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Saturday, December 3, 2011
Reality TV has finally come to the backyard. Who knows for how many centuries people have been putting up bird houses. But, until recently birding enthusiasts had to be content with simply watching the birds come and go from of the bird house; not being able to see the real action going on inside.
For birders, missing out on all the nest building, the breeding, laying of eggs, hatching, rearing of the young and finally fledging, came to an end a half dozen years ago, with the development of miniaturized video cameras, so small that they fit neatly in an out of the way corner of any bird houses. A thin cable running from one of these nature cams -- which are often fitted with infrared night vision, and even a built in microphone -- is then plugged into a nearby television, or computer allowing up close and personal viewing, 24/7, whether at home, office, school, or retirement center.
Such cameras are used not only inside birdhouses, but around bird feeders, bird baths, and even out in the field for university and government research projects.
There's something about bird watching that is addictive. People who wouldn't give a second glance to the birds overhead, find that once they set up a camera and start viewing the activity, the first thing they do when coming home from a long day's work, is turn on the television to check on the progress of "their birds."
For some, the goings-on in the backyard bird house has turned into a neighborhood event, with friends coming over nightly to sit around and just watch. One lady inPennsylvania even put her television out on her front porch so the neighborhood kids could stop by and watch.
But why think locally, when it's so easy to go global? It wasn't too many years ago that streaming video onto the Internet took a lot of time, money, specialized equipment and computer expertiese. With the advent of streaming services such as, it didn't take long for birders to start streaming live video of everything from, for example, inside bluebird houses to eagle nests. Now, with only a few minute's time and a couple clicks of the mouse, anyone can be broadcasting live, around the world.
A recent check on Ustream, showed 3,600+ birding streams . . . along with another 1,600 streaming wild animal videos . . . plus 16,000 dogs and 8,200 cats.
True to the world of Reality TV, once in a while a real superstar will come along such as Molly and Magee, two Barn owls down in San Marcos, California that garnered more than 21,000,000+ hits. That's not a typo . . . 21 Million-plus hits.
Birdhouse Spy Cam, the manufacturer of one such camera, the Hawk Eye Nature Cam, reports that while bird enthusiasts are by far the largest users of their camera, it is also being used to watch all manner of wildlife such as deer and elk, and has even found its way down into a rattlesnake den. Horse, goat, chicken, and other livestock owners also use it to keep tabs on their charges.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/bird-watching-articles/the-reality-tv-bird-house-5219517.html
About the Author
Mariya K Moore offers you a great variety of Bird Houses, Bird Feeders and Bluebird Houses. A wide range of Bird Houses product await you! Come and check out http://www.birdhousespycam.com
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