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BSU students’ studies take flight with help from bird feeder cameras

Thursday, 23 January, 2025

This weekend (24-26 January) will usher in the annual RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch and Bath Spa University is ready to show off its plumage. Bird lovers are in good company at BSU, with several species of birds found fluttering around campus, from great tits to herons, owls, kingfishers, jackdaws, robins and woodpeckers. 

With the help of bird feeder cameras – and a new initiative that would bring more cameras to campus – BSU students will be able to take their bird watching even further. 

BSU currently boasts three bird feeder cameras, provided by Birdfy bird feeders, and supported by the University’s Grounds team, which capture images of the different birds inhabiting Newton Park campus. The Telemetric Initiative to Study Avian Feeding and Reproduction (TITS AFAR) is a project in partnership with Birdfy which aims to set up a larger network of feeding stations and nest box cameras to use in teaching and research. 

Dr Ralph Thompson, Senior Lecturer in Zoology and Course Leader for Wildlife Conservation explained: 

“The project is linked with the University’s BSc Wildlife Conservation course and will give students an accessible way to monitor the birds on campus from afar that provides more information than what could otherwise be collected. The cameras automatically produce video as well as still images of bird visits and can live stream. They also have AI bird recognition technology to record which species visit the feeders.” 

The initiative would see new feeders and nest boxes placed in woodland and garden areas around campus, with potential to expand to partners such as Bath City Farm. The solar-powered nest boxes would be mainly aimed at capturing images and video of great tits and blue tits. Data from the cameras could be used for a range of behavioural and ecological dissertation projects, long-term population monitoring, teaching and public outreach. 

Talking further about the project’s plans, Ralph said:  

“We hope to have the first nest box cameras set up in advance of the breeding season in the spring, to give the birds a chance to choose to make their home there and allow us to follow the annual drama of the race to fledge a full brood.” 

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