Camera Traps Are Like Candid Camera for Your Backyard Birds | The Living Bird

[Posted by Chuck Almdale]

Those of you who — unlike me — have something better than a box camera or a Kodak Kwiki-Shoot should find this inspiring. Something to do before we’re all washed away.

Camera Traps are Like Candid Camera for your Backyard Birds
The Living Bird | Carla Rhodes | 22 Dec 2022
It’s a fun new avenue for bird photography: using a “camera trap” to shoot images whenever a bird appears in your backyard—like an avian selfie photo booth.

Carla Rhodes, from the article: “Juncos, hands down to me, were the most entertaining. It was almost like they were trolling me, teasing me, and showing personality and different perspectives.”
Quick! Which subspecies of Dark-eyed Junco is this?

Text from the article:

If you purchased your digital camera within the last 10 years, chances are you already have some basic tools for remote photography. The simplest options include setting your camera on time-lapse or using an interval timer, then setting your camera out at your feeder and hoping the birds are there when the timer goes off.  

Many modern cameras can also be fired via handheld wireless remote control, or operated remotely with a smartphone app. Canon’s Camera Con­nect and the Nikon WirelessMobileUti­lity apps enable simple remote-control, timer-controlled, and time-lapse series shooting on a connected camera.  

If you want to take the next step, you can build (or buy) a proper camera-trap system. A bare minimum camera-trap setup includes a camera with a port for connecting remote shutter-release equipment, a wide-angle lens that allows a broader field of view in the surrounding environment, and a pas­sive infrared (or PIR) sensor that will trigger the camera’s shutter when it detects the body heat from an animal’s presence. There are several off-the-shelf camera-trap systems available; two of the most popular are made by Cognisys and Camtraptions.

Carla Rhodes, from the article.
This is a mouse I could live with.