This Feeder-Mounted Camera Catches Striking, Closeup Photos of Birds
Typically, bird photographers use high-end cameras with telephoto lenses and trek out into the wilds but enthusiast Ostdrossel has a different method: she lets the birds come to her. Using a feeder-mounted camera, she remotely captures striking images of the birds that visit her home in Michigan.
Ostdrossel says that the images she shares are either taken with a timelapse setting or via a motion detector. The setup, which she details on her blog, is what she calls the Bird Photo Booth 2.0. The idea is similar to a design from 2012.
“It consists of this camera box, much like a trail camera, that has a macro lens on the top and a regular one on the bottom. Inside is a little shelf on which I place a small camera that has, amongst other things, a motion sensor function that I can set to take 10 pics per second,” she writes. “The bowl attachment comes with the camera as well. So whenever a bird makes it to the bowl, the camera takes pictures. If I leave the camera out the whole day, which happens a lot, I end up with up to 7000 photos, depending on the activity of the day. My evening pleasure and routine is to go through all of them, delete the bad ones and keep and slightly edit the ones I deem publishable.”
Ostdrossel mentions that she ends up with a lot of images, and that may not fully express how many photos she can end up with. Her Instagram is flush with photos dating back years, many of them unique looks at birds that rarely let you get this close to them.
“I installed my camera on a fabulous heavy inherited tripod and installed a baffle to keep the squirrels out,” she continues. “I put it in my yard each day, rain or shine, and so far have not had any major malfunctions. Since I have been feeding birds before I had the booth, they are very interested and willing to take mug shots. I am currently also experimenting with the bowl attachment, adding a tiny hummer feeder and a jelly container.”
She also uses a camera from Birdsy to capture videos of birds which she posts on her Instagram as well as a Livestream you can watch here of a birdbath in her yard. That camera is a Birdsy, the product of a successful Kickstarter that was designed to watch and identify birds using AI.
Ostdrossel features new birds everyday on her website and also offers a multitude of designs for masks that use images of the birds that pay her Bird Photo Booth a visit. For even more, make sure you follow her on Instagram.
