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Wild birds can be a challenge to study because they often fly away just as you approach them. Lisa, aka Ostdrossel, is fascinated by our feathered friends and has an ingenious setup that allows her to get very close to them—without scaring them away. She uses her feeder cam to remote capture incredible pictures of a variety of species as they nosh on tasty bird feed.
The visitors to Lisa’s backyard don’t know they are being photographed and so they let their personalities shine for the camera. We get a glimpse of two mourning doves nuzzling beaks and a couple of other birds who look like they are in a shouting match. But some of the most fascinating images are of the solo creatures enjoying a mid-day snack. Lisa’s camera has snapped pictures of a crow who has a toothy grin made of a mouthful of kernels as well as a blackbird showing off the giant moth it’s about to feast on.
So, how does a feeder cam work? In a post on her Tumblr, Lisa shares her setup. “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,” she writes. Inside of the box is a shelf where she has placed a camera that has a motion-sensor function and takes 10 pictures per second. Whenever a bird lands on the bowl, the device starts snapping pictures. If the camera is out the whole day, it can yield up to 7,000 photos! Lisa, however, doesn’t mind. “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.”
You can follow Lisa’s work on Instagram and buy a selection of it as photo postcards through Etsy.
Lisa, aka Ostdrossel, set up a bird feeder camera that allows her to snap incredible shots of the feathered friends in her backyard as they feast on tasty snacks.
And sometimes they just liked nuzzling up near the bowl of treats.
