to find out the suitable bird feeder camera that meets your needs.
