https://github.com/garraflavatra/birdbox-2021

Place an IR camera in a bird box and watch young birds grow up.
https://github.com/garraflavatra/birdbox-2021

raspberry-pi raspberry-pi-camera

Last synced: 5 months ago
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Place an IR camera in a bird box and watch young birds grow up.

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/garraflavatra/birdbox-2021
• Owner: garraflavatra
• License: mit
• Created: 2021-07-14T09:10:34.000Z (almost 5 years ago)
• Default Branch: main
• Last Pushed: 2022-02-24T16:45:56.000Z (over 4 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2025-03-09T21:46:23.005Z (over 1 year ago)
• Topics: raspberry-pi, raspberry-pi-camera
• Language: Python
• Homepage: https://projects.romeinvanburen.nl/birdbox-2021/
• Size: 6.55 MB
• Stars: 1
• Watchers: 1
• Forks: 0
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: readme.md
  • License: license.md

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README

          
# Raspberry Pi Bird Box Camera

Place a [Raspberry Pi](https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b/) with [infrared camera](https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/pi-noir-camera-v2/) in a bird box and watch young birds grow up, via a YouTube livestream.

![Great tit nest](img/nest.png)

Also see: my [YouTube playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrKDdkHsXac06Yh9iYJ-0kTfuIdsKG7Y2) of great tit nest footage.

## Requirements

- Raspberry Pi with WiFi. You could provide WiFi via a dongle, but the best option is to use a [Raspberry Pi >=3](https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b/), with built in WiFi.

- [Raspberry Pi NoIR Camera module](https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/pi-noir-camera-v2/)

- Infrared LED

- 220 ohm resistor

- Some (jumper) wires

- A bird box!

## How I made it

### The box

My granddad made a bird box for me. It has a ceiling in it, so the Raspberry Pi and all wiring etc. are protected against all types of weather circumstances (except [football-sized hailstones](https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/02/weather/gargantuan-hailstones-record-scn-trnd/index.html)).

![The top](img/top.jpg)

| The box | The top | The power cable |

|--|--|--|

| ![The box](img/box.jpg) | ![The top](img/top.jpg) | ![The power cable](img/power.jpg) |

### Wiring

**NOTE:** you may have to focus your lens. See [this guide](https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2017/fixing-blurry-focus-on-some-raspberry-pi-camera-v2-models) to ajusting the camera focus.

![Wiring](img/bb.png)

![Schema](img/schema.png)

## Streaming

You may use another streaming service, but my Pi streams the nest footage to YouTube using a simple [Python script](youtube.py). You'll need to set up YT:

1. Log in to YouTube and click your profile image. Click _YouTube Studio_.

   ![Open YT Studio](img/studio.png)

2. Click the _Go Live_ icon in the top right.

   ![Go live](img/live.png)

3. Set up your stream.

4. You'll now get a streaming key; copy it.

   ![Streaming key](img/key.png)

5. Clone this [repository](https://github.com/garraflavatra/rpi_birdbox_camera) (or just the two files [`youtube.py`](https://github.com/garraflavatra/rpi_birdbox_camera/blob/main/youtube.py) and [`youtube-key.txt`](https://github.com/garraflavatra/rpi_birdbox_camera/blob/main/youtube-key.txt)) to `/opt/birdbox/`.

6. Paste the streaming key into `youtube-key.txt` and replace all other content with it.

7. Execute the script:

   ```bash

   python3 /opt/birdbox/youtube.py

   ```

8. You can now see the footage, live!

   ![An empty nest](img/empty.png)

   _Yes, there's been a [great tit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_tit) family here before._

---

Good luck and thanks for checking out this project.