Leaderboard

I'd never seen a picture of Dave. Thanks for sharing it with us.

I miss Dave, Dr. Flock, with all my heart; but I know that he is watching over all our FIDS that have crossed over The Rainbow Bridge and that warms my heart and dries my tears until we meet again..... I hold my love lightly for I know that things with wings held tightly want to go. JJM

That's the way I see it. I'm not really up-to-speed on alerts and how they work as I don't plan on using them. I suspect that alerts are done through some software detection either on your own NVR system/BlueIris or you pay for a service, like the Nest cams, that do it for you. In both cases, your aviary cam would constantly be sending you alerts from the birdy movements if you tried to do it with one camera. I have seen some of the software, where you are setting up your zones and you could map out the aviary outside of the alert zone. I think that's how it works. In that case you could get away with one over-head turret cam. There are professional systems installers if you think it's something that will get over your head quick too. In our case, this new aviary is getting security bars on the inside that will serve to keep the birdies from crashing into the windows and also keep someone out.

Unfortunately the panel's on the opposite corner of the house. The electrician I've used in the past is great, so I'm sure he'll be able to figure something out. So the perimeter camera sends alerts, but the PTZ one just allows you to observe?

I'm not sure one camera will work for your situation. You are wanting to survey the surroundings and receive alerts but you don't want the fids interfering with that. So in that case a bullet camera, mounted at the top near your roof ridge to monitor the perimeter of the aviary and a PTZ camera inside the aviary to watch the fids. That's what it's looking like to me. I would definitely consider getting it wired. Where is your electric panel in relation to the aviary? If it's just inside that wall where the cement was poured easy-peasy for an electrician. You can run a cat 5 and electric out of that vent just below your roof ridge.

Your lingo is a bit over my head! LOL! I want a camera that both monitors the fids and anything that might want to mess with them. I could get an electrician in to do some wiring, so if the battery operated surveillance cameras are that limited, I'm flexible. Can I borrow you? ;-)

NVR is Network Video Recorder. It's similar to a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) camera system which is what you typically see at a 7-eleven or some other stop-n-rob type joint. Both record video for later viewing. DVR transmits an analog signal, over coax cable, directly to a DVR unit which in turn does the H.264 compression/conversion and stores the video. OTOH, IP cameras run over your standard Cat5 ethernet cable, are fully compatible with your LAN and do the H.264 conversion right at the camera sending the feed either directly to an NVR unit, or through your LAN/WAN whatever. They seem more versatile to me. I won't even consider a DVR unit if someone gave me one for free. I'm sure there are good uses for them I'm just hell bent on an IP camera so no DVR for me. Based on what you wrote, the only camera that I can think of that fits what you want is the Arlo camera. They are wireless - completely - running on batteries. I tried some out in my outdoor aviary and I could not make out my Jardines and Caique from the surroundings half the time. But it sounds like you are more wanting a perimeter surveillance? Not something to watch the birds? If you use something that gives motion alerts inside the aviary I can imagine it would be going off non-stop. I can't recall if the Arlo required a subscription for alerts or if you got a certain amount of cloud storage and alert for free. I'm highly adverse to any kind of subscription service for my cameras. I'm probably going to setup a BlueIris system and run my own server. I'm ordering my cameras this weekend once I crawl up in the roof and see how the heck Im' going to run cabling to the soffits.