I’ve always liked the idea of a bird feeder camera. But not really the idea of a cloud networked cameras. I could pick up a camera feeder, and deal with that can of worms, or just make my own.

Building My Own

I picked up a clear feeder at Walmart, stuck it on a window, and pointed a webcam at it. That webcam was hooked up to a raspberry pi, that would take a pic every minute. This actually worked pretty well.

But I want video, live video. So I bought a camera.

Video Birds

I already have a UniFi Protect system, so I orders a UniFi G4 Instant, a WiFi based IP camera. The advantage of this over the camera feeder, is that the footage isn’t stored on the cloud. It stays on my home network. Just what I want.

A little while later, I got the camera in.

I also setup a motion zone over the seeds. That way I can easily search for birds.

This being a security camera, it doesn’t work the best close up. I might play around with a little macro lens in the future.