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Both. Once my birds are using the outside aviary, I'd like to have a security camera pointed towards its entrance. I'd also like to have one to watch the birds while they're using the aviary.

Hi everyone, it has been awhile since I have posted or visited. I posted before about Poppy being a very fearful bird. She has been like that since I got her at 14 weeks in 2016. She came from a very good breeder and I am home mostly every day so I know what goes on around her most of the time. I don't have bratty kids and the youngest is 9 and oldest at home is 21. He and my 16-year-old (2nd oldest at home) spend 98% of their time in their rooms downstairs. Everyone is afraid of Poppy except my 21-year-old and my 10-year-old is able to get her back on her cage with a perch (she hates when we try to get her with a perch and will attack it unless she is on the floor) if needed but he doesn't handle her beyond that. Neither does my 21-year-old. I am the only one who can actually hold her. The problem is, I have become afraid to. I can hold her but it is only a matter of time before the tiniest noise spooks her and she starts getting bitey with me. The other major issue I am having is not being able to get her wings clipped because I don't know how to even get her into a carrier or towel her without her absolutely freaking out. Her not having her wings clipped has become a big issue because when she is out of her cage and I am in the main part of the house where her cage is because she is constantly flying onto me. I cannot get anything done and I am not comfortable having a fearful bird on me all the time. I have had to resort to having one of the kids let her out when I and our Quaker Parrot are upstairs because she flies onto the Quaker's cage all the time. They have always been kept separate for safety reasons. I just don't know what to do. I have begun to feel like I am a very ill-equipped person to deal with this particular bird. I feel like I got in over my head. Any suggestions for how to get her into a carrier so I can take her to a vet to get her wings clipped? All other advice and input welcome as well.

Thank you for the replies. Poppy is a Timneh. She came from Florida and I am in Washington state. Our other parrot is not out of Poppy’s sight. Their cages are about 10 feet from each other and are in plain sight of one another. Poppy scrambles up to my shoulder and I have not figured out how to prevent her from doing so. She will not stay where I set her. Our household is pretty calm. I can’t stand chaos and ruckus. Nobody does anything to invade Poppy’s space...they talk to her when she is in her cage but again, they do not handle her. I do. Nobody pokes at her. My kids are respectful of animals. She wants to be with me all the time but until I get these issues under control, I cannot have her out of her cage as much as she was before her wings grew back (all day). Poppy also freaks out if any man comes near her cage. Not my adult sons, other men. My stepdad approached her cage and she started screaming and flapping all over the place. A man who delivered something did the same and she had the same reaction. This is not an abused or neglected bird but you would think she was judging by her behavior.

How close is your breeder? I'm wondering if they can come over to help you get the bird in a carrier. Some people aren't as fearful of getting bit and that's what it takes with some birds (our Huey butchers my hands & arms). I'm really surprised you're having this trouble with a handfed baby with a known history.

Oh this is SO wonderful!!

Back in 2010, I posted this, Nothing changes. I edited it and re-posted. We need to put a moratorium on breeding until our vast amount of sanctuary fids are adsorbed into society. Greed/money, Hallowed be thy name... Sanctity of Parrot Life. In the year 2000 the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources and the World Parrot Trust published their “Action Plan.” Noting that “No other group of birds has been subjected to more exploitation, numerically and financially, than parrots,” the WPT called upon the millions of ordinary people who keep psittacines to “accept more responsibility for the survival of parrots in the wild and the welfare of existing captive parrots.” I’m one of the millions of ordinary people who live with a parrot, so I’m going to try to do my share. According to journalist Mira Tweti, author of "Parrots and People," there are between 40 and 60 million companion birds in the USA alone, perhaps half of them parrots. If just 1% of us bird "owners" began to lobby vigorously for the conservation and protection of parrots, we’d have an enormous influence. But we can’t do it alone. We also need the cooperation of the parrot industry—those who profit from parrots. They includes cage and accessory makers, food suppliers and distributors, pet stores, and of course breeders. On the conservation side of the equation, 28% of the 330 known parrot species are threatened with extinction. The parrots we love are decimated by the bird trade, destruction and fragmentation of native habitats, and hunting for food, feathers or for crop protection. Parrots did fine for many millions of years before they ran into people.Birds in general are perhaps the only living dinosaurs. They survived the extinction events that finished off other dinosaurs because they had the most powerful brains. That made them more adaptable, more capable of prospering in emerging ecological niches. European parrot fossils have been dated at 54 million years, although modern parrots may be “only” 20- 23 million years old. Parrots flourish in warm regions of South America, Africa and Australasia. They love the sun, the verdant tropical forest and the open sky. What got them in the most trouble with us? Their brains, their looks and the fact that we want their land.But conserving their habitat and outlawing their importation is only half the battle.We also have the vast responsibility to protect those many millions of parrots who live in captivity. Most of that job is educational. We need to teach our children that parrots are not commodities, not things. We need to acknowledge the sanctity of parrot life. As awareness increases, we’ll become better (and surely fewer) parrots. We won’t buy and sell parrots on a whim. We won’t release them to fend for themselves or kill them when we get bored with them. We will treat them with the respect we accord to people, to each other. They will join our “each other,” our community of consciousness and conscience.

