Hawk Eye Nature Cam

I bought this as a present for my husband who feeds squirrels on the back fence and wanted to see them up close and personal. This camera does the job! Good picture, excellent sound, the infrared works perfectly. It only gets four stars because we can't figure out how to get the pictures into our Apple. We can watch Squirrel TV anytime we want, just can't connect up to the Apple in any way.

I gave this camera a high rating because of the price. You get a lot for the cost. I now have 2 and they have been very valuable for all what we have seen with them. On the TV, we only get a black and white picture, despite plenty of light, but it doesn't matter that much. Good infared lights, able to see everything at night. I built a birdhouse with a ceiling 4 inches above the top of the entrance hole. That way you can mount the camera on the ceiling and get a view of the whole floor of the nestbox. There is good audio, but a humming sound due to the wires in the cable not being insulated enough from each other. I just keep the sound turned down, unless something exciting is happening. The cable is running on the ground, through our woods. You may want to cover it a little. Twice I have had squirrels, or whatever, chew and cut the cable. It was easy to strip both ends, match the wires, twist them together, wrap with electrical tape and presto, it was fixed. We did have to have a drill to make a hole in our house to run the wires in. Then we had to attach the wires to an adaptor and that to the TV. We put expanding calk in the hole in the house. After installing the camera, turning the lense to focus it, then putting the nestbox up, you need to talk to someone on a cell phone ( who's looking at the TV ), so you can tilt the camera so it's aim is centered in the nestbox. We have learned a tremendous amount from this nestcam!!! Even during the winter in Michigan. We have watched a Downy woodpecker sleep in the box every night and a pair of Bluebirds in another box. The Bluebirds are a mated pair who have stayed together all winter and huddled together at night. We have watched a chickadee family and Bluebird family go through nestbuilding and raising a family. There have been times that this camera helped us rescue them when things went wrong, like when a wren was sneaking in and poked 2 of the Bluebird's eggs. We quickly removed the damaged eggs and put on a "wren guard". After that things went ok.

Very disappointed in this camera. Put the camera up in the fall of 2015 to be ready to view our nesting Kestrels. Kestrels came to the nest box this past week and the picture is horrible. The camera pulses and we cannot get it into focus very well. We think it is actually scaring the bird away. We will probably have to keep the camera off and purchase a new one once they have left the nest. We do not want to disturb them by installing another camera. I will look for something better next time. I wish I could return but it is past the time of returning this. Very Very disappointed.

I purchased this set up assuming that the bird house was part of the deal based on the picture. But when the camera arrived alone I sent an email inquiring if it was supposed to be in the box or if I had been misled by the photo. The response I received from the seller stated that they were sorry I did not receive the camera and that I should contact Amazon customer service for a refund or exchange. Rather than waste more time and energy trying to communicate with someone who had difficulty understanding me I chose to make the best of the situation. But I would not have ordered this if I knew the bird house was not part of the deal.Then to make matters worse, the ad claims that the camera transmits a color picture but supposedly does not look it because of being inside the bird house. However, I viewed the picture before installing it in my own bird house and the picture is definitely black and white! The picture does have good clarity and decent night vision, but that is about the only good thing I can say about it. Also, after the second day this camera has been making a high pitched buzzing sound that has not stopped since it began two weeks ago.I continue to use it because it is all I have now for surveillance, and we have a neighbor abusing her dogs that we are trying to get evidence on - otherwise I would send the whole set up back and insist on a refund. Definitely a buyer beware product.

I purchased this to monitor nests in the wild where a normal critter cam would be too intrusive. Say what you will about the color (yeah, it's not great), but where else are you going to find something so streamline and easy to use? Using a "normal" critter cam on the grassland would be like parking a city bus in front of someone's house. Maybe there are comparable products out there, but I'm happy with what I got.**Update** I really wanted to like this camera, but the image quality is frustrating. Also, it's worth mentioning that a small mammal chewed through the cord. Sure, I should have protected it by putting it in a tube (which I thought about doing, but didn't want to spend even more money to get this system working, nor did I want to dig a 100' trench in the ecosystem I'm trying to study). But this device is made to be used outside, and it's annoyingly vulnerable. There are a lot of considerations involved in using this camera anywhere but your home/office. I got the system working finally and in the end it was undone by everyday mammal chew. I want to fix the cord but it looks tricky/impossible. It would be better if the cord were separate and replaceable instead of integral.

it will be perfect for looking in on my nesting mourning doves. hooks right up to my tv and the picture is quite good.