Back in March, one of my clients in the hills above Franklin Canyon (Beverly Hills) asked me to set her up with a "Birdcam", a small, motion-detecting camera designed for photographing birds at feeders.
I ordered it from Wingscapes, along with a few accessories (Wingscape memory card and reader, batteries), the whole package coming in at around $300.
After a few calls to customer service (an extremely helpful and friendly PERSON!), we were ready to go. The camera was installed about a foot away from a fountain in the backyard in early April, and ran for the next two weeks (4-19 Apr.). The camera works by snapping a (digital) photo when it senses heat and movement (hence, the moving water of the fountain doesn't register). You can set the interval between shots, and I set hers to take a photograph every 5 seconds. So, if a bird is on the fountain for 20 seconds, you'll get 4 photos of the bird. The camera automatically shuts down at night, and doesn't have a flash.
In all, over 2,000 images were captured. Around half were of one species, the Lesser Goldfinch (above), probably because of the dozens of Lesser Goldfinches attracted to the seed feeders at this particular yard.
The next more common capture, somewhat surprisingly since they're not that numerous, was the Hooded Oriole (below), which was photographed in around 12% of all images.
Nearly 200 shots were of Band-tailed Pigeons, often with multiple birds crowding into the fountain for a bath and drink.
Other common species (100+ images) included Allen's Hummingbird, Mourning Dove and House Finch. Below shows a sequence of an Allen's Hummingbird bathing, followed by a shot of its incredible gleaming-red gorget.
Of course, there were several surprises. A few species were only seen for a few seconds during the multi-week run, including this gorgeous Lazuli Bunting:
And this male Black-throated Gray Warbler:
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