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Skills Required
There is nothing very difficult in this project. No need to be a computer programmer or a great woodworker but you do need to be prepared to plan, try things out, make mistakes, learn from them, be persistent and patient.
You will need to be able to cut wood to size (though absolute accuracy is not required), drill holes and use a screw driver to build the box. Putting together some of the electronics bits is a bit fiddly and small tools might be required to help with this but there is no soldering required – everything is push fit or screws.
You will need access to a computer and an SD card reader (USB ones are available) and access to the internet (guessing you have that if you’ve found this).
I strongly suggest that you read the whole of this before you even think about starting to buy bits. Then get planning! Do some sketches of how you think things will fit together – this helps to identify possible problems before they happen.
Cost
If you have tools already but have to buy all the bits from scratch roughly budget is about £100
Suggested Process
I think it makes sense to buy the electronics bits and get them working first (I’ll cover this in part 2) as this will help you to decide how tall the bird box needs to be.
What wood to use
Sensible options are
- Exterior grade or marine plywood (easy to work with but will need some form of treatment which must be very carefully chosen with anything toxic avoided)
- An untreated hardwood like oak (this is harder to work with but should be very durable)
- One of the tougher waterproof softwoods like larch (this won’t need any treatment)
It is important that the wood is quite thick as it provides some insulation and also protection from predators (e.g. woodpeckers). I’ve used 15mm plywood and 18mm larch.
You will need a plank somewhere over 2m long (depending on your box design) and 15-18cm wide.
Waterproofing the roof
To keep the rain out I stuck some old roofing felt (like the stuff put on sheds) on the roof covering the joints and going over all of the edges to allow the rain to drip off down the sides). A glued on piece of inner tube to cover the joint at the back of the roof also works. Other methods may also be a success!
The Electronics
An “night vision” camera like this one (about £20):
There are a lot of options, this is one of the cheaper ones which already has infra red LEDs (one on each side) and an adjustable focus (you can turn the lens clockwise or anticlockwise to adjust where the camera focuses). The LEDs shine infrared light which the birds can’t see and the camera is designed to pick up infra red light. You shouldn’t stare into them for too long, they do have a visible faint red glow when they’re working but the infra red part of the light is quite strong.
They come with a cable but I usually buy a longer one (up to 2 metres depending on where the box is going to go and where the Raspberry Pi is going to live). As long as it specifies it is for the Raspberry Pi camera module it should work (but be careful not to but the version for a Raspberry Pi Zero which is narrower at one end).
A Raspberry Pi computer (About £35-40)
I’ve had a lot of success with the 3B+ which is not the newest version but handles the task very well without overheating. I have tried using the Raspberry Pi Zero W which is OK for low resolution recording but a bit under powered.
A power supply (between £7-15)
For reliability you will need a 3 amp (3A) micro usb charger. The official raspberry pi one is very good but something like this is cheaper and would be fine I think
Where this sort of power supply isn’t practical then you can investigate using Power over Ethernet for a great deal more flexibility in terms of box location – technically a bit more of a challenge though.
A Micro SD Card (£5-10)
These have worked for me but there are lots of options that should be OK
Box Design
The box needs to
- have a suitable sized opening for the species you are hoping to attract (Google will help here)
- be waterproof enough to protect the electronics
- be tall enough to allow the camera to focus and give a wide enough view. be aware that the bird may build the nest up quite a bit so do allow for this (I didn’t realise how significant this can be). Allow up to 10cm for nest depth to be on the safe side
- gives the birds enough space
I adapted this template from the RSPB. I made it quite a bit taller – the camera position is critical so you’ll need to experiment with the electronics (see part 2) to work out how high up you want the camera to be) and added a shelf made of thin plywood with holes in for the camera lens and LEDs.
I have always opted to build boxes with the Raspberry Pi not contained within it in case of problems with the Pi. It’s not OK to take a box apart when there’s an active nest in it just to fix a hardware problem after all. This is why a long ribbon cable is a good idea. The ribbon cable supplies power to the camera and the LEDs so there is no need for any other wiring within the box.
Location
Considerations
- The Raspberry Pi itself will need to be kept in a properly waterproof place with access to electricity
- The box should be on a north facing wall (ideally but definitely not South facing). It will want to be relatively sheltered from the prevailing wind (Google may help you with that bit)
- Check what your target species prefers (blue tits for example like to be able to have a clear view of their hole from a distance)