BarBears Birdbox Camera

This is just a temporary Birdbox Camera web page for this year as we are in the process of a major revamp of our entire site at the moment but didn't want you miss out on the second year for our Blue Tit family.

6th May 2009 - Big Day today as many of the eggs have hatched overnight..!
10th May 2009 - Two new video clips added below and some pictures of Mum and Dad in action.
24th May 2009 - UPDATE The chicks have flown the nest.

We operate the camera between 7am and 8pm, seven days a week so that our birds get a little privacy during the night, well how would you feel! Actually this also allows us to reduce our bandwidth demands. The birdbox is located in the Walsgrave area of Coventry, UK.

Mr Blue Tit	Change Over	Mrs Blue Tit

Wow is big out there ! The first chick looks out cautiously.	This one shocked us when it flew nearly the full length of the garden and settled in the tree.	Five chicks in a row, nicely settled on our trellis.

History

The Bird box with a camera idea came up when two trains of thought collided in Dads head to genearate one of those mad moments one summer day in 2006. One being a desire to put up a bird box for Luke and Sophie to see some birds nest in our back garden, the second being a Maplin sale leaflet dropping through the door with a dead cheap miniature black and white camera. Now this is not a brilliant invention (wish it was) as you could buy these bird boxes with cameras ready made for about £150 which was just an extravagance, as our set up came in at around £25 but is far simpler, so me and Luke set about making it. The result is shown in the picture below. Nothing fantastic, but it does the job and the Blue Tits love it.

Now, this is a good RSPB birdbox design made from some wood left overs, and the critcal factor is the hole size and placement. Ideally the hole needs to be North facing, which in our case it is, secondly the size needs to be right for the birds you want to get in. Blue Tits need it to be 25mm, which again ours is and this keeps out all the larger sparrows etc.

So up it went back in 2006 ready for the April 2007 nesting season... but to our disappointment we had no feathered visitors.

April 2008 arrived, but we had forgotten all about the birdbox until one day we spotted a bird coming out of the box. On went the camera and we could see something n the box although the picture really was not good enough for uploading due to insufficient light from the home made Infra Red LED array. We could see things but not well enough or in any detail. So we left them to nest and watched as they flew in and out which was nice for the kids to see when they were out in the garden. When we were very sure it had been long vacated during August it had an upgrade in the form of a new tinted sky light to let in additional light during the day.

WE WERE READY FOR APRIL 2009 !

You can get these nest boxes with colour cameras today (2009) for around £70 + p&p and can hook it up easily to a TV. If you want to do what we do and upload to the Internet you will need software and a video capture card so it will cost you a bit more. You will also need a bit of technical know-how as well. Now that we are proving it all works I must admit we may update the Bird Box next year and install a colour camera, cheapest I can find anyway.

Blue Tit Breeding FAQ

Blue tits breed wherever there are areas of trees with suitable nest holes. They start looking for nesting sites about February, preferring small holes or narrow cracks in trees about 1 - 15 metres from the ground. Nestboxes in gardens are readily used, especially if there is a shortage of natural sites in an area. Both males and females search for nest holes, but when the male finds somewhere suitable, he displays by fluttering his wings and calling to his mate; he will then go into the hole, calling the female and hoping she will follow and approve the site. She doesn't always approve it and may reject several before deciding on the one she wants! She builds the nest alone, collecting moss, dried grass, dead leaves and wool to fill the bottom of the nest hole; she forms a cup-shaped structure with this material and finally lines it with soft feathers or hair.

A clutch of 7 - 13 eggs is laid from mid-April to early May. The eggs are white with reddish-brown speckling and are laid at the rate of one a day. Incubation begins only when the clutch is almost complete - the female usually covers the eggs with some nest lining if she has to leave them for a while. Incubation lasts almost two weeks and whilst the female is sitting on the eggs, the male defends the area around the nest site from other blue tits, so protecting the available food needed for both adults and, later, the young. He also brings food to his mate. The young hatch at a time when food is at its most abundant. They are fed by both parents, mainly on small caterpillars, and stay in the nest for two or three weeks. The adults also remove the droppings regularly, to keep the nest clean..