Are you looking for security from thieves, or a camera that lets you watch your birds or both? I have Dlink to check on my birds, but ADT for my house with a camera as well.

I'm not sure if I have much useful advice to offer. I just wanted to say I'm sorry about the situation you're in as I can appreciate it's tough to know what to do for the best. Alfie is 14 years old and he will still give me a nip/bite if he's not happy about something. Over the years, I started to become scared of being bitten and worried about handling him. I think he picked up on this and it made the situation worse. It has taken us both a long time (years) to work through this together. He will still give me a nip if he's grumpy about something but I have worked on learning when and why I might receive a bite. I have also learned to approach Alfie with more confidence and this generally gets better results. That's not to say I am boisterous or try and pick him up when he doesn't want it. But I try and remain confident in my body language and my voice when handling him. It sounds stupid but it has helped. I find if I am nervous and Alfie picks up on it, he is more likely to bite because either he is nervous as well or he is pushing the boundaries (e.g trying to stay out past bed time!) Typically I know when I'm likely to receive a bite and I ride it out and talk through it. Nowadays they're not even that painful (except for the odd one) because I think he's realised he's not getting as much of a reaction. Alfie is also a 'no shoulder' bird. I do not trust him on my shoulder because he will not sit there for long before pulling at my hair or trying to get to my ears. That makes me uncomfortable because I cannot see what he is doing and I am worried that he may manage to catch my eye one day. So I persevere with the 'no shoulder' rule. When he lands to my arm he will try and make his way up it because he wants to sit on my shoulder so I put my other arm in the way. He will either step up onto that arm or he will move back to my forearm/wrist. Typically when I am sitting down he prefers to sit on my knee/leg anyway, which suits me just fine. Poppy is still very young and has a lot to learn. I'm afraid I don't have any useful suggestions for you but I hope you, the family and Poppy manage to find a way forward that works for you all.

I understand there was a spam problem. Found the offending permission issue, and I think I tagged all the forums for read only for guests, if I missed one let me know..

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Greetings, Clipping would probably push her over the edge and would only make things more stressful for her. This young bird looks to you as her"Soul Mate" and her life partner, .Your past posts I've read are great. It may help to give her chamomile tea, Rome was not built in a day...nor the trust of an African Grey...

Next week is aviary installation day! Have been thinking about adding a security system for peace of mind once my babies are outside. Was researching Nest Cam, but see that you also have to buy a storage package per year. Looking for recommendations as to which system might be my best bet.

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.

Wow! Thanks for all the info! Most appreciative! Right now I'm thinking of having something pointing towards the aviary double doors. My fids will be brought in at night, so night coverage won't be high on my list of needs. I can certainly do Wifi. Must they all run on a power cord, or do some run on lithium batteries? Our outlet is probably 30 feet away, and either we or the dogs would be tripping over the cord. It needs to be outdoor proof and be able to encompass the entire perimeter of the aviary. Want something that isn't known to have annoying 'false alarm' alerts. Speaking of power cords, couldn't someone theoretically unplug and deactivate it before making their way to the aviary? What is a NVR system?

Oh oh...I have done a TON TON TON of research in this area. I am currently running a Foscam FI9826 in their bird room and have been for years. Foscam is chinese as are most of the cameras you can buy. The camera is average, decent, whatever, but my problem with it is accessing the camera offsite. Their software absolutely SUCKS! On their support forum it is nearly a 'set stores on fire, turn over cars' riot situation with users like myself who have spent money on these pieces of shit and they will do nothing to address the issue of accessing their cameras. A camera is pretty useless if you can't access it right? So far their only answer is to use a very outdated version of IE if and until they decide to somehow write an interface for HTML5. They won't because they rip everything off and nothing has come along to steal. Don't buy Foscam. Don't buy their U.S. former counterpart - Amcrest - they have the exact same issue. Nearly all cameras will have this issue with browser support being a moving target I've learned, so while it's not really Foscam/Amcrest's fault that their crap no longer works, they are still selling their cameras under the pretense that you can use a browser, bullshit. I have considered all the usual suspects: D-Link, Nest, AvertX, Q-See, Lorex, Arlo, Samsung, Night Owl... There are just too dang many to really figure it out so I threw myself onto the cctv gods, thankfully. I have learned that the Dahua cams are pretty damned rock solid and very highly trusted among the cctv gurus. Also the issue of accessing them offsite is pretty much solved by running Blue Iris on a machine dedicated to running the software. It has the ability to function as it's own webserver. You can also buy a pre-packaged NVR system too that does the same thing. Do you have cabling to the area? Power or will you need PoE (power over the ethernet cable). Want wireless or wired? Pan/Tilt/Zoom? Do you need it to be 'outdoor' proof? Do you need nighttime IR capabilities (I use my IR all the time)? I can recommend a setup once I know what you're parameters are. It will be one of the Dahua Starlight series as they seem to be the best on the planet right now at consumer pricing.