This has been used several times and there are a lot of webcams online.

A research project in germany tries to answer the decline of the common buzzard (buteo buteo). Therefore they filmed the nests to find out wether these are beeing robbed by eaglee owl (Bubo bubo).

http://bioconsult-sh.de/en/projects/common-buzzard/

Hi there. We use Camera Traps CC in South Africa for our purchases however, with regards to your above question the only option seems to be cameras that send wireless images over a cell network (http://www.cameratrap.co.za/index.php/product-range).

Many security cameras have long power and video cables allowing for remote memory and battery exchange.  The cameras I used had 60 meter cables, which was long enough that in many instances I could replace the memory card and battery without disturbing the nest occupants.

Have a look at Wildlifewindows.co.uk, who specialise in wildlife CCTV systems for this kind of project. 

Hello Lindy, I am working with little cameras in nestboxes produced by www.handykam.com (in Great Britain). They are low budget and work fine. You can find several papers on my RG-profile (papers with english summary and captions). Some security cameras may be an alternative but you need some experience in the technology. I prefer transmission by cable because the video quality is much better than 2.4 GHz wireless cams. I agree with Robert Miller that 40 to 50 meters are no problem. Cables combine the power supply with video and audio transmission, so you need one cable for all. You get 5, 10 and 20 m cables and you can combine them. Probably some rodents could gnaw at the cables.. At the end of the cable you can attach an DV-recorder with SD cards and the power supply without disturbance of the nest. Near my house power supply is no problem but out door you need car batteries for sufficient power. I have no experience with solar devives. But for cameras and recorders run for 24 hours you need a lot of power. So you must exchange the batteries every 1 or 2 days (depending on the numer of cams and DVRs provided by a battery). Thats a lot of work but I usually visit the monitored sites in any case every day to check the videos.

You should consider further aspects: Which secies do you want to monitor? What about their bredding biology, what kind of nests do they build and what nesting sites do they use? Do you need monitoring at night (with infrared illumination)? etc.

A paper on all the technical aspects of video surveillance and our experiences with the video system mentioned above will be published in the german journal "Vogelwarte". If you are interested I will send you the manuscript. If you have any further questions feel free ro contact me ([email protected]).

Thanks everyone for your replies. Rion, unfortunately the areas I work in usually don't have cellphone signal, so cameras that send pictures using cellular networks aren't an option. Stefan your setup sounds great, except that I was hoping to avoid visiting the nests everyday. Some nests take 4 hours to drive to from my house, so visiting nests more than once a month costs too much in terms of petrol and time. I will have a look at the sites recommended.

Birdwatcher app reveals where birds thrive

"North American bird populations are declining most severely in areas where they should be thriving. Nevertheless, most species had pockets where their populations were growing. Researchers analysed 36 million birdwatchers’ observations shared using the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird app, alongside satellite data, to give unprecedented insights. “The locations where these species were thriving in the past, where the environments were really well suited to birds, are now the places where they are suffering the most,” says ecological statistician and co-author Alison Johnston. “The way I interpret this result is that it’s indicative of major changes in our world.”..."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/01/collapsing-bird-numbers-north-america-study-species

https://ebird.org/home

Article North American bird declines are greatest where species are ...