why Watch bird cams?
Bird cams are a really helpful tool that scientists and birders use for paying attention to what is happening with a group of birds in a specific area, or sometimes a nesting site! By recording what is happening at a nest or specific area people can often collect A LOT more observations and data than they could if they only visited that site once in a while. Below are some of our favorite bird cameras to watch from Ventana Wildlife Society in Big Sur, California and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York. These groups post live footage and highlight reels of their cameras for the public to view. We’ll keep adding more to this page as some of our favorite nest cameras go live!
Making detailed observations about birds in the wild, like what we see happening in these bird cameras, requires practice and patience. You'll get a much deeper learning experience watching these bird cameras if you take a little bit of time to develop some tools for observing. You can start practicing observation skills right at home with the exercises in How to Teach Nature Journaling by Emilie Lygren and John Muir Laws. You can download a FREE pdf, or order a copy of their book here.
Discussion Norms
Listen actively and share ideas
Share evidence and ask for evidence
Build on the ideas of others
Keep an open, curious mind
Disagree respectfully to increase understanding
Pay attention to participation - if you're speaking a lot, let others speak - if you are not speaking, try to speak up!
Using the Live Cameras
These cameras are recording live footage of birds in real-time! You can click play and stream live right from this page. If you click play and watch for a while, but there isn't much action happening live, you can click toward the beginning of the video feed and see what happened earlier on in the day. If you want to go back to live, just click "Live," and the video will take you back to real-time. If you are watching the videos live, we recommend that you choose 3-5 different times throughout the day that you can check back and watch for 5 minutes to compare the different things you see. REMEMBER - what you see is not scripted. These are wild birds! Anything in nature can happen.
Click the down arrows to expand a list of discussion questions
Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dymanics↓
Describe the environment you see. What do you notice in the environment?
How are condors interacting with other things in the environment?
What resources do you notice the condors using? What resources do you see that the condor might not be using right now, but might need?
Can everything you see in this video feed be connected back to a condor through the food web? Why or why not?
Social Interactions and Group Behavior↓
How would you describe the behavior of these birds throughout the day? What does their behavior remind you of?
What do you notice condors doing to interact with each other?
Inheritance of Traits↓
Describe the different birds visiting the feeder. What do you notice about them?
What common physical characteristics, or traits, do you notice among the birds visiting the feeders?
What differences do you notice between birds visiting the feeder?
Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity↓
What evidence do you have that the birds visiting the feeder are related to one another?
Do you think that different birds visiting the feeder are related to each other, even though they look different? What is your evidence for this?
Which birds do you think are best adapted for eating at the feeder? What is your evidence for this?