If you are a bird watcher and love checking on the birdhouses in your yard then this is for you. Over the years I’ve hung many a birdhouse on my property. I just love the thought of creating a home for a family to move in to. I have managed to purchase enough different houses over the years that they can be picky and they usually are, especially the bluebirds.
I’ll be writing about what I’ve learned about birdhouses themselves at some point, so come back for that. But here I want to talk about something that has made my years of ‘watching’ birdhouse nests so much easier.
I would watch the houses until I was sure the parents had chosen it and had for sure built a nest. I would then try to peek in and see how many eggs were in the nest. I would usually have to get a stool, carefully open the door and see what I could see. I could never see in the boxes so I would use a mirror. Years later I started using the cell phone, but I would struggle to hold my cell phone in the birdhouse and still be able to hit the button to take a picture. Even when I would manage to hit the button I was never quite sure of what I had so I would have to look at the picture and try multiple times at different angles till I would get an image good enough to see inside the nest.
This method worked for eggs and newly hatched chicks but once they got big enough to stand the last thing you want to do is open the door. I wanted to watch them grow and in no way be the reason they didn’t survive.
After years of the cell phone method, I saw a video for a camera to see things behind appliances and I thought….hmmm that would probably work for the birdhouses. So I researched that camera like the one in the video and I found that it’s called an endoscope. I’ve only thought about that being an expensive medical tool but here I was about to purchase one for myself.
This DEPSTECH endoscope camera works with USB and has an adapter to work with my android cellphone. It’s basically a camera on the end of a wire that you can bend to various angles. The one I purchased has a knob that controls the brightness of lights on the end around the camera lens itself, so it’s beyond perfect for birdhouse spying.
I simply had to find an app for my phone that supported it and BAM I was able to see inside the birdhouses and see it on my cell phone instantly. There are buttons on the app that allows for you to take pictures but better yet you can shoot videos.
I cannot say enough good things about the joy this gives me to be able to check in on the chicks’ progress without any risk of harm. Most birdhouses have vent holes so you can use those and you aren’t even blocking the entrance in case mom or dad are in there.
It’s a great product and especially for the cost. As you can see it’s not high resolution but to just check in on the nest it’s one awesome and very affordable toy. And hey if you lose something behind the stove you can use this to find your lost item. You can also purchase an accessory kit that adds a hook and magnet and other tools for retrieving things from places you can’t reach.
Here is a link to the exact one I purchased for under $30.00. Nope, that’s not a typo it was literally $24.00 at the time I got it.
Amazon Affiliate Link: DEPSTECH Endoscope Camera
Amazon Affiliate Link: Magnet Accessories
I really hope you enjoyed this post. If you purchase this let me know how you like it and if you enjoy it as much as me. Leave a comment below if there are other tools you use to check in on your feather babies.
