Birdcams and backyard feeders

June 12, 10:40 AMManchester Bird Watching ExaminerBrad Sylvester

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Backyard feeders placed outside windows area great way to enjoy local birds.

Birdwatching is one of those sports that can be enjoyed by almost anyone. You don’t need to be in great physical shape. You can birdwatch with friends and family or even by yourself. If you do have trouble getting around for health reasons, here are some helpful ideas to help you stay in the game and continue (or begin) enjoying the wonderful diversity of birds that live not only in our own neighborhoods, but around the world as well.

First, if you are homebound, one of the best ways to enjoy your local birds is to have a friend or relative put birdfeeders outside in your yard. Place them so that you can easily see them from your favorite chair. Different feeders with different kinds of birdfeed will attract the widest variety of birds. In New England, don’t forget to add a hummingbird feeder. Aside from being among the most colorful of backyard birds, hummingbirds zip back and forth around the feeders vying for position adding action and drama to window scene. If you have large picture windows, try to maintain some distance between the feeders and the windows to help reduce birds being injured by flying into the glass panels.

With the modern technology of the internet, it is now possible to go birdwatching from your computer. Below is a list of links to live cameras set up to watch birds and stream the action live over the internet. Of course, if you can get outside to see birds in action, you should, but if health reasons have kept you indoors, that's no reason to give up this wonderful avocation.

One of my favorite birding webcam sites is found at Newyorkwild.org . This site features a variety of live webcams as well as recorded webcams from previous seasons. Currently they are featuring live cams of a pair of nesting Osprey, purple martins, and the American Kestrel. The webcams are set up to unobtrusively observe the birds in their nest. Newyorkwild.org is also currently showing recorded webcam videos of an eastern phoebe and a family of great horned owls. From time to time the selection is changed as birds move out of a nest and newer cameras become available.

Of course, with the power of the internet, you need not limit yourself to birdwatching in your own neighborhood or even your own country. Indeed there are live webcams available to birders from all over the world. England’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) offers four birding cams from across the pond. In addition to cameras covering community birdfeeders, you will find coverage of a peregrine nesting box as well.

Ranging even further afield, we can watch birds from the Brazilian rain forest courtesy of ustream.tv. This live action footage is an incredible opportunity to watch birds that we’d never see here in the United States. Ustream also offers a live chat window that allows birders to share comments about the birds as they watch. The site features many different birding webcams from all over the globe including the more mundane, but still interesting camera located in the nest of a broody hen trying to hatch a batch of baby chicks.

Not only are these and the many more available webcams a great way for the housebound to enjoy birdwatching, but they offer those of us in New England, a way to enjoy our hobby during the cold winters without gearing up and braving the elements. 

Additional birdcams:

• Dorset Wildlife's Kestrel Cam with audio
• more coming all the time- check back for updates.